9:27 Ironically enough, in the middle ages, it wasnt barbarossa who was supposed to be sleeping in the mountain, but his grandson, Frederick II. This is partly because he was the last of the staufer emperors and also the last emperor before the great interregnum, meaning people disparaging of the state of the empire had him as a reference of rule (barbarossa makes very little sense, since he was succeded by his very capable son Henry VI, his nephew otto and his aforementioned grandson Freddy II). The reason why the legend first arose was because the papacy was getting increasingly unhinged in its war with frederick and claimed a bunch of time that he was dead whilst in fact he was still alive, so when he obviously showed up fine, people started doubting reports of his death. And so when he did actually die, you had a bunch of fake Fredericks running around for a century longer, and when those went away, the legend of the sleeping emperor was formed. The reason why we associated barbarossa with the legend is because for german intelectuals in the 17th-19th century, frederick II was considered more italian than german, whilst his grandfather better fit the german conception of emperor.
meglio federico ii era piu pugliese che crucco.....o forse pure piu pugliese che italiano perche era l unico che ci ha pensato davvero a noi e noi pugliesi lo amiamo ancora oggi
@@andreascovano7742 uee... guarda che castel del monte e la maggior parte dei castelli fatti da luisono in puglia e i festival a lui dedicati oggi sono fatti per quasi la totalita da noi pugliesi (o lucani...perche anche li...) e su questo non ce dubbio
Those myths were pretty commonplace. The trope is called "king in the mountain". King Arthur would be a famous example. Pretty sure both versions (Fred I and II) were created generations later. At the time no one seriously thought the emperors were not dead. That was pretty clearly communicated. iirc the myth including Barbarossa instead of Frederick II was first documented in the 16th century but the reasons are probably the same you posed. Barbarossa was a strong German king while Frederick II. had way closer ties to Sicily.
Funny how they forget that the Romans avenged Varus' defeat, crushed Arminius twice, and after Arminius fled to his relatives to escape Rome's armies, said relatives beheaded him and gave his head to the Romans to curry favor with them. All of the stolen legionary eagles were recovered, and parts of Germany remained under Roman rule for centuries.
@@Aristocles22 That's definitely not forgotten, and its part of the tragic hero myth of Arminius. Still, without Arminius, pretty much all of Germany, or at least to the Elbe, would've stayed in Roman hands. They actually just recently found an entire Roman town far east of the Rhine with a huge Roman statue, which shows that the Romans were already in the middle of colonising Germany east of the Rhine. And then suddenly after their defeat by Arminius they completely abandon that area.
@@onurbschrednei4569 The Romans conquered more of Germany later, but abandoned it a second time during the year of the four emperors, due to the legions stationed there going to fight for control of the empire.
@@onurbschrednei4569 It is pretty well known that the romans were east of the Rhine. The border did not always follow the rhine exactly, but also sometimes smaller tributary rivers that posed geographical barriers as well. The romans also had trading posts in "Germania" and were not always at war with them. I coincidentally live near a river east of the Rhine for which that is the case, where a roman statue was found aswell, you are not talking about my home, are you? :D
The German Empire was the successor state to the North German Confederation, so they just continued using the same flag. It was thus official before 1892, but the constitution was modified that year.
Really interesting video and topic. I don't agree however how you present the building of megalomaniac monuments as unique to Germany. It was pretty much a worldwide trend in the 19th century, and there are great examples in all other Western countries, often even more megalomaniac than in Germany. Of the top of my head I can think of: Victor Emmanuel Monument in Rome, the Albert Memorial in London, Arc de Triomphe in Paris or half of Washington DC. Another thing that I found interesting is that many of those huge monuments were designed by the same guy: Bruno Schmitz. (You briefly mentioned him). He built the Kyffhäuser Monument, the Monument to the battle of the Nations in Leipzig, the "Deutsches Eck" in Koblenz, the Kaiser Wilhelm Monument in Porta Westfalica, etc. He had a very distinct style that is still recognisable today. Interestingly, he also built the huge Sailors and Soldiers Monument in Indianapolis.
The irony of some of these monuments is kinda funny. One the one hand you have a victory statue using a Roman god, on the other you have a statue where the Romans are apparently the enemy. Then you also have a monument that's supposed to commemorate a battle from 1813 yet only medieval knights are depicted, a type of warrior that guns had made obsolete about 400 years before the battle was even fought. Like surely this is the one where you should put all of those captured guns?
To add, the original three layers of the victory monument in Berlin were for the unification wars, but the fourth was added by the Nazis to commemorate the Endsieg. That aged quite poorly
@@maximilianbeyer5642 a bit like the ancient egyptians who always made victory obelisks before they went out to battle lmao I guess its a way of simply gaslighting the historians of the future, who cares if you actually won the war when everyone already thinks you won the war?
Thats really just because there wasnt any grand plan to this. They were monuments to particular historical moments designed by different people, some using more allegory, some are just statues, others do something entirely different. The irony only happens if you all see this as some sort of grand master plan that trues to propagate exactly one specific story.
I disagree that a sense of Germanness had to be created during the Kaiserreich years. Yes, local identities were strong and still are today, but the people definitely identified as Germans culturally and had done so for centuries. What was new was the political nation, especially one enforced by Prussia as before that Austria was kinda the leader among German states.
0:06 Very few of those were "megalomaniac." Try the Victor Emmanuel II monument in Rome or the Cinquantenaire Arch in Brussels for those. Maybe that Independence Arch in Mexico City.
@@_TkiT_ Wealth partially came from the colony. That wasn't unusaual for Western-Europe though (France, UK, Spain, NL...). I don't know why it is always emphasized more with Belgium. For a long time it even wasn't a Belgian, but a private colony of the king. Apart from that Belgium was just an industrial powerhouse in the 19th century, long before the Berlin conference of 1884 and even longer before the 1890s rubber boom made it actually profitable. Belgium was most industrially advanced country apart from the UK
@@holygooff I didn't say it was unusual, but the brutality in Congo was unusual even by colonial standards which is why Belgium is being always called out even if it was mostly because of the Belgian King not the government (which did some bad things too).
