Posted on 06/05/2011 7:35:01 PM PDT by Arec Barrwin
Confederates on the Rhine By Yoni Appelbaum
Jun 2 2011, 10:05 AM ET 110
Why are so many Germans participating in Civil War reenactments—and siding with the South?
"On a warm spring morning about 50 miles north of Berlin, Union troops and their Confederate rivals prepare for battle." That's the attention-grabbing lede of a PRI story on the bizarre phenomenon of Germans reenacting the American Civil War. The reporter explains that many participants feel "a personal connection to the war," and that everyone with whom she spoke took care to note that 200,000 Germans had taken part in the fight:
After World War II, any talk of military glory became socially taboo here...So for those at the reenactment, it is appealing that the U.S. Civil War took place in another country, in another time. It is safer, even romantic.
But the two parties to the fraternal conflict exert unequal appeal. When Germans gather at the reenactments, "more people want to be on the Confederate side." That produces a surreal spectacle. Germans marching about in butternut and gray, pretending to dwell in Dixie. With Teutonic precision, they have replicated every detail, down to the brass buttons and the brightly colored piping on their trousers.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Ve Fight mit Sigel!
The French are too.
My family are reenactors and we met a group from France who were here to attend an event.
Sounds like a good exercise for Europe. But I think it’s emulating the wrong American war. The Germans should turn it back about a hundred years.
That's news to me too.
Funny how recently my daughter and I were watching a Civil War documentary, and she referred to the Confederates as "our side". Being from VA, I was kinda proud of her.
btt
Neither did I. But I’m not surprised. Nor am I surprised that they tend to choose the Confederate side.
The American Army that kicked their collective butts in two World Wars is, after all a direct descendant of the Union Army, so reenacting from the Union side would be uncomfortably like treason. Also, there is a certain wry fellowship among losers, although it is seldom expressed as such.
In any case, I don’t think that it needs to be taken that seriously. It’s just a bunch of overgrown kids playing in the wilderness. No need to get all psychological about it.
They call it “das Amerikanisches Buergerkrieg”.
German gun magazines have always been huge about American military history. Heck, when I was a kid in the 1960’s, Germans were already dressing up like Indians and U.S. Cavalry.
Safer than dressing up like Waffen SS. (Sorry, couldn’t resist) But there’s a side of the German character that likes to remind America of its own Teutonic roots, which is undeniable and dates back to the Revolutionary War.
I’ll bet these modern German reenactors have already constructed ancestral geneologies of German immigrants who fought in the American Civil War.
Lol. That would be funny to see.
just my “WAG”, but many people enjoy military history. the honor, courage, sacrifice, bravery, are appealing across national lines.
the Germans, are “discouraged” from celebrating their own military history. not just WW2, but even WW1. so, where WOULD their military buffs go?
Civil War reenactments are some of the largest in the world. and as for why the South, that’s easy. The sterotypes of southern soldiers, even in “John Wayne” movies, shows great honor and courage even in a losing cause.
and it certainly strikes parallels to me, of the Prussian grey. Especially in things like Pickett’s Charge.
...and i also think this is more of the leftist propaganda about the Civil War was all about slavery. Even President Lincoln admitted that VERY clearly, in his (in)famous quote.
the Atlantic is wrong, when it implies the southern soldiers portrayed by the Germans were fighting for slavery.
Most were poor men, without slaves, who were fighting to defend their own land, and their own state.
frankly, i am mystified by this revisionist rewriting i’ve seen in the past decade or so, trying to make it ALL about slavery.
anyway, thanks for posting this, and letting me ramble.
Don’t worry we will have a fresh CW for them to recreate very soon...
Can’t find the French group, but here’s an Italian one.
http://www.rievocazioni-guerra-civile.it/en/2.html
Hmmm, don’t know about that. Today, more of our Army is made up of those from the South than any other region. I imagine that with the draft in WWII, it may have been more equal between the other regions of the country. Either way, it’s much “safer” for them to reenact someone else’s wars than their own.
Because no matter which side they're on, they get to fantasize about killing Americans.
Don’t let her watch the new History Channel “documentary” called “Gettysburg”.
She’ll pop an artery.
Yeah, I find that annoying. Most southern soldiers didn't even own slaves.
You said it. So true.
Hi Sal!
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