Back around August of this year, I sat and read a German commenting via Twitter....that all this Covid-19 stuff would eventually end up as a memorial/statue/park project by the German federal government. At the time, I laughed.
Well....in today's news via ARD (public TV, Channel One)....this idea was commented upon by the federal government folks. They intend to start a path to some memorial or statue deal.
The "deceased should not be forgotten" is the central theme to this.
Where? Unknown but they hint it has to be a central location....meaning it won't be in Hamburg, Berlin, or Munich.
How much planning is taking place now? They word it this way....because of the pandemic going on....they really can't spend time on this statue/memorial stuff. Hint, they kinda mean that they are quietly discussing this behind closed doors.
My script for this? Kassel. Reason? A49, A44, A38, and A7 all kinda merge there in the 'region'.
The Kassel Airport area (about 7 miles north of Kassel)? Perfect location, large parking lot there already, tons of space.
What kind of memorial? Well....they might go and build some wall with all the names of the dead. Or they could just put up a statue of the Covid-19 'bug' getting smashed by a 30-meter tall Chancellor Merkel statue....with Merkel holding a hammer.
You could go the gardens route....just fixing up a 500 meter by 500 meter area where people can arrive and walk around to talk with other people....about their feelings over the virus, and the ban-rules.
Spanish flu memorials in Germany? None. To be honest, they always referred to the 1918 'bug' as the 'Russian Pest'....suggesting that the Russians brought it upon Germany (at least they felt that way in 1918/1919). It's hard to imagine a pest-memorial anyway.
In the US? There are a couple of stone slabs which mark the Spanish flu, but nothing of a magnificent type.
Is this a waste of time and resources? Most regular people would probably suggest that. A handful would probably suggest they'd rather see a statue for 'Yogi' (the national soccer coach), or a 3-meter tall statue for Barak Obama, or some grand designed stone creation to celebrate the creation of the EU.
In the 1800s, statues and memorials were a common thing in Germany, and about every decade....a major town would go through a new phase....throw up five or six statues with celebrations, and talk alot about the 'greater good'.
So settle back and prepare for some chatter about this in 2021, and how they found 22-million Euro to design something to remember Covid-19 by (while the rest of us just try to forget the virus and the ban-rules).
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