Is Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius a man who deserves a street name? Or Johann Baptist Spix? The two researchers traveled to Brazil in 1817 on behalf of the Bavarian king, which was then a Portuguese colony. There they earned scientific merits, and the Zoological and Botanical State Collections in Munich owe them a lot.
But Martius and Spix not only brought animals and plants back to Munich with them, but also two children, called Juri and Miranha. Martius had bought them as a slave. In Munich they were presented to astonished guests at Spix’s house. After a few months they were dead.
In Munich today a street in Schwabing commemorates Martius, as well as a bust in the botanical garden, of which he was director. A street in Obergiesing is dedicated to Spix. Given this story, is that appropriate, or is it not? There is no easy answer to that, says Konrad Sziedat, advisor for strengthening democracy and value building at the Bavarian State Center for Political Education (BLZ). But that’s why they chose this example for schools. It’s about the discussion. “You really have to weigh up,” says Sziedat. The students shouldn’t get results too quickly.
With 327 street names, the city archive sees “a possible need for action”
Martius and Spix are just one example. If the BLZ has its way, in Bavarian schools there will be more discussion in future about the culture of remembrance, about street names and monuments, about whom a society should remember and how. Since this school year, the state headquarters has been offering teachers a new slipcase with teaching material, developed by it and by students and employees of the chair for history didactics at the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich. “Elementary remembering” is the name of the package. It is intended for classes from grade nine. And it addresses questions that all of Munich will face again and again in the future.
Because the city is just giving an account of who it is reminding itself of; the administration is working on a concept for dealing with critical monuments, an art competition is currently running. And the city archive recently has one “Shortlist” with 45 street names published which “need more discussion” – Martius and Spix are not among them. In the case of 327 other street names, the city archive sees “a possible need for action”; this list is currently under lock and key.
The culture of remembrance is not only controversial in Munich. Recently, the memory of people with a colonial past has come into focus, despite massive opposition. Christina Morina, contemporary historian at Bielefeld University, most recently at an online training course for teachers from BLZ and LMU, said her impression was that the self-critical handling of history was being increasingly questioned.
Efforts are being made to push the history of genocide and violence away
An attempt is being made to anchor a new stance, said Jürgen Zimmerer, global historian at the University of Hamburg. They want to be considered the land of poets and thinkers again. The story of genocide and violence is being pushed aside and attempts are made to tie in with a supposedly intact story before the First World War. Hence the dispute over colonial crimes. “Because the story before 1914 is not an ideal story, but also one of racism and even genocide.”
The BLZ would like to bring discussions of this kind into schools more strongly and is also building on debates in Munich. The street sign for Hererostraße in Waldtrudering is shown on the front of the teaching package; Until 2006 this street was named after Lothar von Trotha, a commander of the German colonial troops. Now it bears the name of a people in Namibia whom the Germans under Trotha committed genocide in 1904.
But the inside of the package isn’t just about the colonial past. Twelve topics are addressed, ranging from the 19th century through National Socialism to the present day. Individual sheets deal with the Munich Olympic attack in 1972 or the memory of right-wing extremist attacks, pinned to the attack on the Olympic shopping center in 2016. A final block even deals with the corona pandemic and asks: How do we remember it in the future?
The extent to which the culture of remembrance also drives schoolchildren was seen before the summer holidays, says Konrad Sziedat from the BLZ. At a workshop in July, more than 1000 Bavarian schoolchildren discussed racism and language and, last but not least, argued over problematic street names. The workshop provided the impetus for the new focus of the regional headquarters. And the students had very differentiated debates. They would have worked out three solutions on their own – renaming streets, putting up an information board – or doing nothing at all. The focus was on speaking openly and listening to one another.