In one of the Asterix comics (the laurels of Caesar?), a Goth participates at a the Roman triumph as a captives and applauds while saying Kolossal! in gothic letters. Your introduction oozed that feeling. And you probably know what I mean because you referenced the papierschif A38 in a previous video, which is often used as a representation of German bureaucracy, despite being a parody of French bureaucracy.
The monument to the battle of the nations is enormous. I find that it doesn't look that tall on camera, probably because it's both really tall and really wide. I've seen images of it, but was overwhelmed by its size when I saw it in person. It's so gigantic. Amusingly, it's now partially a monument to itself. Because it's so big and was such a feat of engineering, a significant part of it now tells the story of how it was built.
It was a pretty common thing back then and further back as well, to have a tale or story about a former great leader like Barbarossa, to eventually wake from slumber in a time of need. The French have it with Charlemagne, Danes with Ogier (Holger) the Dane and English with King Arthur and his knights. But I only looked it up now because of this video since I already knew about Ogier the Dane
For example, in Poland, there are some unspecified knights supposedly sleeping under the Giewont massive in the Tatra Mountains. Some retellings of the legend put one of the Polish kings among them, as their leader. Usually, Bolesław I the Brave.
In Greece the last Emperor of the Roman Empire is said to have been turned into marble and still sleep under the gate st. Romanos in Istanbul. His reawakening will start the Greek reconquest and lead to a golden age for the greeks.
I heard Slovakia has something similar. A bunch of knights sleep in a mountain and every few years one wakes up, walks out, and yells out. If no one answers he goes back to sleep
In Portugal there's the same legend with King Sebastian, one day he will wake up from his sleep in the moorish lands and will return to Portugal in its times of need.
Olger isn't actually a leader, he was just a champion mentioned in the Frankish Chronicles. Also there's a TV series where a running joke is Olger waking up because of something completely trivial that is immediately solved.
I think one of the main reasons the Kulturkampf went over without much opposition is because despite Baden and Württemberg having mostly Catholic populations, their ruling families were Protestant (the Catholic branch of the House of Württemberg didn’t become head until after the fall of the monarchy, in 1922, and the Badens didn’t go Catholic until the 1960s) while Saxony had a ruling family that was Catholic, but a mostly Lutheran population. The only state that had both was Bavaria, but they’d been distracted by the “untimely death” (I will believe to my dying day that he was murdered) of King Ludwig II and Prince Luitpold’s regency. It explains why the Kulturkampf went on for so long, since Catholic representation at any level was always hampered by some factor and unable to act to uphold religious tolerance within the empire.
I live in Kiel, in neighbouring Laboe there is also a very interesting monument: the Marine Ehrenmal Laboe. It is a very tall tower and a cave essentially, and it was opened by Hitler himself to commemorate German "WW1 heros". After WW2 it got turned into an international Monument to commemorate killed seafarers of all nations. The "cave" has many separate monuments to killed ship crews, it is a very interesting place. And the tower has perfect views over the Kieler Förde and the baltic sea
I personally love the Monument of the Battle of the Nations - not only because I'm from Leipzig, but also because it's a whole experience standing inside the inner hall. It's much bigger if you actually standing inside it and climbing the stairs towards the top platform is a tiring but also a rewarding experience. I think it's one of the sights you HAVE to see if you visit Leipzig - otherwise you cannot say you've really been to Leipzig.
You could have also mentioned the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Denkmal in Porta Westfalica. It is also a large statue of Wilhelm I standing under an even larger roof overlooking the surrounding area from a (for the region) very tall hill/mountain
Hey! Great video. Are you thinking about making a video about Austrian structures and monuments any time soon? It would really interest me on the reasoning of the numerous buildings made in the 19th century.
Though Bismarck did also engineer purposefully the French declaration of war and was very much a result of Prussian aggression. I don't know if I would agree with it either but there's more evidence than you think
There's one Bismarck Tower in Szczecin (former Stettin). It was kinda a victim of Polish goverment trying to degermanize the city. It got a new name - Gocław Tower - but nobody uses it. It's probably one of the most German things we have so no local accepted the name change As a side note Szczecin has a very complicated relationship with its germanness. In the past the goverment wanted to have nothing to do with it. Nowadays people are more open and interested in the history. I've seen it in many places. Efforts to reclaim the German-ish identity of the city. That being said I think that Świnoujście (a seaside resort) is still more German. There're so many German tourists there and most of advertisements are written in two languages. You could easily assume that they're a sizable minority of the city
Best German Monument Walhalla in Regensburg, Herman der Etrusker in Paderborn Area, deutsches Eck in Koblenz, and Kaiser Wilhelm Monument near Paderborn and near Middle Rhine Valley
Could you please make an in-depth video about the plans for Welthauptstadt Germania? It would be really intresting in my opinion since i can't really find any other videos on the subject that goes deeper than just sureface-level. Thank you, and love your vids by the way ❤
Hi, thank you for your video. You have forgotten the "Kaiser-Wilhelm-Denkmal" in Porta Westfalica. This is the second highest monument in Germany! The monument is in the mountain of the Wesergebirge obove the Weser-river. Greetings from the Porta Westfalica (Germany)!
How about you stop making jokes about our monuments. Funny how everyone has their own ultranationalist monuments in their countries, or EVEN IN OUR OWN COUNTRY like the soviet memorials with solderis with literal guns and tanks besides them. But when we germans built monuments after having been disunited for centuries and having to accept how the frenchm, danish etc. stole our territories like Elsaß and Lothringen, we were the evil aggressive nationalists? How about the next time you show the ultranationalist memorial of the killed german eagle murdered by a french sword at the place were the Armistice of 1918 was signed. Funny how, again for so many times, the french were agressive against us and stole Elsaß-Lothringen again and even built that anti german monument after having "won" the war only with british, russian, american, and italian support.
