HONOR NO VILLAIN! BISMARCK, FREDERICK THE GREAT, ADENAUER

In Germany, statues and/or street or square names are dedicated to outright scoundrels such as Charlemagne, Charles V, Bismarck or Adenauer, as well as to anti-heroes such as Frederick the Great of Prussia:

Read LET US NOT HONOR VILLAINS!: Charlemagne, Louis XIV, Napoleon

Read LET US NOT HONOUR VILLAINS!: Charles V, the Catholic Monarchs, Philip II…

OTTO VON BISMARCK

Although this chancellor unified Germany and, under his rule, it became a great power and its economy even surpassed Britain’s, he had a dark side. Although he was initially opposed to colonialism, he took part in it and in fact ended up becoming a key figure in imperialism.

Read LET US LIVE WITHOUT HARM! Let us oppose imperialism, militarism, and the cult of violence

He was an authoritarian who prevailed over liberal movements that, since the beginning of the 19th century, fought and took part in revolutions to establish a liberal democracy. Moreover, he based the unification of the German-speaking states on Prussia’s supremacy over the rest.

Read LIVING WITHOUT HARM: Let us not be authoritarian

As if that were not enough, he was responsible for introducing Article 175 into the Penal Code for the new German Empire, which criminalised homosexual acts with prison sentences. This was a step backwards, since in part of the German states they had been decriminalised ever since, in the early 19th century, Napoleon changed many European penal codes to adapt them to the liberal ideas of the Enlightenment.

Read HOW TO LIVE WITHOUT HARM? Not towards the LGBTI+ community either

Despite all this, he was adored and glorified during the first half of the 20th century, especially by nationalists, with numerous statues, monuments, and street names.

After the Second World War, politicians were more ambivalent. Recently, criticism of this figure has increased and there have been attacks on his monuments, as well as attempts to demolish them, although there has also been opposition to doing so.

He is gradually being removed from public spaces, amid debate and controversy over what to do with the memory of this figure.

In other words, things are moving in the right direction, but it is advisable to keep moving forward along the same path.

FREDERICK THE GREAT OF PRUSSIA

This king was in fact an enlightened monarch who corresponded with Voltaire and even welcomed him at his court. He had good intentions and implemented some modernising Enlightenment ideals, such as the abolition of torture and the promotion of primary education.

Nevertheless, he also inherited his father’s Prussian militarism, even though they detested each other. His vanity in wanting to prove he was a powerful European monarch capable of conquering other territories caused more than 1 million deaths and left Prussia devastated and impoverished.

He cannot be considered a villain, but neither is he worthy of being honoured, given the harm he caused solely to feed his ambitious ego.

KONRAD ADENAUER

This chancellor was a pillar of democracy and of Germany’s rapprochement with the West after Nazism, as well as one of the founders of what would eventually become the European Union. In addition, during his terms there was the German economic miracle of the 1950s.

However, he was a traditionalist Catholic who, together with his colleagues in the Christian Democratic Party, instilled in the country an illiberal conservatism that would last until the arrival of the Social Democrat Willy Brandt.

Read FOR A WORLD WITHOUT HARM: Let us respect the freedom of others

Read THE ART OF LIVING WITHOUT HARM: Let us be conservative with what is good and progressive with what is harmful

The most egregious part of this was that they kept Article 175 of the Penal Code, which criminalised homosexual acts with prison sentences. As a result, more than 100,000 innocent people were prosecuted and more than 50,000 convicted. But the harm it caused did not end there, since that criminalisation contributed to discrimination and physical, verbal, and psychological abuse against the LGBTI+ community.

Moreover, it was adding insult to injury, because during the Nazi era, homosexuals suffered especially severe physical and psychological abuse in concentration and extermination camps. Most either did not survive or ended up taking their own lives. When the war ended, unlike Jews, conservative German politicians moved them from those camps to prisons.

One must be ruthless and heartless to inflict such suffering on innocent people who were also traumatised by their experience in the Nazi camps.

Someone like that, such as Konrad Adenauer, deserves not honour but condemnation. By contrast, German historical figures who fought for freedom, justice, and a better world, such as Robert Blum or Thomas Müntzer, are worthy of being honoured.

Read: LET US NOT HONOUR VILLAINS!, but rather those who have fought for a better world

Thank you for sharing so that justice may be done,