In her book \u201cFallen Idols\u201d, British historian Alex von Tunzelmann explores how societies deal with their monuments. In the past few years, there has been a rush to topple statues. Black Lives Matter protesters also defaced of politicians and philanthropists, who were slaveholders and\/or imperialists. Edward Colston, Christopher Columbus, Belgian King Leopold II or Winston Churchill: Do they deserve their monuments?<\/p>\n
Vienna has its own controversy around the monument for Karl Lueger, mayor of Vienna from 1895 to 1910. While praised for city reforms, Lueger was also an avid antisemite who used racism as political instrument - right in time for Adolf Hitler to learn the trade.
\nStatues are a visible form of historical storytelling. The stories we tell are vital to how societies understand our past and make our future. Shall we contextualise controversial monuments or take them down? Who controls history?<\/p>\n
HELDEND\u00c4MMERUNG tells the story of twelve toppled statues around the world. Translated by Kristin Lohmann, Goldmann,2022, 384 p, 17 euros.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Alex von Tunzelmann<\/strong> is a British historian and publicist. She is the author of several historical books - Indian Summer 2007 about the end of colonialsm, Red heat 2011 about Cold War in the Caribbean - and her articles appear in The Guardian, The New York Times and others.<\/p>\n Tessa Szyszkowitz<\/strong> is a foreign affairs commentator for Butterfly<\/em> and a London correspondent for profile & Cicero<\/em>. Her last book was Real Englishmen, Britain & Brexit <\/em>(2018)<\/em>. She is also Distinguished Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tessa Szyszkowitz in conversation with Alex von Tunzelmann FALLEN IDOLS Is history erased when statues are pulled down? Or is history then made? In her book \u201cFallen Idols\u201d \u2013 in German: \u201cHeldend\u00e4mmerung\u201d \u2013 British historian Alex von Tunzelmann explores how societies deal with their monuments. In the past few years, there has been a rush […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":4797,"template":"","format":[29],"meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"schwerpunkt":[43],"class_list":["post-4796","kreisky_event","type-kreisky_event","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","schwerpunkt-internationale-politik-europa-und-sicherheit","format-podiumsdiskussion"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n