The revolution and early American government was funded by lottery as well. The Articles of Confederation didn't let the government tax, but it let them be a casino.
On a side-note: The Hermann monument might be pretty dumb, but the town of Detmold is actually really pretty and has a mostly historic town center that I can recommend visiting.
Manatee brilliant video as always. What’s the deal with the Bernd/Björn thing, is Bernd a German slur or something? My grasp of the language is nonexistent haha
Bernd is just a normal name. It's just become a running gag to purposefully call him by the wrong name because he just can't help but get upset over it. At this point, even serious news outlets accidentally use Bernd sometimes.
At some point some news or talk show called him Bernd, which is a normal name and then came the association to "Bernd das Brot", which is a big depressed loaf of bread, which has reoccurring segments after the children's channel "KIKA" stops broadcasting for the day and switches to night program. His adventures are, interesting to say the least.
ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING!!!!! I statues that lined the area of Berlin removed by the East German Government are an Interesting topic as well as Valhalla on the Danube. The Tannenberg Monument and Grave being removed should've been preserved. It would've been proof of history deletion that is common today. Sir Manatee your channel keeps me riveted and look forward to the next one!!! Thank You!!!!!!
On the battlefields of Sedan, who could have imagined, that the victorious dynasty would soon suffer poverty and shocking loss of property, without a single penny of compensation. While the defeated dynasty will be much richer. What a reversal of fortunes!
These monuments stand tall and strong against certain political and interest groups who would like to see our country destroyed and dismantled. Only when all danger to our nation from within and without has been dealt with, can they finally be pulled down.
seems like all those buzzwords you called hocke only made him and his party more and more popular lol.. nahh probably moreso the continued failure of the last few (and current) german goverment to do something for their people. anyhow,great video i enjoyed the monuments.
To Mr Twain I counter with "at the very least it was not built on stolen native lands, with money and from the KKK, whos chief architect was a deep believer, also, there was a large nr of black people "employed" in janitorial duty there" that being said he is right in that regard,
beautifiul monuments expect for the arminius one not because i dont like the design but because sorry every team i hear of teutoburg the music of when you loose in rome 1 comes out in my mind along with the... varo!!! rendimi le mie legioniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!(translated:varo give me back my legions!!) phrase...
How is your dialect so nicely sounding when you're living in Germany? You must certainly be an fellow Austrian, or at least spent significant time south of the Weißwurstäquator.
I don‘t agree, there was a strong wish to unify Germany for centuries which climaxed with the revolution of 1848, which failed but yet the dream didn’t die. I mean bavarians were pushing Ludwig II to join the empire and nationalism was huge even outside prussia. Ofc there was local pride as in any federal state, just like how the Americans are incredibly proud of their home state and heritage, but that doesnt make them less patriotic, same was for the Germans. We finally had a strong and unified nation, ofc people would be proud. While there was no ‚official‘ anthem, patriotic songs were incredibly popular, the Wacht am Rhein was the de Facto anthem and Heil dir im Siegerkranz was the royal anthem. So many patriotic songs were written in the period. The Germans were incredibly proud, we were some of the proudest people in that period. Just look at how many Germans volunteered for WW1.
@@williamchamberlain2263 The Bernd Joke is from a "comedy" Outlet of the german State TV, and yes the ARD and Co will tell you that they are not, but they Control Gremia are often Members of politicial Partys and they must argue with Politicans when they need more Money, and as a old german Motto says: one Hand washs an other.
@@kentrosaurusboi3909 Firstly being a military dictator during WW1 and then destroying the weimar republic by exploiting his presidential powers by giving minority goverments the ability to circumvent the reichstag and thus enabling hitlers rise to power
@@kentrosaurusboi3909 throwing away millions of lives to cover up his shite strategy and planning in WWI, spreading the stab-in-the-back lie to cover up his shite strategy and planning in WWI, giving the Nazis legitimacy to try to salvage his late career from his shite strategy and planning in WWI.
@@guntherjager5085 Ich weiß ihr lebt noch gerne in 2013, wie sich auch einige von euch 2020 staatliche Kontrolle zurückwünschen, weil es merklich von Jahr zu Jahr schlechter für die HS und ihre Zuschauer wird.
3:13 is it weird that I only recognize that because it’s come up in a few mark Felton videos about how it was used as an emergency airstrip in the battle of Berlin? Oh no…am I a wehraboo?
Whenever a video is made about German culture or architecture, or monuments or art, it inevitably devolves into a discussion about racism and whether or not this beautiful civilization should be torn down or not. It's amazing to me how indoctrinated the German people are. Constantly referring to their past with shame, and not thinking about the present and all of the good things they've inherited from the past. It becomes so tiresome.
I mean one of their former governments did kill over 6 million Jewish, gay, disabled, Roma (Gypsy), Polish people (And some other groups I might have forgotten) and said government loved to lean into the made up mythological background for Germany they literally just made up and loved to use pre existing German culture and mythology as a rallying point for their views
I mean they conducted two very well documented genocides in Africa and Europe in the span of like 60 years and within recent memory. The people who built these monuments literally had a hand in either of these mass murdering rampages fueled by racial hatred and greed. Sorry it's tiresome for you but Germans actually like reflecting on their history both good and bad.
Nobody in Germany is going to argue to destroy all works of Goethe or Schiller, nor burn the paintings of Casper David Friedrich, Dürer, Marc, Cranach or Rubens, Beethoven and Bachs music i not exactly controversial, nobody plans to tear down the city hall of Bremen or Lübeck or the many historic churches in the country. Why? Because they are unlike these monuments not calling for war or monarchy. These monuments are not pretty for the sake of being pretty, but to convey a message and that message can be argued about. That is also true for other art. In many cases it is not a problem, but in many of these cases it is argueing for monarchy and wars of agression. You find these in many places as well. The Baltic countries and Poland are currently tearing down Communist era monuments, as is Ukraine. Not because they are necessarily ugly, but because they convey a political message, which is no longer part of the country.
