Inheritances Past and Future: Addressing the Everyday Legacy of War in Times of Militarisation

Abstract

The article takes its point of departure from the concreteness of unexploded ordnance left over from World War II, which in the 2020s runs parallel to an increasing militarisation of the public sphere and a rise in arms production. Old and new weaponry globally endangers lives and environments long after peace accords. This is perhaps not a welcome but a necessary opportunity for cultural researchers to problematise the blind spots in cultural practice and communication surrounding the continued presence of old wars in daily life, and in doing so encourage renewed efforts for peace and disarmament. Working with ethnographic and historical data from Germany, some avenues for such research are suggested first with a case study of a medium-sized city where finds of dangerous war waste still occur frequently. In documenting how new cultural practices are devised to manage difficult and costly bomb diffusions, the effort to normalise what better not be downplayed comes to the fore.  Further, a look at language and imagery surrounding the experts carrying out the bomb diffusions points to the foregrounding of hero narratives. The efforts of countless volunteers receeds into the background, as does the necessary evacuation of citizens to create a space within which the work takes place and the real and complex craft skill needed for the task unfolds. Finally, the focus turns to the unpredictable agency of eighty-year-old bombs for which the categorisation ‘heritage out of control’ is recommended – an inheritance whose existence humanity should eradicate and forestall.