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http://www.berliner-mauer-kunst.net Author’s foreword
to “Fatherland” Over 17 years ago in March
1990, in the middle of the euphoria that gripped Germany after the fall of
the Berlin Wall, (known in German as the Wende) I created the painting
“Fatherland” on the remnant of the Wall that is now the East Side Gallery. My
hope was that the painting would act as a warning against a potential
reunification of fascistic philosophies, a tendency that was already at this
time becoming difficult to ignore. Because of the fear of
burgeoning neo-fascism that I expressed with this work, I was accused of
being an unworldly fool who recklessly exaggerated the situation and damaged
my country with my defamatory work. Those who
criticized my viewpoint were firm in their belief that that Nazi-stuff was part of the past and
had been so for decades nearly fifty years.
Unfortunately, their optimistic prognosis for the future has not become the
reality. I wish it had. Instead, in
the years since my worst fears have more than been realized, not only in the
social situation here in Although the
painting, an image bringing the German and Israeli flags together, was
conceived as a symbol of peace and international understanding, it was
defaced with fanatic slogans or completely destroyed forty-four times in seventeen
years. Just as often have I returned to restore the painting in order to set
an example, particularly for young people, of public resistance to all forms
of ideological fanaticism. Titles such as “traitor
to the fatherland”, “Jewish pig”, “desecrator of the
flag” have been among the least damaging insults. Calls of “Sieg Heil” from passing cars
have become a bitter normality, and
with undisguised hatred hands have been raised to me in the Hitler salute. In
one case I even found it necessary to physically defend myself. Anonymous
death threats continue to come to me over the telephone. Fortunately, such attacks
have been counterbalanced by hundreds of positive experiences. Support has
been expressed by local residents and passers by, as well as by foreign
visitors, who have come to the East Side Gallery specifically to see the
painting. This support, along with the outpouring of positive and touching
responses / letters from around the world, has given me the energy to repaint
these ten meters of the Berlin Wall again and again. The artworks
created on the Wall’s previously taboo-laden east side have changed this
monument of a divided After riding
the emotional roller coaster of rejection and encouragement for some time, I
came to realize that I was only holding the brush. History itself was
directing the movement. To the blind fanaticism I encountered, I responded
with non-violent action, my answer to the question of what is stronger: you
or I, intolerance or freedom? It would have
been easy at many times at any time to simply admit defeat by saying, “I
don’t want to anymore,” to have gone down on my knees before in to the brown
demagoguery. To submit, however, would have been tantamount to calling all my
work up to that point into question. The driving force behind
my continued efforts on this “work against corruptive influences” as one
journalist termed it “Arbeit am Verdorbenen”
was the opportunity it presented to engage in open and constructive dialogue
with young people. These discussions, whether critical or supportive, have
generally had one thing in common, expressing concern about the future. It is
this ongoing dialogue that determines the real meaning of my work.
Undoubtedly, it is also this dialogue that has helped me to avoid deteriorating
into the trap of becoming just another artistic Don Quixote, moving from one
rescue action to the next. Time and
again, friends and colleagues, although politically like-minded, have said to
me with the best of intentions, “Just give it up. There’s no point.” I have
not because my interaction with young people has taught me to question
whether a ban on right-radical parties is a truly viable solution, and to
understand that supporting an ongoing dialogue in the minds of young people
presents the best opportunity of developing an atmosphere of tolerance, a
frame of mind that is inherently counterproductive to right-radical
perspectives. In my opinion,
the root of this current evil stems from the documented fact that a large
segment of the older generation ignored their responsibility as parents and
role-models, and left the youth of this nation to come to their own
understanding and way of coping with this the most negative subject in the
darkest chapter in German history. The reasons for this are manifold. Like so
many millions of others in How important
it is to take action has been all too sadly emphasized by the fact that by
the middle of the 1990s this reunified, and increasing powerful country had
already experienced the traumas of The effects of
this inaction have surfaced over time as new attacks have continued to occur.
Meanwhile, the reunified population has looked on from the sidelines,
comfortable, self-satisfied, and apparently lacking any real feeling of
responsibility. In these years, we have wasted the opportunity to educate the
children who today as teenagers and young adults are presented with a world
to which the image and grotesque face
of the ugly German has returned. This destructive silence on the part of
the majority continues to feed the flames of fascism, a wildfire that must be
extinguished. As long as the older generation remains silent about
xenophobia, intolerance and racism, they close the door on dialogue with
young people and thus open the door to all forms of fanaticism, and leave our
future to fascistic demagogues. This deadly virus in the minds of our young people
will spread to the extent that we keep silent about it. The post-world war two
history of Günther Schaefer |