Indoctrination now apparently means "critically examining nationalist propaganda and striving to have an accurate understanding of history". In other news war is peace.
11:50 to this day I don't actually know if Höcke's name is actually "Bernd" or "Björn" and I love it. For those who don't know and wonder why this is a thing: Höcke has been called by the wrong name (I googled it, "Bernd" is wrong) by a news agency once and he threw a tantrum about them calling him by the wrong name, it's been a meme since.
The best answer I can give you is that I just wanted to try out something new. Now in retrospect, I'm not so sure if that was a good idea or if it even made much sense in the first place haha
@@SirManateee for me as a fellow German it was funny and entertaining - but I agree that maybe for a broader audience it was "hard" to follow - even though you explained awesomely When not understanding the political jokes - the video was still great - keep it up - looking forward for more content of you :)
@@acu4461 I think a lot of German memes will be at least somewhat familiar to other Europeans so it's not an issue, I at least got the jokes and I'm Danish.
@@Delta_3VIII I don't know if it was actually that bad, he only called the AfD as a whole "right wing" which I would say is accurate, though I'm sure in his mind right-wing is synonymous with bad. I know nothing about Höcke but when he spoke of him it did come across like that typical way that a left-winger will exaggerate how bad someone is when they're really just conservative. Really should have just left it out
@@bigger_mibber6029 I just don't want to hear about current-day politics, in a fucking history video. I don't give a fuck about Sir Manatees personal political views. That is not why I am subscribed to him. I'm subscribed to hear about history, which he is good at making interesting. So when he starts going "AfD are far-right" and hampering on, about how some of these monuments are meeting places for "far-right" groups, it's just annoying. Current-day politics is not something I give a shit about, I'm pretty apolitical. So when he goes on his little rants, it is just off-putting, for someone like me who just want to hear about the history. If he keeps this shit up, in following videos, then I'm done watching his videos.
@@MrFichstar It is definitely annoying how everyone lately has to inject their stupid irrelevant political opinion into so many places it doesn't belong. I'll probably stop watching him too if he keeps this up
9:27 Ironically enough, in the middle ages, it wasnt barbarossa who was supposed to be sleeping in the mountain, but his grandson, Frederick II. This is partly because he was the last of the staufer emperors and also the last emperor before the great interregnum, meaning people disparaging of the state of the empire had him as a reference of rule (barbarossa makes very little sense, since he was succeded by his very capable son Henry VI, his nephew otto and his aforementioned grandson Freddy II).
The reason why the legend first arose was because the papacy was getting increasingly unhinged in its war with frederick and claimed a bunch of time that he was dead whilst in fact he was still alive, so when he obviously showed up fine, people started doubting reports of his death. And so when he did actually die, you had a bunch of fake Fredericks running around for a century longer, and when those went away, the legend of the sleeping emperor was formed.
The reason why we associated barbarossa with the legend is because for german intelectuals in the 17th-19th century, frederick II was considered more italian than german, whilst his grandfather better fit the german conception of emperor.
The german folk song, "Der alte Barbarossa" is beautiful tho. I reccomend it.
meglio federico ii era piu pugliese che crucco.....o forse pure piu pugliese che italiano
perche era l unico che ci ha pensato davvero a noi e noi pugliesi lo amiamo ancora oggi
@@davidelabarile1634 I siciliani pensano che fosse siciliano e i napoletani pensano che fosse napoletano
@@andreascovano7742 uee...
guarda che castel del monte e la maggior parte dei castelli fatti da luisono in puglia e i festival a lui dedicati oggi sono fatti per quasi la totalita da noi pugliesi (o lucani...perche anche li...)
e su questo non ce dubbio
Those myths were pretty commonplace. The trope is called "king in the mountain". King Arthur would be a famous example.
Pretty sure both versions (Fred I and II) were created generations later. At the time no one seriously thought the emperors were not dead. That was pretty clearly communicated.
iirc the myth including Barbarossa instead of Frederick II was first documented in the 16th century but the reasons are probably the same you posed. Barbarossa was a strong German king while Frederick II. had way closer ties to Sicily.
There's a Hermann statue in Minnesota, it's called Hermann the German.
That's hilarious and I love it haha
Funny how they forget that the Romans avenged Varus' defeat, crushed Arminius twice, and after Arminius fled to his relatives to escape Rome's armies, said relatives beheaded him and gave his head to the Romans to curry favor with them. All of the stolen legionary eagles were recovered, and parts of Germany remained under Roman rule for centuries.
@@Aristocles22 That's definitely not forgotten, and its part of the tragic hero myth of Arminius. Still, without Arminius, pretty much all of Germany, or at least to the Elbe, would've stayed in Roman hands. They actually just recently found an entire Roman town far east of the Rhine with a huge Roman statue, which shows that the Romans were already in the middle of colonising Germany east of the Rhine. And then suddenly after their defeat by Arminius they completely abandon that area.
@@onurbschrednei4569 The Romans conquered more of Germany later, but abandoned it a second time during the year of the four emperors, due to the legions stationed there going to fight for control of the empire.
@@onurbschrednei4569 It is pretty well known that the romans were east of the Rhine. The border did not always follow the rhine exactly, but also sometimes smaller tributary rivers that posed geographical barriers as well. The romans also had trading posts in "Germania" and were not always at war with them.
I coincidentally live near a river east of the Rhine for which that is the case, where a roman statue was found aswell, you are not talking about my home, are you? :D
The German Empire was the successor state to the North German Confederation, so they just continued using the same flag. It was thus official before 1892, but the constitution was modified that year.
The U.S. has a monument mania too.. especially in Washington D.C. I think it is too much propaganda sort of a brainwashing..
Really interesting video and topic. I don't agree however how you present the building of megalomaniac monuments as unique to Germany. It was pretty much a worldwide trend in the 19th century, and there are great examples in all other Western countries, often even more megalomaniac than in Germany. Of the top of my head I can think of: Victor Emmanuel Monument in Rome, the Albert Memorial in London, Arc de Triomphe in Paris or half of Washington DC.
