COMMENTARY: A case of Statue Phobia in Germany

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By Ilkka Ahtiainen
     
      Finnish President Tarja Halonen has suggested that it would be worth comparing how the media in the country handled the crisis between Estonia and Russia over the relocation of the bronze solider war memorial, relative to the treatment given the subject elsewhere in Europe.
      Please find below a brief survey of the role of the German media.
      The German press, with one sole exception, covered the dispute at a fairly low volume. The exception was Süddeutsche Zeitung. At its most inflamed point, the dispute was featured as the Munich newspaper's lead story.
      Other media outlets appear to have adhered to the same model of quiet diplomacy that the German Foreign Ministry has subsequently said it followed in the matter.
     
This presumably includes the fact that Germany, as holder of the rotating EU Presidency, begins to act at the point when Russian Duma representatives on a visit to Tallinn have called for the resignation of the Estonian government and when activist demonstrators have violated the diplomatic immunity of the Estonian Ambassador to Moscow.
      It is necessary to ask precisely where the German passiveness - both at the Foreign Ministry and within the media in general - has its roots.
      I believe it stems from a tricky complaint that is known in medical circles as Statue Phobia. Recent history is believed to be a primary cause of the disease.
     
In a very prominent position in the nation's capital Berlin, some 300 metres west of the Brandenburg Gate, stands the colossal Sowjetische Ehrenmal im Tiergarten, a Soviet cenotaph erected to remind succeeding generations of the overthrow of fascism.
      Since I am not a German, I dare comment that the monument also brings to mind the communist dictatorship that the Soviet Union erected in East Germany after the overthrow of fascism.
      The monument is clearly visible from the Chancellor's Office. And also from the front yard of the Chancellery where the German Chancellor Angela Merkel met and shook hands with Tarja Halonen during her visit to the city on May 2nd, and where Merkel refused to answer questions about the Tallinn monument dispute.
      The historical background to the quiet diplomacy was beginning to become clearer.
     
I received confirmation on the eve of Victory Day at the former officers' casino at Karlshorst on the east side of Berlin. This was the building in which Germany signed the unconditional instrument of surrender in 1945, and which now houses a German-Russian museum of military history.
      While I was there, I heard directly from a museum guide the so-called compulsory short course in German history: "Some might say that the war against the Soviet Union was Hitler's conflict. But it was not Hitler's war. The war was supported by the majority of the German people."
      I have the feeling that we are dealing with a rather lame duck as the EU Presidency, as far as statue matters go.
      This is a serious failing, since in the former Ost-bloc there are any number of Soviet memorials that someone or other would like to see moved.
     
The EU badly needs a duty mediator for these things, and Finland would be an unrivalled candidate for the position. Finland did fight alongside the fascists, yes, but she did it pretty fairly and all that. And the country also paid up its war reparations fair and square, too. We have no need to hang our head in shame or run away.
      Hence I would put the question of what need Foreign Affairs Minister Ilkka Kanerva felt in defending the German Foreign Ministry, as he did on May 8th.
      Surely it was not because of the quiet diplomacy pursued by the Presidency-holder?
     
Then again, quiet diplomacy was not the order of the day for the former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who was in Finland at the beginning of this week lobbying on behalf of the Russo-German gas pipeline.
      According to Schröder, Estonia had, through actions contradicting "every form of civilised behaviour", earned the aggressive response from Russia.
      In Finland, the pattern of thought adopted by Schröder has generally been referred to as "Finlandisation". It is perhaps not a coincidence that the term - Finnlandisierung - was originally coined by the Germans.
     
I would further like to ask the public relations manager of the Russian-led consortium building the Nord Stream pipeline whether he is certain that precisely this man is the right person to shape opinions in the Baltic Sea region in favour of the pipeline project.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 12.5.2007


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Kanerva defends EU action in Estonian-Russian statue dispute (9.5.2007)
  Ex-Chancellor Schröder defends Putin in Helsinki (8.5.2007)

ILKKA AHTIAINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
ilkka.ahtiainen@hs.fi