German and United States Second World War Military Cemeteries in Italy : Cultural Perspectives Paperback / softback

by Birgit Urmson

Part of the Transatlantic Aesthetics and Culture series

Paperback / softback

Out of Stock - We are unable to provide an estimated availability date for this product

Description

Styles of soldiersâ€™ commemoration reveal national self-images.

US WW II military cemeteries in Italy and their German counterparts are analyzed as art-historical artifacts.

Their aesthetics, together with results of archival research, reveal a self-assured US united in values, projecting victory and Pax-Americana while a struggling Germany searches for its democratic identity and a place within the community of civilized nations.

In Italy, the US relied on imported European classicism as taught at the influential American Academy in Rome and interpreted through the personalities of the cemeteriesâ€™ designers.

Germanyâ€™s designs, rejecting Nazi classicism, progressed through an inherited unique blend of medievalism with modernism toward a contemporary style that integrates modernism and expressionism.

The US honors soldiersâ€™ death as worthy sacrifice for the nationâ€™s greatness and the worldâ€™s future.

Germany focuses on mourning and interprets soldiersâ€™ death as tragedy whose only meaning can be an admonition to seek peace.