Another thing that I found interesting is that many of those huge monuments were designed by the same guy: Bruno Schmitz.
(You briefly mentioned him). He built the Kyffhäuser Monument, the Monument to the battle of the Nations in Leipzig, the "Deutsches Eck" in Koblenz, the Kaiser Wilhelm Monument in Porta Westfalica, etc. He had a very distinct style that is still recognisable today. Interestingly, he also built the huge Sailors and Soldiers Monument in Indianapolis.
But this video is about Germany...
Learning about these monuments and the history behind them was thoroughly enjoyable, I would love to see more videos like this.
Yes, there are a few more left ;)
Same here! I'd really like a sequel! 🤗
The irony of some of these monuments is kinda funny. One the one hand you have a victory statue using a Roman god, on the other you have a statue where the Romans are apparently the enemy. Then you also have a monument that's supposed to commemorate a battle from 1813 yet only medieval knights are depicted, a type of warrior that guns had made obsolete about 400 years before the battle was even fought. Like surely this is the one where you should put all of those captured guns?
To add, the original three layers of the victory monument in Berlin were for the unification wars, but the fourth was added by the Nazis to commemorate the Endsieg. That aged quite poorly
@@maximilianbeyer5642 a bit like the ancient egyptians who always made victory obelisks before they went out to battle lmao
I guess its a way of simply gaslighting the historians of the future, who cares if you actually won the war when everyone already thinks you won the war?
@@maximilianbeyer5642 Thematically appropriate though, since it did the opposite of the unification wars.
Thats really just because there wasnt any grand plan to this. They were monuments to particular historical moments designed by different people, some using more allegory, some are just statues, others do something entirely different. The irony only happens if you all see this as some sort of grand master plan that trues to propagate exactly one specific story.
I disagree that a sense of Germanness had to be created during the Kaiserreich years.
Yes, local identities were strong and still are today, but the people definitely identified as Germans culturally and had done so for centuries.
What was new was the political nation, especially one enforced by Prussia as before that Austria was kinda the leader among German states.
0:06 Very few of those were "megalomaniac." Try the Victor Emmanuel II monument in Rome or the Cinquantenaire Arch in Brussels for those. Maybe that Independence Arch in Mexico City.
I didn't know about the one in Belgium. I guess Congolese slave labour had to pay for something grand.
@@_TkiT_the Congolaise lent a hand.
@@_TkiT_ Wealth partially came from the colony. That wasn't unusaual for Western-Europe though (France, UK, Spain, NL...). I don't know why it is always emphasized more with Belgium. For a long time it even wasn't a Belgian, but a private colony of the king.
Apart from that Belgium was just an industrial powerhouse in the 19th century, long before the Berlin conference of 1884 and even longer before the 1890s rubber boom made it actually profitable. Belgium was most industrially advanced country apart from the UK
@@holygooff I didn't say it was unusual, but the brutality in Congo was unusual even by colonial standards which is why Belgium is being always called out even if it was mostly because of the Belgian King not the government (which did some bad things too).
Sieht nach sehr viel Arbeit aus! Schönes Video
Danke :)
In one of the Asterix comics (the laurels of Caesar?), a Goth participates at a the Roman triumph as a captives and applauds while saying Kolossal! in gothic letters. Your introduction oozed that feeling. And you probably know what I mean because you referenced the papierschif A38 in a previous video, which is often used as a representation of German bureaucracy, despite being a parody of French bureaucracy.
It was in Astérix in Spain.
Now you made me curious about how the next joke was translated.
"Cesar affranchit le Rubicon"
@@etiennemourez3059 Good question, from what I got from reading Asterix and Cleopatra in Dutch, a lot of puns were just lost in translation.
Omg, you posted the upload just after school finished :D
The monument to the battle of the nations is enormous. I find that it doesn't look that tall on camera, probably because it's both really tall and really wide. I've seen images of it, but was overwhelmed by its size when I saw it in person. It's so gigantic.
Amusingly, it's now partially a monument to itself. Because it's so big and was such a feat of engineering, a significant part of it now tells the story of how it was built.
It was a pretty common thing back then and further back as well, to have a tale or story about a former great leader like Barbarossa, to eventually wake from slumber in a time of need. The French have it with Charlemagne, Danes with Ogier (Holger) the Dane and English with King Arthur and his knights. But I only looked it up now because of this video since I already knew about Ogier the Dane
For example, in Poland, there are some unspecified knights supposedly sleeping under the Giewont massive in the Tatra Mountains. Some retellings of the legend put one of the Polish kings among them, as their leader. Usually, Bolesław I the Brave.
In Greece the last Emperor of the Roman Empire is said to have been turned into marble and still sleep under the gate st. Romanos in Istanbul. His reawakening will start the Greek reconquest and lead to a golden age for the greeks.
I heard Slovakia has something similar. A bunch of knights sleep in a mountain and every few years one wakes up, walks out, and yells out. If no one answers he goes back to sleep
In Portugal there's the same legend with King Sebastian, one day he will wake up from his sleep in the moorish lands and will return to Portugal in its times of need.
Olger isn't actually a leader, he was just a champion mentioned in the Frankish Chronicles.
Also there's a TV series where a running joke is Olger waking up because of something completely trivial that is immediately solved.
6:57 Every German knows:
Bielefeld doesn't exist
So the two and a half years I spent living and working there was just an extended dream?!!!
Exactly@@alexandregarden6260
@@alexandregarden6260what other explanation is there? Even Frau Merkel knows.
I think one of the main reasons the Kulturkampf went over without much opposition is because despite Baden and Württemberg having mostly Catholic populations, their ruling families were Protestant (the Catholic branch of the House of Württemberg didn’t become head until after the fall of the monarchy, in 1922, and the Badens didn’t go Catholic until the 1960s) while Saxony had a ruling family that was Catholic, but a mostly Lutheran population. The only state that had both was Bavaria, but they’d been distracted by the “untimely death” (I will believe to my dying day that he was murdered) of King Ludwig II and Prince Luitpold’s regency. It explains why the Kulturkampf went on for so long, since Catholic representation at any level was always hampered by some factor and unable to act to uphold religious tolerance within the empire.
