Notes from a Composer

I came upon a plaque on the church wall in the cemetery at the edge of the Austrian ski resort town of Kitzbühel that profoundly disturbed me.  The chiseled marble commemorates a soldier who died in World War II.  There are abbreviations that render at least one line unintelligible to me, but the part that is troubling is quite unmistakeable.  The plaque reads as follows, translated into English:

In memory

of our dear, unforgettable

Son Brother and Nephew

Customs Assistant

Johann Brunner

(these abbreviations are incomprehensible to me, they might refer to his military rank)

who in 10/1/1942 in the Caucasus

in faithful fulfilling of duty to the

benefit of his over all beloved

Homeland in the age of 29 years

found the hero’s death

I read this and see what begins as the heartbreak of a family; and then moves on to a certain officiousness of detail (most gravestones in this cemetery don’t bother with noting the deceased’s occupation, let alone whatever those abbreviations under his name refer to); but finally devolves into undeniable Nazi propaganda.  “In treuer Pflichterfüllung seiner über alles geliebten Heimat” is a particularly flowery bit of patriotic language I would only expect from a most confirmed proponent of the Third Reich war effort.  But the capper is the reference to the “Heldentod”: hero’s death.  That might as well come with a signpost screaming “NAZI IDIOM” in blazing letters.

The plaque is affixed onto the church wall, not a grave’s tombstone.  Perhaps Johann Brunner’s body was never returned, and thus a plaque on the wall replaces a proper burial.  But even so, I would assume that 75 years later somebody is still paying for this plaque to remain affixed, just like every grave in the church yard remains only as long as the descendants pay for its upkeep.   Do Johann Brunner’s descendants still approve of the language?  Does the church?  Do they consider it for what it is?  Maybe it only bothers me.

I looked about the cemetery to see if there were other examples of graves or plaques commemorating local sons fallen in World War II.  I found the “farmer’s sons Alois and Andreas Erber” (right) who “died for the Homeland on the Western and Eastern Front”, a turn of phrase somewhat uncomfortably tied to the poisonous propaganda of its time, but followed by neutral specifics of location and age, and finally a bible quote and a plea for Jesus’ mercy.

Devout prayers are encouraged for Ferdinand Weiser (left) who succumbed to typhoid in service for the Fatherland in Poland.  “In service for the Fatherland” is surely also a Nazi co-opted phrase, but it doesn’t strike me with the same incendiary branding as “Heldentod”.

Below the names of soldiers Josef and Oswald Obernauer are engraved on a family grave stone that includes family members interned in 1988 and 2006.  Josef is listed as having fallen in Macedonia, and Oswald is listed simply as “missing”, designations that succinctly explain the circumstances of their loss in WW2 without the militaristic or patriotic language of yesteryear.  But then, this grave marker was most likely first engraved in 1988 (then added to in 2006).

So, families can revise grave stones in the cemetery as time moves on, and as future burials add to family plots.  Maybe the questionable aspects of grave markers with Nazi propaganda can be explained by them being plaques on church walls.  Some of these plaques go back even further in time, like this one on the right, a World War I plaque for the “brave warrior” who went missing as a prisoner of war in Serbia.  Perhaps I am wrong to assume families still pay for the preservation of the plaques.  Does the church choose to keep them affixed to its walls for their historical significance regardless of descendants’ involvement?  Is the language on these plaques considered for what it represents?  At what point have we crossed from historical curiosity to something much more problematic, unconscionable even.

I personally am made uncomfortable at references of dying for the “Vaterland”.  “Faithful fulfilling of duty to the benefit of his over all beloved Homeland” turns my stomach.  “Heldentod” is absolutely unacceptable to me.  There might as well be a swastika etched into the plaque to boot.

As the significance of memorials to the Confederacy has currently roiled the USA, including debate on how to deal with such markers in cemeteries, perhaps it is past time similar questions regarding a particular German and Austrian historical evil are not left to rest quietly in Tirolian graveyards either.

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