Renewed discussions

In order to reignite the discussion about an appropriate approach to the ambivalent "heroic figure of Ernst Thälmann", the Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der Demokratie-Geschichte (GEDG) and the Weimarer Republik e.V. carried out an action at the beginning of November 2021 in which they temporarily covered the statue of Ernst Thälmann in order to - freely adapted from Robert Musil's "Nothing is as invisible as a monument" - point out, among other things, the contradiction between his real presence and his absence in public perception. The aim of the action was to initiate an information board explaining the history of the site and its function in the historical context.

Reactions to the wrapping were divided: The response ranged from praise that an important site had been brought to public attention, to GDR nostalgics who wanted to hold on to their "teddy bear" and feared that the memorial would be demolished, to criticism from the Buchenwald Memorial that the action was once again focussing on Ernst Thälmann and losing sight of the real issue, the appropriate commemoration of the dead of Buchenwald. The timing of the action on Remembrance Day was also criticised - even though the creation of a silhouette made it possible for the first time to commemorate without hierarchising the victims.

Nevertheless, the discussions led to joint results: An institutional network consisting of the GEDG, the Weimarer Republik e.V., the City of Weimar, the Bauhaus University Weimar and the Buchenwald Memorial developed a text for an information plaque after representatives of the institutions had publicly discussed how to deal with the site on several occasions. A publication with detailed information on the history of the site and memorial was also published in 2023. In April 2023, the information board was finally erected on Buchenwald Square, embedding it and the memorial in its ambivalent context and drawing attention to this online dossier.