Monuments, Voids and Voices #7 Resonance — Weltfriedensglocke

Authors: Oskar Wagener, Elif Bilge Sari, Nahélou Ondet

This audiowalk addresses the "Weltfriedensglocke" (World Peace Bell) in Volkspark Friedrichshain, focusing both on its historical and current perception. The project encourages the viewer-listener to ask themselves the questions this memorial instinctively calls up. The focus is not necessarily on answering these questions but to instead provide the information and context needed for them to come to their own conclusions. This goal was achieved by including historical facts both about the memorial and the issues it treats and represents.

The walk shows parallels and differences to another memorial, the "Friedensstatue" (Peace Statue). This memorial was found to be very interesting for such a comparison, as it is centered on issues from the same time as those the bell addresses, while showing a different side: The Japanese not just as victims, but also as perpetrators. The intention is not to discredit the Weltfriedensglocke in any way with this comparison, but to instead call into question the way the memorial may be perceived at first: As a Japanese memorial, focused solely on the victims of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Continuing this line of thought, the walk examines the way the bell is viewed and used today, especially focusing on an organization which now cares for the bell. Following information acquired in an interview with one of the founding members, the project contrasts the image of a purely Japanese monument, instead focusing on the global perspective the bell contains, even within its name: World Peace Bell.

The framing of the Weltfriedensglocke is not meant to absolve the Japanese of their guilt in World War 2 or to justify the removal of the Friedensstatue from public space, but instead to contextualize the history of a Japanese war memorial and to view it as more than a memorial for a specific group of victims. It may serve to remember all the dead of war, and a warning to future generations about war of all forms.