Dispute over Lenin's monument: Schwerin faces a decision!

Dispute over Lenin's monument: Schwerin faces a decision!

The Lenin statue in Schwerin has been stirring up dust for years and always causes heated discussions. Victims' associations have now formed around this monument, which was erected in 1985 to celebrate the city's 825th anniversary, and have vehemently resisted possible monument protection. How NDR reported, 19 committed citizens, including historians and writers, are demanding in an open letter to the state parliament and the city administration that the statue be rejected as a symbol of oppression and that another memorial be erected instead - that of Arno Esch, a victim of Stalinism.

Lenin, born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov in Simbirsk in 1870, was the leading force behind the October Revolution and the key architect of the Soviet unity government. Wikipedia describes him as one of the most impressive yet controversial leaders in history, whose legacy ranges from the creation of a totalitarian state to the creation of socialist achievements.

Controversy over monument protection

The State Office for Culture and Monument Preservation has classified the statue as a monument due to its significance in terms of urban, art and political history. However, the state representative for coming to terms with the SED dictatorship, Burkhard Bley, does not simply wave it away, but sees the monument as an opportunity to work with the past. “You could put the statue in the context,” Bley said. Critics, however, argue that removal is necessary to do justice to history.

The open letter from historians, including Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk and Grit Poppe, strongly addresses the burdens associated with the monument. They demand that the monument should not be honored by the state. Instead of the controversial Lenin, another monument to Arno Esch, who was executed in Moscow in 1951 for alleged espionage, would be desirable.

A statue of controversial history

The statue commemorates not only Lenin's 1917 land decree, which initiated expropriations, but also his role as the founder of the Cheka, the Soviet secret police that executed thousands of people from 1917 to 1922. His uncontroversial governance is attributed to the establishment of a one-party state, which critics see as a dictatorship. However, monument preservation sees the preservation of the statue as an opportunity to come to terms with the past.

How the city council will ultimately decide remains to be seen. The statue has been repeatedly doused with paint in recent years, which shows that the issue remains a hot topic among the population. The discussion about monument status is far from over.

The future will have to show whether the city has the courage to critically question the views of the past or whether it will take action to protect historical monuments. The debate is just another example of the ongoing conflicts over cultural identity and understanding of history in Germany.