14:10 you can still see bullet holes in the monument from when the SS used it as a fortress during the American occupation of Leipzig
Liberation*
@@RK-cj4ocfrom whom?
@@RK-cj4oc * Occupation.
@@superfranky8054the Nazi government, who else?😑
@@superfranky8054 From freedom and honour
Great video bro every topic you cover is just so interesting and hits my historic interests perfectly
If the Kaiser was a car he would be a lifted F-150 with punisher stickers
I live in Kiel, in neighbouring Laboe there is also a very interesting monument: the Marine Ehrenmal Laboe. It is a very tall tower and a cave essentially, and it was opened by Hitler himself to commemorate German "WW1 heros". After WW2 it got turned into an international Monument to commemorate killed seafarers of all nations. The "cave" has many separate monuments to killed ship crews, it is a very interesting place. And the tower has perfect views over the Kieler Förde and the baltic sea
I personally love the Monument of the Battle of the Nations - not only because I'm from Leipzig, but also because it's a whole experience standing inside the inner hall. It's much bigger if you actually standing inside it and climbing the stairs towards the top platform is a tiring but also a rewarding experience.
I think it's one of the sights you HAVE to see if you visit Leipzig - otherwise you cannot say you've really been to Leipzig.
Another upload by the great💪 i will watch this after work😁
Thank you my friend :)
14:29 Scholz gibt ein Auge als Pfand gegen einen Schluck aus Mimirs Brunnen, um seherische Kräfte zu bekommen
I love your music choice. My favourite pieces of classical music.
the best thing about the arminus monument is the rumor that the ticket sellers in the 19th hundreds played poker in the head in their break. :D
What kind of question is that? Every country I visited had many monuments.
11:53 your brain on state media approved humor
yup
okay can i just say that i love the music selection for each of these monuments LMAO
Thüringer Bratwürste esse ich so gern~
This video made morning coffee a blast, very neat video 🎉
As a half german myself I gotta say I get chills when i visit monuments like the victory column. The germans know damn well how to look imposing af
portuguese or brazilian?
@@potatosalad9085 Portuguese caralho
You could have also mentioned the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Denkmal in Porta Westfalica. It is also a large statue of Wilhelm I standing under an even larger roof overlooking the surrounding area from a (for the region) very tall hill/mountain
Hey! Great video. Are you thinking about making a video about Austrian structures and monuments any time soon? It would really interest me on the reasoning of the numerous buildings made in the 19th century.
Good idea, that might make for a fascinating video.
@@SirManateee The Viennese Ringstraße alone has some interesting history to it.
great vid man! way to go! remember me when you're famous!
Bernd 😂 Ich mag deinen Content, du erzählst über Themen, über die selbst ich als Deutscher mit Verhältnismäßig viel Geschichtswissen was neues lerne.
I have to disagree with victory column as an "monument of agression" since prussia would only start the austro prussian war
Though Bismarck did also engineer purposefully the French declaration of war and was very much a result of Prussian aggression. I don't know if I would agree with it either but there's more evidence than you think
@@EnSayne987 the only thing he literaly did was insult the french ambasador that is not a reason for france to start a war
Bismarck was literally the one who sent the declaration of war that started the war of 1864 do you live under a rock?
There's one Bismarck Tower in Szczecin (former Stettin). It was kinda a victim of Polish goverment trying to degermanize the city. It got a new name - Gocław Tower - but nobody uses it. It's probably one of the most German things we have so no local accepted the name change
As a side note Szczecin has a very complicated relationship with its germanness. In the past the goverment wanted to have nothing to do with it. Nowadays people are more open and interested in the history. I've seen it in many places. Efforts to reclaim the German-ish identity of the city. That being said I think that Świnoujście (a seaside resort) is still more German. There're so many German tourists there and most of advertisements are written in two languages. You could easily assume that they're a sizable minority of the city
The Martin Luther at Worms doesn't seem that meglomaniac to me, it seems very tasteful. But then again I too am biased toward grand works of art.
4:03 is stolen the right word here? i don't think remotely
Best German Monument Walhalla in Regensburg, Herman der Etrusker in Paderborn Area, deutsches Eck in Koblenz, and Kaiser Wilhelm Monument near Paderborn and near Middle Rhine Valley
Could you please make an in-depth video about the plans for Welthauptstadt Germania? It would be really intresting in my opinion since i can't really find any other videos on the subject that goes deeper than just sureface-level. Thank you, and love your vids by the way ❤
I agree that it would be interesting, but I don't really want to focus on National Socialism too much on this channel. But hey, who knows ;)
The soviet war memorial is an eyesore in literally every country that isnt soviet
my Lock Screen background is the view of Berlin from the Siegessäule
I love the Pirate Olaf pic
Hi, thank you for your video. You have forgotten the "Kaiser-Wilhelm-Denkmal" in Porta Westfalica. This is the second highest monument in Germany! The monument is in the mountain of the Wesergebirge obove the Weser-river. Greetings from the Porta Westfalica (Germany)!
Bavaria only built monuments to their own monarchs during that time.
How about you stop making jokes about our monuments. Funny how everyone has their own ultranationalist monuments in their countries, or EVEN IN OUR OWN COUNTRY like the soviet memorials with solderis with literal guns and tanks besides them. But when we germans built monuments after having been disunited for centuries and having to accept how the frenchm, danish etc. stole our territories like Elsaß and Lothringen, we were the evil aggressive nationalists? How about the next time you show the ultranationalist memorial of the killed german eagle murdered by a french sword at the place were the Armistice of 1918 was signed. Funny how, again for so many times, the french were agressive against us and stole Elsaß-Lothringen again and even built that anti german monument after having "won" the war only with british, russian, american, and italian support.
Tu dir selbst den Gefallen und höre auf dich über die Arroganz angel-sächsischer Liberalos aufzuregen.
