'Greetings from the Parade Ground': an old postcard from 1912 shows the area's buildings and illustrates life at this place in an idealised way.

A historical re-enactment through images. A kaleidoscope vision starting from a place where various military events intersect the gaze of the viewer. Marcel Rauschkolb, like a hunter, scrupulously chases traces and collects all sorts of them. Archival photos, maps, postcards, technical drawings, historical annotations, and many other items giving life to a theater of memory made up of composed sets—landscapes of remembrance. Meta-images accompanied by captions full of information that serve to catapult the reader, such as many cinematographic flashbacks, through airfield and parade grounds, barracks, and other military memorabilia of the twentieth century. In the demiurge's skilled hands who weaves together the chapters of Griesheim's recent history as polygonal memory vertices.

1983 and today The area in the south-east of Griesheim was used since 1855 for military purposes (Eckstein 2008, 15). »These events happened in the past, but their effects continue into the present,« writes Hirsch (Hirsch 2017, III). Like the old airfield entrance, the traces I found on my walks triggered the interest in discovering their history.

The Parade Ground Postcards, often with idealized and sometimes humorous motifs, are sources to get an impression of the parade ground's life. It is hard to imagine that on a yearly average, 20000 soldiers lived here (Eckstein 2008, 16).

Offizier Frühstücks-Casino (Officers breakfast mess) While the average soldier stayed in corrugated iron shacks, officers had a more comfortable life. What is a ruin today was the Officer's breakfast mess. It was built around 1900, on a site that is reclaimed by nature now. The orange security area in the map shows the ground's security area. Interestingly, the 1915's camp plan streets are more or less on the same location as in today's residential area.

What is all this for? If we have to remember, it is because we have forgotten. Otherwise, if everything were present, we would not need it. Instead, we must strive because life happens and disappears. Where there is memory, there is oblivion because life is not recoverable; it is a constant loss, a sort of bleeding. And so in this landscape reconstruction of memory, there is an attempt to heal, to heal this wound. All this generates awareness of a past, of something that we are no longer. The fantasy of the desired place is, of course, immeasurable compared to an accurate reconstruction. I wonder, does the past exist? The past is a memory taking place in a present, transcription in writing, orality, or even a recomposed image. And can photography become the past? Of course not; it is always a present that exists when we observe it. And it is still partial, a portion of history, which helps us fantasize, imagine, project our gaze back, savor a memory, and forward it into the future, like an old perfume from a pastry shop that takes us back to childhood in no time.

Le Camp du Griesheim. As a result of the First World War, the German government had to agree to withdraw all German troops from the western front behind the Rhine. From 1919 to 1930, Griesheim was located in one of the bridgeheads of the French zone. The French army used the parade ground, and the streets got french names (Eckstein 2008, 110). Also, the postcards were used again, with the old motifs and the text changed to french. The building here initially named Württemberg Officer's Club, was a now a part of the French garrison. From 1937 on, it was used by the »German Research Institute for Sailplane Flights« (Engels in Göller and Holtmann 2008, 270). After WWII, the U.S. Army used it until 2005.

Darmstadt Dust Off. American troops reached Griesheim and Darmstadt on 25 March 1945. They immediately confiscated the airfield and the parade ground area (Eckstein 2008, 226 – 227). The airfield was now called »Griesheim Army Airfield«. Several MEDEVAC (Medical evacuation) units were stationed here until 1992 (Jakowski and Gray in Göller and Holtmann 2008, 133 and Eckstein 2008, 226 – 232). They used »Dust Off« as a call sign, as usual in the U.S. Army ('Casualty Evacuation' 2020).

Missiles and Mythology Despite protests from the population of Griesheim, Nike missiles of the »Ajax« and later »Herkules«-type were stationed in Griesheim from 1957 on. These could be equipped with both conventional and nuclear warheads. Thus, the Army Airfield became a »Missile Facility« during the Cold War until the missiles were decommissioned in 1985 (Jakowski and Gray in Göller and Holtmann 2008, 138 – 139).

If so, what's next. Can art, therefore, become an act of celebration that takes history away from the wear of passing the time? Sure it is; these "Greetings" from Griesheim are here to prove it, to stimulating us to such an imagination of the past, and to invite us to reflect on memory function. Can individuals and peoples benefit from memory? Nietzsche has written valuable words about the use and abuse of history. A lesson that is still relevant. When a staging of history is an end in itself or coincides with a formal celebration, a school exercise, it becomes a degeneration. If, on the other hand, we move from a need to understand pain, the precariousness of life with all its metamorphoses, the fragility of ambitions, the succession of dreams, ideas, presumptions, perennial destruction, and to feel part of this infinite and unavoidable tragedy, then we find ourselves in front of a generation of constructive memory. And isn't this culture?


»Hessenflieger« and »Darmstadt Flying Club« The airfield was founded in 1908 by August Euler. Even though most of the airport's history is military in nature, there have always been civilian clubs that have been able to use the grounds. It started with the »Aero-Club«, who trained glider-pilots. They had to stop this in 1957 because of the close distance to the Nike-missiles. Later, 1924 founded »Hessenflieger« and the »Darmstadt Flying Club«, founded by two American officers, used the airfield from 1972 until the American withdrawal in 1992 (Jakowski and Gray in Göller and Holtmann 2008, 149 – 150).

The Stars and Stripes-compound The newspaper for the U.S. troops, reborn in London in 1942, was located in Griesheim since 27 September 1949. In former military barracks, right next to the airfield are newsroom, print shop and finance department located. In the 1950s the print run is 100.000 pieces. In 2000, the print run decreased, and the print shop in Griesheim is closed. In 2008, the »Stripes« move to Kaiserslautern (Jaeger in Göller and Holtmann 2008, 317 – 327). Since this time, the area decays, like the pile of newspapers lying in the guardhouse for years.

Family housing On the northern side of Nehringstreet, you find typical German post-war buildings. In the southern part, a different kind of architecture appears. What was fallow land, became in the 1980s the location for eight rows of terrace houses for American families. Made of wooden construction elements, they seem to be teleported from an American village. In opposite to their German neighbours, they weren't connected to the local supply network. The (U.S.-) power plant supported them with water and energy. In 2008, the site was deactivated. I started with Critchley; I close with him. »Memory is repetition. Sure. But it is repetition with a difference« (Critchley 2015, 82). The abandoned Family housing will be torn down soon, and new residential buildings will take their place.

LINKS
Marcel Rauschklob (website)