Replace, Reinterpret, or Remove: What To Do with Monuments to a Controversial Past

*Ruins of the Nazi Party rally grounds in Nuremberg, Germany*

Protests over the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others at the hands of police violence have thrust the U.S. into a critical historical moment. Among other immediate shifts, Confederate monuments are coming down across the country, sometimes at the hands of protestors but often through the efforts of city and state officials. Deciding what to do with the monuments after removal will say a lot about whether communities can change for a better future, while also remembering the past.

Recently, CHP partners Marion and Greg Werkheiser advised the Mayor of Richmond, Virginia, on removing Confederate monuments in the former capital of the Confederacy. Learn more here.

European countries – particularly those that suffered the double tragedies of World War II and decades of Soviet occupation – offer useful lessons in how to disarm symbols of hate and oppression, while also educating the next generation. Some of these countries continue to grapple with divisive monuments, memorials to occupation forces, and sites dedicated to victims. Even in Germany, which enacted perhaps the most aggressive laws to ban Nazi symbols and other remnants of Hitler’s regime, recontextualization remains an ongoing process.

Understanding the nuances of the many twists and turns of history remains an essential part of the process of removal and education in the U.S.; the European experience provides useful examples that may help. The table below lists prominent examples of what officials in Europe have done with monuments to the Nazi, Soviet, colonial, and fascist regimes. While the list is far from comprehensive, it demonstrates that officials have a broad and deep range of options when considering the future of contentious monuments and symbols. These examples also reveal the varying levels of success communities have had in containing and dismantling myths that promote conflict, hate, and violence, and finding the delicate balance between past and future.

Marion Werkheiser is Managing Partner and Katherine Sorrell is a Law Clerk at Cultural Heritage Partners, PLLC, a global law and policy firm that serves clients who seek to preserve and share history and culture.

Location	Monuments and Outcomes
Germany	DESTRUCTION OF NAZI SYMBOLS Nazi symbols were demolished by the Allied Control Council after V-E Day. BAN AGAINST FUTURE CREATION OF NAZI SYMBOLS Creation of new Nazi symbols or propaganda was banned as well. Germany incorporated this ban into its criminal code. RAZING OF NAZI OFFICES The headquarters of the Nazi secret police, the SS leadership offices, and the Reich Security Main Office, all located in Berlin, were razed. RUINS OF RALLY SITES The Nazi party grounds in Nuremberg, site of the Nazi rallies, remain conserved but in ruin as a reminder of what occurred there. The Olympic Stadium, where the 1936 Games took place under Hitler’s supervision, is still used, with all Nazi symbols removed. OBSCURING HITLER’S BUNKER SITE The location of the bunker where Hitler committed suicide was obscured to prevent neo-Nazi gatherings. SITES FOR NAZI OFFICIALS The Nazi-era High Command of the Armed Forces was converted to become the German Resistance Memorial Center. Many Nazi officials buried in unmarked graves. INCONSPICUOUS MEMORIALS Memorials to war dead kept inconspicuous and rare. RAZING OF PRISON FOR WAR CRIMINALS In 1987, officials razed a prison that housed Nazi war criminals, and they scattered the powdered remains in the North Sea. WAR GRAVES COMMISSION The German War Graves Commission (Volksbund) was set up to manage the diplomatic and other issues that come up over German war graves in other countries in Europe. The Volksbund builds resting places for German war dead, and it also conducts educational youth work to promote understanding and harmonization after World War II. In Germany itself, a law for war graves was passed in 1952. It also aimed to protect graves of Nazi victims, including Jewish concentration camp prisoners, political opponents, forced laborers, and soldiers. COMMUNIST SITES PRESERVED FOR TEACHING PURPOSES Some Communist sites were converted, including a former prison for the Communist security police, which became an informational center to teach about the past.
Moscow, Russia	MONUMENT PARK After 1991, Soviet sculptures and monuments moved to Gorky Park. The collection includes a statute of the founder of the KGB. NEW TRIBUTES TO STALIN Putin has started allowing Stalin to be painted positively and for new museums and monuments to him to be erected.
Budapest, Hungary	MONUMENT PARK A collection of Communist monuments in Budapest removed to Memento Park which is located just outside the city. REMOVAL FROM PROMINENT PLACEMENT Other statues have been removed to less prominent places, such as storage facilities, city graveyards, local museums, or other sites outside of the main parts of cities.
Madrid, Spain	LAW OF HISTORICAL MEMORY A law of “historical memory” enacted in 2007 to provide reparation to the victims of the country’s civil war. Led to removal of statues of Franco, many of which went to museums, but still contention over street names, religious symbols associated with the Franco regime. (The movie “The Silence of Others” demonstrates ongoing challenges for victims of Franco’s regime in gaining justice and recognition of what happened.) NEGATIVE EXAMPLE Franco’s tomb, “El Valle de los Caídos” (the Valley of the Fallen), is protected and attracts far-right sympathizers. Franco’s remains were exhumed and reinterred, but the monument remains.
Poland	DECOMMUNISATION LAW In 2017, government passed an amended “decommunisation” law to remove up to 230 Soviet war monuments. REMOVAL OF LOCAL MONUMENTS TO RED ARMY After WWII, numerous monuments to the Red Army erected as gratitude for their defeat of the Germans. By 1993, of the nearly 500 monuments of this kind, 130 came down from public spaces and were often replaced with monuments to freedom.
Tallinn, Estonia	STATUE GARDEN Outdoor garden of bronze and stone sculptures at the Maarjamäe Palace. 21 big statues displayed behind the palace, which was preserved as a museum but dedicated to theme of freedom. RELOCATION OF MONUMENT TO RUSSIAN SOLDIER Tallinn Bronze Soldier removed from its original location in the city center to a military cemetery in April 2007.
Prague, Czech Republic	REMOVAL TO MUSEUMS A Soviet tank erected to honor the Soviet mechanized divisions who fought Nazi forces and helped free Czechoslovakia at the end of WWII. Soviet tanks, however, also put down the 1968 Prague Spring uprising. The tank was painted pink by an artist after 1989 and moved to a military museum. The inscription on a monument honoring Marshal Ivan Konev, who was one of Stalin’s officials, was initially rewritten to highlight the marshal’s prominent role in suppressing the Prague Spring in 1968. But as of April 2020, the monument was removed to be placed in a new museum. STALIN STATUE MELTED DOWN A statue of Joseph Stalin (weighing 17,000 metric tons) was melted down in 1962, but the plinth that supported the statue remains.
Lithuania	STATUES RELOCATED TO PARK Many statues were relocated to Grūtas Park, opened in 2001.
Ukraine	STATUES OF COMMUNIST LEADERS REMOVED By 2017, all 1,320 statues of Lenin in the country were removed. The decommunization laws of 2015-16 focused on statues of communist leaders (including Lenin) rather than memorials to the Communist army soldiers, in which millions of Ukrainians also served. WAR MEMORIALS REINTERPRETED War memorials were sometimes reinterpreted, but were not dismantled.

Replace, Reinterpret, or Remove: What To Do with Monuments to a Controversial Past

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