Memorials why

Marine Corps War Memorial is surrounded by a large, open lawn. The site provides a forum for public gatherings and ceremonies. The scale projects power. When proposed, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was a significant departure from the forms of previous war memorials. The primary feature is a V-shaped wall of black granite, inscribed with the names of Americans who died in the Vietnam War.

The wall is more architectural than sculptural. It is simple and direct. The selection of the design was very controversial. People objected to the Minimalist, somber concept. Some also objected to the fact that the designer, Maya Lin, is of Asian descent. As a compromise, the committee also commissioned a more traditional bronze sculpture of three soldiers for placement on the site near the wall.

That sculpture does not feel fully integrated with the wall, but it offers another point of connection for visitors. Despite the initial controversy, today the memorial is the most visited war memorial in our national capital. The memorial does not speak of the principles of the war. It does not glorify war or its leaders. It acknowledges and honors each American life lost. The large black granite wall of names makes a powerful impression.

The abstract design is conceptually open-ended. People can find what they need in it. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial invites visitors to interact with it. The walkway naturally draws people to walk the length of the wall, reading or at least sensing the multitude of names. The shelf below the names clearly encourages people to leave flowers, pictures, or letters.

It is apparent from the items left that people appreciate that opportunity for direct, personal interaction. It functions somewhat like a grave marker, but if you go there to remember and grieve for a loved one, you know you are not alone in your loss.

The sloped sidewalk suggests the descent to the low point of the war, and the climb out from that point. At the same time, it suggests the journey through despair for those who lost a loved one.

The black granite wall expresses mourning. One cannot see the long list of names of those lost in the war without asking if the war made sense. It is visual evidence of wasted potential.

The ambiguous nature of this monument reflects the time in which the war was fought. Paradoxically, this simple wall does not feel as cold and lifeless as the much more complex and representational Grant Memorial. The scale is large and the design is Minimal, but the experience is intimate.

The design of the Korean War Memorial utilizes the site in a contemporary and comprehensive way. It combines representational sculpture with landscape design.

Most notably, a group of 19 stainless steel figures represents a squad on patrol. The squad is contained within a V-shaped area that intersects a circular area that contains a flag, a reflecting pool, benches, and low shade trees. The dispersed array of soldiers draws the visitor into a moment in the daily life of a soldier in the Korean War.

You can feel the strange combination of tedium, discomfort, and anxiety inherent to patrol duty. You can see that the soldiers are maintaining enough distance that a mortar, or sudden burst of machine gun fire, would be unlikely to take them all out at once. They are prepared to counter-attack. You know that the guys with antennas projecting from their packs are prime targets.

By bringing visitors into the daily life of the common soldier, the memorial acknowledges and honors Korean War veterans without glorifying the war. The plaza carries further messages, both through written text and through the design of the walkways and surrounding structures. A wall is etched with images from photos of Korean War veterans, emphasizing that these young men and women came from typical American families.

The Korean War Memorial is a particularly effective memorial. There is some visceral power to the soldiers moving through the undergrowth. It feels like a real moment, rather than an idealized, glorified vision. That captured moment is further enlivened by the adjacent images of individuals who served.

The architectural momentum of the site draws visitors to a tranquil, sheltered sitting area. This comprehensive approach to site design offers the remembrance, honor, and consolation that families need and veterans deserve.

The Air Force Memorial is unique in its intention to be seen from a distance. Drivers on I see the three simple arcs, of slightly different lengths, reaching skyward. It is an ambiguous, graceful, monumental abstract sculpture. The image is pleasing, but viewers may not recognize that it is also a powerful symbol. They may not see the forms as vapor trails of jets accelerating upward symbolically, toward heaven. A visit to the memorial offers a very different experience than the distant view.

The three immense arcs emerge from a plaza that includes a variety of elements to honor and remember Air Force veterans. At one end of the plaza, four bronze sculptures represent airmen carrying flags.

At the other end are plaques and inscriptions commemorating various aspects of Air Force History. The plaza includes benches and shade trees. The view of Washington, DC, is pleasing and serves as a reminder that the Air Force serves the nation.

Over the last four years, research for the CRIC project has focused on the wide ranging forms of memorial activities, how each is linked with distinct intentions and claims. Our case studies in Spain, Germany, France and Denmark have identified the influential role of memorials and commemorations even decades after the events they were constructed to remember.

We have learned that memorials evolve over time to suit new social and political needs. A main question is the role of memorials in post-conflict reconciliation: do memorials foster reconciliation or do they prolong divisions and resentment? The answer that has emerged from our case studies is that memorials are not primarily about reconciliation although, after time they can be used for that purpose.

Two examples from the CRIC project show us what this means. First, we turn to the First World War and to the battle of Verdun in France, a battle which lasted 10 months and saw a total of more than , battlefield deaths with casualties comparably shared out between the French and German camps.

The long drawn out deadliness of this battle, in which the front line barely moved, became synonymous with the horror of modern warfare and so presented a significant memorial challenge once the war ended in A landscape shredded by blasts, trenches and barbed wire, still heaving with unexploded shells and the unrecovered bodies of soldiers, was seen by war veterans as the only possible memorial to the suffering.

Yet, even after the first year of the war the terrain had begun to come to life as flowering plants and animals moved in. And so at the site of the Douaumont fort a memorial site was built with a cemetery and ossuary. In the immediate post-war years this memorial site was one that expressed national grief over the destruction of the war and mourning over the thousands of lives lost.

It was on 22 September , 70 years after the start of the war that the memory of Verdun and the memorial site of Douaumont became firmly associated with a reconciliatory symbolism when French President Francois Mitterrand and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl stood in front of the ossuary and a coffin draped with both the French and German flags, and having listened to the German anthem, held hands as the Marseillaise played.

For 70 years Verdun had been a landmark in the French historical landscape as a symbol of heroism, martyrdom, sacrifice, until that memorial gesture in converted it into a symbol of European reconciliation.

As we approach the year , the centennial anniversary of the war at which very few living witnesses of the battles will be present, the last poilu died in , it remains to be seen what new symbolism will be attached to Verdun and it memorial spaces. Second we look at the city of Dresden, the capital of Saxony replete with baroque and rococo architecture, which on 13 February suffered such a severe aerial bombing campaign by the Allied forces that a fire storm resulted wiping out the city centre and thousands of its inhabitants.

Site by Swell Design Group. References Further reading: Ken Inglis. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, War memorials.

Crane recently answered four questions about memorials—why some persevere and others simply lose their influence over time. Remember the movie Field of Dreams? In a way, the baseball diamond is like a memorial to this team that never got a chance to play again. A lot of money and a lot of thought goes into memorials and people care a lot about them.

And then, over time, sometimes, the immediate urgency and passion that people associate with that memory fades. With the memory of the Holocaust, there are places outside of Germany that are dedicated to the victims. Because there was so much controversy over the appropriate way to do this. Boring, genericized, and meaningless—even with the Holocaust.