Obama Chooses a Symbol of War as Berlin Backdrop

Democratic US presidential contender Barack Obama stands in front of the Victory Column and waves to the audience in Berlin, Germany, 24 July 2008. About 100,000 people came to listen to Obama delivering his keynote speech on transatlantic relations. EPA/GERO BRELOER

The purpose of the Victory Column was to glorify the new Reich and to humiliate the rest of Europe.

The angel is a vengeful angel.

Bloomberg | Jul 23, 2008

by Amity Shlaes

July 23 (Bloomberg) — Sometimes it is the words that get the politicians in trouble. Sometimes it is the images. In Berlin, a single picture of Barack Obama is likely to paint a thousand words about the limits of his foreign policy.

Consider the Obama plan. The likely Democratic presidential nominee will arrive in Berlin after a tour of the Middle East. Tomorrow, he’s scheduled to speak to Berliners and the rest of the world in a televised address at the Victory Column, in the center of the German capital. The euphoria will emanate to every living room. Berliners can be matched in the intensity of their Obama-mania only by Wesleyan undergraduates.

So far, so much good news for Barack. Berlin, after all, is the world’s greatest foreign-policy success story, a divided city now united, peaceably, as one.

You can understand, too, why Obama campaigners settled on the Victory Column venue. Neither the U.S. State Department nor German leaders were pleased with earlier ideas that they deemed too presidential for a man not even officially nominated. One was to have Obama make like President John F. Kennedy and give an “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech.

Another was to have the Illinois senator speak at the Brandenburg Gate, where Ronald Reagan looked east to the city’s communist half and cried “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

The Victory Column, a gold-edged pillar topped by a winged figure, seemed the next best thing for 2008. Photographers can tell themselves the column is the German version of our obelisks, recalling the Washington Monument.

`Wings of Desire’

At the Victory Column, there’s a traffic circle, space for the World Cup-scale mega-crowd that’s sure to come to hear Obama. If you angle your camera right you can fit the Brandenburg Gate and Victory Column into the same frame.

Finally, for the artsy crowd, the Victory Column is something of a cultural reference point, having been featured in Wim Wenders’ iconic “Wings of Desire.”

Still, the Victory Column is hardly Obama-esque. His candidacy, whether he makes it explicit or not, isn’t about attacking abroad. It is about defense at the most, and America turning inward. In Obama terms, American identity is about improving ourselves through domestic reform. The change of which he so often speaks starts at home.

All About War

The Victory Column is about the opposite: offensive war, even defining yourself as a nation through war. Otto von Bismarck and Wilhelm of Prussia led German bayonets into France. Their 1871 victory was so resounding that the Prussian leaders marched to the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles and proclaimed the new German empire — there, and not at home.

The purpose of the Victory Column, erected soon after in Berlin, was to glorify the new Reich and to humiliate the rest of Europe. The angel is a vengeful angel. Closure is what Obama seeks in Iraq. As he puts it, “when I am Commander-in-Chief, I will set a new goal on day one: I will end this war.”

But Prussia succeeded specifically because it never gave its enemy the promise of closure. As war historian Max Boot notes, Prussia’s decisive victory at Koeniggratz, the one that put the generals on the path to Paris, came out of what it learned in a string of defeats.

Prussians never gave up. They always fought. Other countries, it was said of the Europe of the 19th century, had armies. In Prussia, the army had a country.

Blood and Iron

Bismarck, modern Germany’s founder, is known for his social- insurance plans, including health insurance for workers. But Bismarck’s Germany was also the Germany of Blood and Iron, the one that fought World War I and then created the Nazis. Through the wars, the lexicon remained the same. In German, the column is “Siegessaeule” — literally, “column of victory.” One of the Nazi greetings was “sieg heil” — hail victory.

The column was such a symbol of martial power that the French, on a high in 1946, demanded it be blown up. In the end, the Allies let it stand while they protected Berlin for an indeterminate conflict, which endured for almost half a century, the Cold War.

At many points in this frustrating period, the U.S. defense budget was a larger share of the economy than it is today. The Allies, including the West Germans, persevered, even though their work was at times deeply unpopular in Europe and the U.S. Reagan’s “Tear down this wall” speech was right. But it wasn’t greeted with the adulation that Obama’s words will receive.

`But Why?’

Even now, many Germans view the Victory Column with ambivalence or embarrassment. When, earlier this week, it became clear the Obama campaign had selected it as the site for the speech, the German weekly Die Zeit asked “wieso bloss?” — “but why?” Noting the above-mentioned camera advantage, the newspaper concluded nonetheless, “as background for a peace message to the peoples of the world, it doesn’t exactly recommend itself.”

To be clear: Obama is so popular in Germany that German crowds probably won’t care where he stands, even if it is on his head, when he addresses them. TV commentators will class the Victory Column choice as “interesting irony” and leave it at that.

Related

Berlin Victory Column – wikipedia
The Victory Column (German: Siegessäule (help·info)) is a famous sight in Berlin, Germany. Designed by Heinrich Strack after 1864 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War, by the time it was inaugurated on 2 September 1873, Prussia had also defeated Austria in the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and France in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), giving the statue a new purpose. Different from the original plans, these later victories in the so-called unification wars inspired the addition of the bronze sculpture of Victoria.

Victoria (mythology) – Wikipedia
In Roman mythology, Victoria was the personification/Goddess of victory. She is the Roman version of the Greek goddess Nike, and was associated with Bellona. She was adapted from the Sabine agricultural goddess Vacuna and had a temple on the Palatine Hill. Her name (in both Latin and Greek) means victory. Unlike the Greek Nike, Victoria was a major part of Roman society. Multiple temples were erected in her honour, and a vast cult existed for hundreds of years, worshipping her. When her statue was removed in 382 CE by emperor Gratianus there was much anger in Rome. She was normally worshipped by triumphant generals returning from war. Appearing on Roman coins, jewelry, architecture, and other arts, Victoria is often seen with or in a chariot. An example of this is her place upon the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany