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Bremen (Weltexpresso) – In the latest issue of Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik , military historian Klaus Naumann asks whether personalities such as Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg are still suitable as figures of identification for a „post-heroic society“ that is intoxicated by its new youthful „heroes“ such as Greta Thunberg, Rezo or Luisa Neubauer. (Issue 7/2019). Without referring to Naumann, the granddaughter of one of Stauffenberg’s comrades-in-arms, Elisabeth Ruge, gave a comprehensive answer in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on 19 July 2019.
Her grandfather Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg (1902-1944) was murdered by the Nazis after the failed assassination attempt on Hitler on 20 July 1944. In his closing words after the death sentence was pronounced, he confessed: „We took this act upon ourselves to save Germany from nameless misery. I do not regret my deed and hope that someone else will do it at a happier moment.“
In an interview with Joachim Käppner, Elisabth Ruge said that the resistance against Hitler plays almost no role in the identity of our democratic society, despite new books and the naming of Bundeswehr barracks after resistance fighters. „It tends to be commemorated in a routine way, but only a few people are really interested in it. This is paradoxical because the resistance against the Nazi regime was so diverse and not just a matter for a few officers. These people invite us to identify with them, but we hardly know them. Just think of the many trade unionists like Wilhelm Leuschner, the social democrats Julius Leber and Carlo Mierendorff, the communists Anton Saefkow and Franz Jacob, Liane Berkowitz from the ‚Red Orchestra‘, Christians like Elisabeth von Thadden or Hans von Dohnanyi.“
In the course of the conversation, Elisabeth Ruge, who is a member of the board of the 20th July Foundation, went into the causes of the lack of interest. She said that you had to go back to the end of the war: „Most Germans had very little interest in having the survivors of the resistance hold up a mirror to them and recognising that resistance had been possible after all. There were many former Nazis in the courts, and it took exceptional personalities like the public prosecutor Fritz Bauer to ensure that the resistance was not still categorised as treason. Later, in left-wing memory since 1968, there was a feeling that if we turned our attention to the resistance, we were turning our backs on the victims of the Nazi state. So the resistance remained marginalised.“
When asked how the official commemoration of 20 July could be organised differently, Elisabeth Ruge replied: „We should bring the people of the resistance to life for our present. Why don’t we make 20 July an official public holiday? Not only to commemorate the conservative-military resistance, but also all the other groups that were involved. The whole spectrum of resistance is represented here. We should also remember the many people from the rescue resistance who gave Jewish persecutees ration cards or provided hiding places. It would be a great day that could be a sign in favour of democracy, the Basic Law and human rights, especially in these confused times.“
The 75th anniversary of the failed attempt to liberate Germany from Hitler is perhaps the last opportunity for a parliamentary initiative to make 20 July an official public holiday before the memories fade further. „Just as we need air to breathe, light to see, so we need noble people to live. They pull us out of the mire of everyday life, they ignite us to fight against evil,“ wrote Ricarda Huch about the murdered German resistance fighters. Winston Churchill reminded the world after the Second World War: „In Germany lived an opposition that is one of the noblest that has ever been produced in the history of nations. These men and women fought without help from within or without, driven solely by the restlessness of their conscience. Their deeds are the indestructible foundation of a new reconstruction.“
Unfortunately, things turned out differently. Contrary to all assurances that there will never be a line drawn under the past, the idea of drawing a line has long since dominated political reality and the ghosts of the past are once again spreading their musty odour. „Nothing belongs to the past,“ warned Fritz Bauer, „everything is still the present and can become the future again.“ A public holiday in honour of all those who fought against fascism and suffered under it could counteract this. There is still time.