Guernicaplatz

The former brigaders and the memory of their role in the Spanish Civil War played a much smaller role in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) than in the GDR, although this, too, was affected by changes in the political climate.

Especially in the 1950s and 1960s, the representation of the Spanish Civil War in the FRG was strongly influenced by the ideological conflict of the Cold War, in which Communism was the principal adversary. As the Francoist regime became an ally of the West in this struggle, the Civil War came to be seen through a Cold War lens. In this context, it is no surprise that the brigaders were labeled as “fighters of Red Spain” (Rotspanienkämpfer) and subjected to scandalous discrimination when it came to determining military pensions, especially in comparison to veterans of the Condor Legion.

This began to change only at the end of the 1960s. On the one hand, the first Social Democratic-Liberal coalition government, led by Willy Brandt—who had covered the Civil War as a correspondent for Norwegian newspapers—improved the pensions of the IB veterans. On the other hand, there was a new, more critical approach to the history of the Nazi past, which included German participation in the Civil War and its consequences. In this context, the destruction of Guernica and the question of responsibility assumed great symbolic significance. Current research has determined that primary responsibility belonged to the commanders of the Condor Legion, although the Francoist military authorities shared some of the blame.

The symbolic role of the Guernica bombing in West Germany’s public conscience was reinforced by the end of the Francoist dictatorship. April 1977 marked the first time that residents of Guernica were able to publicly commemorate the victims of the bombing. They also used the occasion to request an act of historic reparation from the West German government. However, despite other declarations, the government remained silent on this matter for many years. It was only ten years later, on the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing, and due to an initiative by the Green Party, that the government of Helmut Kohl agreed to provide material support for a center for reconciliation and peace in Guernica. This promise turned out to be empty, and it was not until 1996 that the German government finally provided financial support, which went to a sports center.

The final act in the Guernica story as a German site of memory came with a letter that the then-President of the Republic, Roman Herzog, sent to the residents of the city in 1997, on the sixtieth anniversary of the attack, in which he acknowledged German responsibility and asked for reconciliation. The following year, the district council of Berlin-Zehlendorf decided to name the corner of Spanische Allee (Spanish Way) and Breisgauer Straße (Breisgau Street) Guernicaplatz (Guernica Square). The plaque appears in the image. This reversed an earlier renaming: the name of Wannseestraße (Wannsee Street) had been changed to Spanische Allee in 1939 to mark the return of the Condor Legion.

SB