Vier deutsche Kadrinaltugenden? Also, ich kenne nur drei: Infanterie, Artillerie, und Kavallerie.
Luftwaffe
Völkermord
You forgot white flag 🏳️
Damn, I forgot how Warhammer 40k the people's batlle monument in Leipzig was.
Schönes, interessantes Video👍
i didn't expect an alaz aztec song in this video lol
I have the feeling I shouldn’t be here lol
well, i don't know how that happened xD
HUh?
lolwut
Why would that be?
Why
The revolution and early American government was funded by lottery as well. The Articles of Confederation didn't let the government tax, but it let them be a casino.
I liked the music choice
On a side-note: The Hermann monument might be pretty dumb, but the town of Detmold is actually really pretty and has a mostly historic town center that I can recommend visiting.
Why is it dumb?
Manatee brilliant video as always. What’s the deal with the Bernd/Björn thing, is Bernd a German slur or something? My grasp of the language is nonexistent haha
Bernd is just a normal name. It's just become a running gag to purposefully call him by the wrong name because he just can't help but get upset over it. At this point, even serious news outlets accidentally use Bernd sometimes.
At some point some news or talk show called him Bernd, which is a normal name and then came the association to "Bernd das Brot", which is a big depressed loaf of bread, which has reoccurring segments after the children's channel "KIKA" stops broadcasting for the day and switches to night program. His adventures are, interesting to say the least.
12:28 send song pls!
is listed in the bottom left
th-cam.com/video/3OXKSNKN0eE/w-d-xo.html
ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING!!!!! I statues that lined the area of Berlin removed by the East German Government are an Interesting topic as well as Valhalla on the Danube. The Tannenberg Monument and Grave being removed should've been preserved. It would've been proof of history deletion that is common today. Sir Manatee your channel keeps me riveted and look forward to the next one!!! Thank You!!!!!!
Even the real warrior kings who truly deserve to be worshipped and admired, do not have so many statues dedicated to them.
I'll keep this video in mind next time I plan a vacation in Germany.
On the battlefields of Sedan, who could have imagined, that the victorious dynasty would soon suffer poverty and shocking loss of property, without a single penny of compensation. While the defeated dynasty will be much richer. What a reversal of fortunes!
These monuments stand tall and strong against certain political and interest groups who would like to see our country destroyed and dismantled.
Only when all danger to our nation from within and without has been dealt with, can they finally be pulled down.
Pfff.
Not the first and not the last ones to do so.
Bismarck always have a plan
Red white and black
Yes the kaisereich did and they were all awesome
I also like Thuringer bratwurst very much
seems like all those buzzwords you called hocke only made him and his party more and more popular lol.. nahh probably moreso the continued failure of the last few (and current) german goverment to do something for their people. anyhow,great video i enjoyed the monuments.
osnabrück mention lets go 7:00
Wow eine sprechende seekuh.
Couldn’t help but notice you used “CE”
To Mr Twain I counter with "at the very least it was not built on stolen native lands, with money and from the KKK, whos chief architect was a deep believer, also, there was a large nr of black people "employed" in janitorial duty there" that being said he is right in that regard,
11:20 Couldn't enough far-right people raise the Hindenburg statue up through the power of merit?
beautifiul monuments
expect for the arminius one not because i dont like the design but because sorry every team i hear of teutoburg the music of when you loose in rome 1 comes out in my mind along with the...
varo!!! rendimi le mie legioniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!(translated:varo give me back my legions!!) phrase...
Very understandable
How is your dialect so nicely sounding when you're living in Germany? You must certainly be an fellow Austrian, or at least spent significant time south of the Weißwurstäquator.
Hey, sort of unrelated, but what are the pieces of background music being played?
I don‘t agree, there was a strong wish to unify Germany for centuries which climaxed with the revolution of 1848, which failed but yet the dream didn’t die. I mean bavarians were pushing Ludwig II to join the empire and nationalism was huge even outside prussia. Ofc there was local pride as in any federal state, just like how the Americans are incredibly proud of their home state and heritage, but that doesnt make them less patriotic, same was for the Germans. We finally had a strong and unified nation, ofc people would be proud. While there was no ‚official‘ anthem, patriotic songs were incredibly popular, the Wacht am Rhein was the de Facto anthem and Heil dir im Siegerkranz was the royal anthem. So many patriotic songs were written in the period. The Germans were incredibly proud, we were some of the proudest people in that period. Just look at how many Germans volunteered for WW1.
Why can't you keep your political views out of this historical account? Throughout, you sound condescending and arrogant.
Because the world's full of reactionary asshats like you, and people need to remember the propaganda purposes that funded public works
@@williamchamberlain2263 The Bernd Joke is from a "comedy" Outlet of the german State TV, and yes the ARD and Co will tell you that they are not, but they Control Gremia are often Members of politicial Partys and they must argue with Politicans when they need more Money, and as a old german Motto says: one Hand washs an other.
Hindenburg lying in the dirt and nobody carrying about him is peak retribution
And he did what exactly to deserve that?
@@kentrosaurusboi3909 Firstly being a military dictator during WW1 and then destroying the weimar republic by exploiting his presidential powers by giving minority goverments the ability to circumvent the reichstag and thus enabling hitlers rise to power
@@kentrosaurusboi3909 throwing away millions of lives to cover up his shite strategy and planning in WWI, spreading the stab-in-the-back lie to cover up his shite strategy and planning in WWI, giving the Nazis legitimacy to try to salvage his late career from his shite strategy and planning in WWI.
BERND!!!!!!!!!! HÖHÖ!!! BERND!!!!!! @_@
Indeed a real midwit Anglo-Whigh moment.
@@Doctor_FaustusBro the Joke was used first 2013, 2013 ! Its a old joke and they are unable to do a new one.
@@Raubabbau Aber er heißt doch wirklich Bern Höcke oder?
@@guntherjager5085 Ich weiß ihr lebt noch gerne in 2013, wie sich auch einige von euch 2020 staatliche Kontrolle zurückwünschen, weil es merklich von Jahr zu Jahr schlechter für die HS und ihre Zuschauer wird.
