memorial plaque

[PhilB]

The piece at the bottom of a memorial plaque (A lion biting a large bird) has always looked like a bit of an afterthought to me. I was surprised to see that the designer had to take account of German sensitivities, as shown in this extract:-

. Within the exergue, in symbolic confrontation, a lion pounces on an eagle: a reference to the desired destruction of the Central Powers. Incorporated from Carter Preston's second model entry the exergue's contents had necessitated a personal interview between Sir Charles Holmes and the artist in London in January 1918. The original concern of Sir Charles Henry MP at the last meeting of the General Committee was that the German eagle should not appear too hopelessly humiliated. He argued that the imagery was anticipatory and potentially unhelpful with regard to future, post-war relations - admirable sentiments which were reiterated by Charles Marriott in the April 1918 issue of Land and Water.

I would have thought that the script "He died for freedom and honour" would cast the Germans into the slavery/dishonour role. I`m not sure the plaque is a suitable place to be worrying about foreign reaction, anyway. Remember the Lusitania medal?

[FredJCarss]

It just goes to show that even then we had this "POLITICAL CORRECTNESS" nonsense.

( As you may have guessed I prefer straight talking)

Fred

[Max]

It just goes to show that even then we had this "POLITICAL CORRECTNESS" nonsense.

?!?!?!?

[SOMMESOLDIER]

It just goes to show that even then we had this "POLITICAL CORRECTNESS" nonsense.

( As you may have guessed I prefer straight talking)

Fred

Hi There,

I'm with you Fred !

Cheers

Tim.

[Eddie Bosano-Andrews]

Fred Political Correctness means that my Irish wife doesn't have to put up with being called Paddy when she's in London or have to listen to the likes of Jim Davidson making racist jokes. It means that racial and sexual sterotypes are not used to belittle other members of society, where's the problem with that.

[Eddie Bosano-Andrews]

Thought I'd bring this back to the top, as I rather seemed to have killed it with my last post.

Anyway back to the original post. If the thoughts of Sir Charles Henry MP and Charles Marriott had been followed through at Versailles, in say the way that German post war contrsuction in Germany and Europe was approached after WW11 then maybe that war might not have happened. I know that's stating the obvious a bit, but it is really interesting to compare the Hang The Kaiser approach and bleed them for everything, with the stance taken by the Allies later.

One thing that has always been a source of amazement to me is that post 1945 the British TUC was given the task of advising in the reconstruction of the German Trade Union movement. The TUC took all the lessons it had learned in it's history and applied them to German Trade Unions, with the result that Germany ended up with a great system of trade unionism that actually worked (the power and success of German industry bears ample witness to this), of course the TUC was too set in it's ways to apply the same thought back in Britain.

[PhilB]

The more successful post WW2 policy seemed to be to execute the major culprits and to exonerate the rest. Just the opposite to the post WW1 policy of forgiving the culprits who drove the war and squeezing the German people till the pips squeaked. The problem may have been that they couldn`t try the chief culprit as he was KGV`s cousin! Consequently they could hardly try any lesser leader, so only the "common folk" could be targeted. Too simplistic? Phil B

[Eddie Bosano-Andrews]

Hi Phil

No I don't think it is too simplistic, short sighted and a betrayal of all the sacrifices made by the "common folk" on both sides definitely.

The motives for prsoecution of the two wars I think were very different, the first war was about mainitaining Empire and industrial superiority, the attitude was put those Germans back in their box force them to pay the bill and keep them weak. The idea of trying to bring them into the fold of democracy never seems to have occured to anyone. But then again genuine democracy as we understand it now did not exist in 1919.

The second war was a genuine war against evil. It would have been abhorrant in the extreme to have allowed the leaders of the Third Reich to get away with it, but at the same time how do you punish a whole nation without causing unending war ?.