 |
| Me and Isabelle at Kaffee Marlene |
On the way to Kaffee Marlene I walked north from my hotel, crossed the Karl-Marx-Allee (formerly Stalinallee), and then took a detour into Volkspark Friedrichshain. Because it was going to take about an hour to reach my destination, I had to forgo climbing the Trummerbergen (Rubble-mountains). There were three giant anti-aircraft bunkers in Berlin during WWII, and two of them were completely demolished. One of these Flakturme was in the Volkspark.
It was there that I ran into this impressive Memorial to the German Interbrigadisten. These were Germans who volunteered to fight for the Spanish Republic against the Spanish Nationalists and fascists. Many volunteers to the International Brigades were communists, but certainly not all of them. You only need to read Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls or Orwell's Homage to Catalonia to see that defending the Republic inspired all kinds of idealists and adventurers.
 |
| A German Anti-Fascist Freedom Fighter |
The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was a rehearsal for the Second World War--the liberal democracies proved indecisive and sclerotic in the face of fascist and communist revolutionary dynamism. France and Britain dithered while Mussolini and Hitler sent aid, air-power, and even front-line troops to smash republican Spain. Indecision only encouraged fascists and Hitler realized that his willingness to smash diplomatic norms worked to his strategic advantage. In September, 1938, the Munich Conference demonstrated that the liberal democratic order was unlikely to fight back unless directly under attack. This seemed true even after Hitler invaded Poland! The western democracies remained incapable of taking decisive action. Fascist regimes maintained the strategic initiative until 1943. Chaos and conflict always served fascist ends, since they never believed that old Europe or liberal democracy was worth conserving. Britain and France, terrified that a war could radicalize politics and undermine imperial control, always waited for the fascists to make the first move. Naturally, Hitler struck first: the natural outcome of democratic indecision was Dunkirk and the Fall of France in June, 1940.
In 1936, years before French, British, and American politicians recognized that war was inevitable and necessary, approximately 45,000 men and women assumed individual responsibility for slowing the spread of fascism. They took great risks to cross the Pyrenees and fight for the Republic. More than half were killed in action.
 |
| We have our own memorial to the Wisconsin volunteers of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. You can find it in Madison in the southeast corner of James Madison Park. ¡Viva la Brigada Lincoln! ¡Viva Badgers! |
