With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Germany gets its first monument for fallen soldiers since WWII

The monument, which bears the inscription "Our Bundeswehr's Dead - For Peace, Justice and Freedom," is located near the headquarters of the defense ministry in Berlin. Some critics have said it should be located closer to Germany's parliament building - in a different part of the city - as the German army is officially the parliament's army.

"The soldiers would have picked out another place for their monument. They would have wanted it to be in a more prominent place, such as near the Reichstag building," said Reinhold Robbe, the parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces.

"In the end, only the parliament decides when and where soldiers are going to be sent to serve."

The German army, or Bundeswehr, was founded in 1955, and to date, around 3,100 service members have died while in active duty.

Read entire article at Deutsche Welle