Further dispute over war memorial in Darmstadt

• fromJens Joachim

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The Hamburg historian Hannes Heer criticizes Mayor Jochen Partsch for fundamentally researching the deeds of the Darmstadt bodyguard regiments in the First and Second World Wars.

The Hamburg historian Hannes Heer has sharply criticized Darmstadt’s Lord Mayor Jochen Partsch (Greens) for his behavior in the dispute over a historically correct comment on the acts of the Darmstadt bodyguard regiments in the Second World War. The dispute is about attaching an information board to the bodyguard memorial, which stands on the wall of Darmstadt Palace on Friedensplatz, to commemorate the deeds of the Wehrmacht regiments, which were set up 400 years ago by the Hessian Landgrave Ludwig V. Body guards saw.

So far, however, no agreement has been reached on the wording of the text. The main disputed question is to what extent the participation of the Darmstadt regiments in war crimes committed by the Wehrmacht in World War II can be scientifically proven. With a two-year research project, the city, in cooperation with the German Poland Institute and the Technical University of Darmstadt, wants to fundamentally review the history of the regiments and their behavior in the First and Second World Wars by 2022.

Heer, who together with Renate Dreesen from Darmstadt’s “Alliance against Right” has published a book about the Leibgardistdenkmal, sees the project as a “nasty attack on a fairly large network of committed people and successful initiatives”.

With reference to his “Darmstadt friends”, Heer Partsch assumes “command economy” and accuses the mayor of joining the “devastating Darmstadt commemorative culture” that has been shaped for 60 years by a coalition of the SPD, CDU and FDP. jjo

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