The statue of Arminius, or Hermann, near Detmold,
was erected in the 19th century.
Germany marks its birth with caution
David Crossland,
Foreign Correspondent
The National
August 09. 2009
KALKRIESE, GERMANY
Germany is marking the 2000th anniversary next month of a battle hailed as the birth of the nation – the bloody defeat of three Roman legions by Germanic warriors under Arminius, a young chieftain, in 9AD.
Some 10,000 to 12,000 of Rome’s finest legionnaires were slaughtered in the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, which created a national myth that filled German hearts with patriotic fervour right up to the 20th century. Arminius,
the story goes, drove the Romans out of Germania and united the nation.
“This was the big bang that created Germany, according to the myth,” Tillmann Bendikowski, a historian and author of a book on the battle, said. “The historical facts disprove that but every nation wants to pinpoint its roots and will passionately grasp any opportunity to do so.”
From the 16th century, nationalists seized on Arminius, or Hermann as he became known, as a symbol of unity and freedom from such perceived enemies as the Pope, the French or the Jews. Today, Hermann is contaminated by the militant and racist nationalism that led to the Nazi period, and this year’s festivities have been muted as a result.
Many Germans do not even know his story nowadays because schools refrained from teaching it after 1945. But interest has been reawakened by the discovery of the presumed site of the battle in the late 1980s, and there has been intense media coverage of the man and the myth this year.
Angela Merkel, the chancellor, visited the battlefield near the village of Kalkriese in north-western Germany in May to open an exhibition on the warlike ways of Germanic tribes. Some 400 actors in rough leggings and Roman armour re-enacted scenes from the battle in June.
