Denkmal für Deserteure und Opfer der NS-Militärjustiz, Memorial site at Appellhofplatz, Cologne, Germany
The monument for deserters and victims of Nazi military justice stands at Appellhofplatz and was designed by Ruedi Baur, with multiple panels displaying information about those persecuted. The installation systematically documents the names and fates of those executed in this area.
The memorial was inaugurated on 1 September 2009, the 70th anniversary of the Wehrmacht's attack on Poland. A PDS motion of 28 September 2006 led the Cologne council to fund it, and Ruedi Baur's design won the competition on 24 April 2009. Research in the Freiburg military archive and divisional court files found that 104 Cologne soldiers had deserted, almost all of them lower ranks.
The memorial honors people who resisted military service and paid with their lives for this choice. Visitors can see today how society has come to recognize such acts of resistance.
The memorial stands on Appellhofplatz, equidistant from the former Zeughaus, the EL-DE-Haus and the building of the former Cologne criminal court. The inscription is mounted eight by four metres in coloured aluminium letters and can only be read by looking up, so step back from the structure to take in the whole text.
Among the documented victims were not only soldiers who refused to fight, but also civilians condemned for criticizing the regime. This diversity of those persecuted shows the brutal reach of military justice at that time.
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