One hundred years of distance
The memory of the great war in hungarian and world museums
MúzeumCafé 41.
The physical, psychological and intellectual devastation, the peace treaties ending the war, the new meaning of the notion of camaraderie, nation and enemy in the wake of World War I not only reshaped the former state borders, but also earlier frameworks of life. The lives of individuals, societies and states were transformed. The role of women and children, people’s knowledge about the surrounding world and the perception of distances changed. The centuries-old veins through which Europe’s or even the world’s economic, scientific and cultural circulation flowed ceased to exist. The centenary series of events beginning this year is a good opportunity for all European states to take stock of and discuss the causes and consequences in light of the collective nightmare and joint memory. How are museums in Hungary participating in this? When in his 2008 speech Luxembourg’s premier Jean-Claude Juncker suggested that those who had doubts about the EU should visit a military cemetery since they would then be convinced where the lack of Europe and the lack of will for peoples to cooperate would lead to, he may not have realised how many people would quote his words in a few years’ time in connection with the centenary of the First World War. The hundred years of distance, the European integration and the west-European need to face up to the past has now created the possibility that with the anniversary of the Versailles peace treaties Europe would finally end the Great War with the help of events between 2014 and 2018 and remembrance. The challenge and the responsibility of the event-organising institutions and individuals are huge, since the tragedy – referred to by many as the core catastrophe of the 20th century – not only demanded 19.7 million lives and left 21.2 million wounded or invalided and left ruined cities, devastated countrysides, epidemics, misery and hatred in its wake, it also tore Europe’s traditional communication channels to pieces, i.e. it not only dug deep trenches on the battlefields. Following four years of fighting both the earlier power system based on cooperation in foreign affairs and the integrated world economy ceased to exist. The war propaganda eliminated cultural communities, the usual inter-European scientific, artistic and literary relations were slackened. At the same time, the war broke up hardened social structures: the issue of women’s emancipation gained new meaning, the transformation of the traditional peasantry accelerated and people in Europe became more mobile. The attitude to power changed, while practices which helped handle the problems before were lost in both the private and public spheres, being replaced by aggression, prejudices and exclusion. Genocide, injustice and cruelty became accepted. Perhaps the most important question of the centenary events is whether the often fossilized narratives which determine how the Great War is remembered can be dissolved at all. After all, every family and community of people examines the historic events primarily from its own viewpoint and the memories related to certain events compete and are in contrast with one another. As European Network Remembrance and Solidarity based on the principles of Pierre Nora and Krzysztof Pomian asserts, the historical memory of all parties concerned must be recognized and be the point of reference during discussion, since awareness of the peculiarity of each country and its culture of remembrance is the fundamental precondition for the establishment of a common “European market of history”. This idea is also presented on the website of Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, which gives an overview of its centenary events. It emphasises that the EU is more than just an organisation handling economic and social problems despite its member states having different memory cultures. Yet only a little knowledge of human character and political experience is required to realize that these principles are far from the daily routine in many places. Only a very few institutions, such as the Historial de la Grande Guerre which opened in a former war location in Péronne in 1992, have such a collection and staff whose permanent exhibition presents the objects, propaganda and military culture of three former belligerents – the British, Germans and the French. The museum does not intend to reinforce victory and defeat, but most importantly it aims to show the similarity of bodies suffering from war, the war of nations against each other, the military propaganda, the comparison of belligerent societies and the common pain. The permanent exhibition with the connected temporary exhibitions, events and conferences constitutes an experiment which looks at the individual national narratives from above, puts an equal sign between the belligerents and lays the emphasis on mutual violence and suffering instead of the heroism characteristically attributed to individuals and armies. The already launched website europeana1914-1918.eu of the joint European digital library similarly points at reconciliation. Through its digital archives the website enables everyone to access war mementos still existing in different countries. Not only items from public collections can get into the database, but after registration anyone can upload their personal or family memorabilia, be they diaries, photos, films, letters, postcards, propaganda leaflets or objects. The virtual show enlists places that could be temporary such as railway stations, hospitals, research laboratories and barracks, and the consecutive photos reveal the representatives of different nations often in similar situations. The themes of museum exhibitions staged with the new attitude in view do not stop at the common suffering and the issue of joint responsibility, but try to examine the connections of the Great War in as wide a context as possible. In Hungary the First World War Centenary Memorial Committee formed in January 2013 is coordinating commemorative events. The message on elsovilaghaboru.com is also rooted in European integration and emphasises: “It is perhaps worth rethinking our past and finding perceptions of the conflicts of a hundred years ago not only in the duality of the victorious and the defeated. It is not a committee standing above all else,” said Vilmos Kovács, commander of the Institute and Museum of Military History and a member of the Memorial Committee. We are trying to bind in a sheaf the endeavours which are planned for the period up to 2018. We are coordinating initiatives, exhibitions and conferences proposed by public collections and NGOs so that they would not counteract each other but be concerted.