****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
John Urmson publishes this review, courtesy of a friend, NicholasThere can be little doubt that this substantial, (& well-illustrated) study opens up fresh perspectives, for it is the first work that -- looking particularly to Italy --compares the commemoration of the war dead by the USA with that achieved by the (re-established) Germany.The author (a German/American academic) draws on archives in the different countries, & direct personal examination of the cemetery sites to bring out the full background, examining in fascinating detail, inter alia, the following:----The negotiations over the selection, & provision of the necessary terrain, including the American coming to terms with Italian sensibilities & bureaucracy (problems from which the Germans in their turn were not exempt).--The American emphasis on victorious arms, exemplified perhaps by the title of their organisation: 'American Battle Monuments Commission' (the cemeteries being always provided with conspicuous wall-maps of the relevant American campaign); in contrast with the German emphasis on recording & acknowledging suffering with a view to avoiding 'the misery of future wars'.--The official American devotion to architectural Classicism as the source for the style of their cemeteries, along with idealising sculptural treatment; as opposed to the German restraint/reticence, with a simpler concentration on the shared sacrifices of the soldiers buried or commemorated.--The work of the German Robert Tischler, who served -- as chief architect -- under the Weimar Republic, during the Nazi period, & after WW II, & was thus responsible for some hundreds of cemeteries within Germany & for most of those established in other countries; the treatment of this key individual by the author being particularly valuable in the absence of any biography.--The last & very late (1961-69) German cemetery of Futa Pass, spread widely -- in an unusual innovative manner --over a hill-top, where the Germans allowed themselves to break out into something considerably more expressive (if not Expressionist).In the end, the author powerfully argues for the conclusion that while the cemeteries of the two nations make political statements, the German message of constructive mourning is more acceptable in these times.
