ABSTRACT
Toppling monuments and statues is a highly symbolic and political act.1 We remember the elation of the crowds in Moscow, Warsaw and East Berlin when statues of Lenin were pulled down after the fall of Communism, and of course the globally televised fall of Saddam Hussein’s statue in Baghdad in 2003. Denkmalsturz (toppling memorials), both a violent and a cathartic demonstrative act against offi cial representations of former rulers, dictators and conquerors, signifi es a public protest against once widely accepted (or enforced) interpretations of their infl uence and power, and a massive change in perception of their historical signifi cance.