Ah yes, Bernd Höcke, who is definitely called Bernd as every German knows :)
Nope, only unfunny Leftists who despatly uses are already 12 Years old Joke, i dont know why i pay forced Media Money for it.
2:59 too bad you didnt use the raid ww2 version. It 'd be funnier
3:13 is it weird that I only recognize that because it’s come up in a few mark Felton videos about how it was used as an emergency airstrip in the battle of Berlin? Oh no…am I a wehraboo?
The use of BCE and CE is a sign of historical dishonesty.
Why?
@@bszemeg8228because scriptural literalists _cannot conceive_ of living without being told what to do and what to think.
Why do you make videos about Germany if you hate it anyway?
Whenever a video is made about German culture or architecture, or monuments or art, it inevitably devolves into a discussion about racism and whether or not this beautiful civilization should be torn down or not. It's amazing to me how indoctrinated the German people are. Constantly referring to their past with shame, and not thinking about the present and all of the good things they've inherited from the past. It becomes so tiresome.
I mean one of their former governments did kill over 6 million Jewish, gay, disabled, Roma (Gypsy), Polish people (And some other groups I might have forgotten) and said government loved to lean into the made up mythological background for Germany they literally just made up and loved to use pre existing German culture and mythology as a rallying point for their views
I mean they conducted two very well documented genocides in Africa and Europe in the span of like 60 years and within recent memory. The people who built these monuments literally had a hand in either of these mass murdering rampages fueled by racial hatred and greed. Sorry it's tiresome for you but Germans actually like reflecting on their history both good and bad.
Nobody in Germany is going to argue to destroy all works of Goethe or Schiller, nor burn the paintings of Casper David Friedrich, Dürer, Marc, Cranach or Rubens, Beethoven and Bachs music i not exactly controversial, nobody plans to tear down the city hall of Bremen or Lübeck or the many historic churches in the country. Why? Because they are unlike these monuments not calling for war or monarchy.
These monuments are not pretty for the sake of being pretty, but to convey a message and that message can be argued about. That is also true for other art. In many cases it is not a problem, but in many of these cases it is argueing for monarchy and wars of agression.
You find these in many places as well. The Baltic countries and Poland are currently tearing down Communist era monuments, as is Ukraine. Not because they are necessarily ugly, but because they convey a political message, which is no longer part of the country.
Thank you !
I call it "bewusst herbeigeführte Autoimmunstörung"
(deliberately induced autoimmune disorder).
Indoctrination now apparently means "critically examining nationalist propaganda and striving to have an accurate understanding of history". In other news war is peace.
And the Walhalla monument?
11:50 to this day I don't actually know if Höcke's name is actually "Bernd" or "Björn" and I love it.
For those who don't know and wonder why this is a thing:
Höcke has been called by the wrong name (I googled it, "Bernd" is wrong) by a news agency once and he threw a tantrum about them calling him by the wrong name, it's been a meme since.
yes that is his name
"It also became a ralling plot for right winger"
underrated TH-camr
Rewatching this and noticing you used Höckes correct first name :)
11:27 *Bernd* Höcke, ja, der Mann heißt Bernd.
Maybe culture was still a thing?
Maybe you're mistaking Prussian jingoism for culture
@@williamchamberlain2263literally every nation has monuments like this idk why everyone’s acting like its some unique german trait of aggression
11:48 except the ableist and pro russian part this guy seems cool
As far as I remember the Ableist Part of his Ideas amounts to "lets not try to push everyone out of the Special-Ed Schools"
👏👏👏
Der Algorithmus hat das Video gesegnet!
Den part über Höcke hättst dir echt sparen können
Nö. Wieso?
Why dear Sir are you using all the sudden plenty of modern german politc memes - grüße Bernd Scholz
The best answer I can give you is that I just wanted to try out something new. Now in retrospect, I'm not so sure if that was a good idea or if it even made much sense in the first place haha
@@SirManateee for me as a fellow German it was funny and entertaining - but I agree that maybe for a broader audience it was "hard" to follow - even though you explained awesomely
When not understanding the political jokes - the video was still great - keep it up - looking forward for more content of you :)
@@acu4461 I think a lot of German memes will be at least somewhat familiar to other Europeans so it's not an issue, I at least got the jokes and I'm Danish.
Thank you so much for calling Bernd by his proper name!
At your service, Lenin's moustache
beans
On toast
@@SirManateee being eaten by
@@grassnothing1631 me
@@SirManateee while siting on a
@@grassnothing1631 gaming chair
Please stay objective. Your personal political ideals where shining through a little too much, in this video. And frankly, it was pretty annoying.
Yep, I can only agree. you could summarize it basically with "everyone and everything I don't Agree with is just Far right and Racist ect." 😑
@@Delta_3VIII >implying that far-right is le bad
@@Delta_3VIII I don't know if it was actually that bad, he only called the AfD as a whole "right wing" which I would say is accurate, though I'm sure in his mind right-wing is synonymous with bad. I know nothing about Höcke but when he spoke of him it did come across like that typical way that a left-winger will exaggerate how bad someone is when they're really just conservative. Really should have just left it out
@@bigger_mibber6029 I just don't want to hear about current-day politics, in a fucking history video. I don't give a fuck about Sir Manatees personal political views. That is not why I am subscribed to him. I'm subscribed to hear about history, which he is good at making interesting. So when he starts going "AfD are far-right" and hampering on, about how some of these monuments are meeting places for "far-right" groups, it's just annoying. Current-day politics is not something I give a shit about, I'm pretty apolitical. So when he goes on his little rants, it is just off-putting, for someone like me who just want to hear about the history.
If he keeps this shit up, in following videos, then I'm done watching his videos.
@@MrFichstar It is definitely annoying how everyone lately has to inject their stupid irrelevant political opinion into so many places it doesn't belong. I'll probably stop watching him too if he keeps this up
interesting