Although a philistine when it comes to art, I do have an appreciation, if only surface knowledge, of architecture. The First World War was the first conflict to see attacks from the skies, and also where civilians were deliberately targeted in order to destroy the enemies’ economic activity and morale. The devastation caused to landscapes, both rural and city, by the Zeppelins and the high explosive bombs they emitted.
In London it was the East End that was targeted due to the shipbuilding and factories that resided there. Areas like Gravesend, Deptford, Walthamstow, and Leystone, which would become famous for weathering the Blitz twenty years later, suffered their first introduction to aerial warfare. Outside the capital cities like Hull, Liverpool and Manchester were targeted too. Paris too suffered enormous damage at the hands of the Zeppelins.
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| Paris in the wake of a Zeppelin attack |
But the most damage done to the architectural landscape was by shells fired from long-range cannons, used in times of siege. Northern France suffered the worst, with whole towns being destroyed to a degree not seen before. Indeed many documentaries have been made about it, such was the extent of destruction.
Here is the introduction to a BBC documentary about it, and the footage is shocking:
What fascinates me is the psychological effect that historical monuments have during times of war. Their survival or their destruction was often used as a political tool (commonly by those being shelled rather than those doing the shelling) to tell a particular story about either themselves or their enemy.
In France some of the most popular anti-German propaganda was that which decried the Germans as vandals, for the destruction of historic monuments. Despite the almost total destruction of many towns across the country, it was the desecration of culturally important monuments that was seen as an attack on the soul of France – they could recover from surface damage, but not from damage to things that went to the heart of what they stood for as a nation.
Reims is the most famous example of German destruction of an historic town. But it was the destruction of the cathedral at Reims in 1914 that garnered more anger than all the other damage done to the town. Because of its historical importance, being the coronation church of France, a site associated with the mystical origins of the French nation, the cathedral’s destruction could be pointed to as an example of German barbarity – a theme used more overtly during the Second World War.
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| Damage done to Reims Cathedral, 1914. Note how it is a postcard - a popular form of propaganda during the war |
In their march across Belgium during August 1914, the great University Library in Louvain – completed in 1725 – was burnt with all its contents, including medieval manuscripts. For the Allies this was used as propaganda, with the burning of the library symbolic of the uncivilized and uncultured German threat.
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| Louvain Library, after burning down |
Arsène Alexandre, author of the propagandist catalogue of war damage “Les français détruits par l’Allemagne” (1918) wrote that the wartime bombing of art and architecture was not just illegal, but immoral.
“It is neither in the name of the Hague Convention, nor in the name of the Geneva Convention, that the scholars and artist of France and of all the civilized world have cried out in protest. The laws in the name of which they protest have no date, since they are not written in ephemeral words, these laws of beauty, goodness and justice, but rather in the hearts of men and in the conscience of nations.” (Alexandre, Les Monuments français détruits par l’Allemagne (Paris, 1918) pp. 31-2.
Perhaps the most famous attack on an historical monument was Germany’s bombing of the City of London, and St Paul’s Cathedral. Conversely, here it was the very survival of St Paul’s that became the propaganda. This time it spoke about the British spirit, more than about the enemy. It was as if St Paul’s spoke for Britain; that it would not be destroyed, it would rise above the ashes, and that in the face of German atrocities; Britain’s fighting spirit would remain. This of course was enormously helped by the famous photograph of the cathedral, standing above the clouds of destruction that had hit London one particular night. That photograph was one of the best propaganda tools the government could have, and is said to have inspired Londoners and the whole country.
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| St Paul's Cathedral during the Blitz in 1940. This photograph was taken on top of the roof of the Daily Mail building, by Herbert Mason |
The assumption that it is morally wrong to destroy historic monuments, even in extreme situations, is one that still remains with us today. The sentiment behind the marches in London against government cuts and the rise in tuition fees, had broad support across the country. But the damage the protestors did aroused huge anger across the country, and the post-demonstration polling showed that support had dropped because of their actions. The anger was specifically against those who had defaced statues of Churchill, smashed the winds of the Courts of Justice, and clambered over the cenotaph. A Daily Mail taboo wrote that they “broke every taboo” – those unspoken laws that Alexandre spoke about.
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| Student protestor swinging from the Cenotaph |
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| Graffiti sprayed on a statue of Churchill whilst a protestor urinates on it |
It seems clear that in times of violence, whether it be war or student protestors, the damage to architecture and historical monuments is perhaps the most retrograde step the aggressor can make. Of course the Germans may not have deliberately damaged libraries or cathedrals – in fact in both instances I mentioned they claimed both were accidents, and even suggested that the French or Belgians themselves were to blame. That in itself was a conscious recognition that some things are too important to be seen as fair game – whatever the situation. Hopefully future protestors in London will recognize that whatever goodwill they may initially enjoy from the public, attacks on monuments or buildings seen as representing British history and society, will only damage their cause, not help it.
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