THE CULT OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER

Interview with Dr Christoph Mick, Department of History

On the approach to Remembrance Day, ideas of national mourning and memory are pervasive, with poppies being sold in every town centre. But what is the place of the Unknown Soldier in a society that strives to make sure that every modern fallen soldier is identified and mourned? Dr Christoph Mick, Department of History, has been looking into how the cult of the Unknown Soldier adapts to changes in society and politics.

Listen to Dr Mick explain his research on the cult of the Unknown Soldier.

On 11 November 1920 an unidentified British soldier was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey. He represented all who had died on the battlefields of France and Belgium in World War 1 and whose bodies would never be claimed or returned to Britain. The Unknown Soldier could be anybody's son, brother or husband, and so provided bereaved families, whose lost ones would never come home, with a tomb to grieve beside.

In Britain the Unknown Soldier has come to be associated with national mourning and memory, serving to unite the country in remembrance, but in other countries, the Unknown Soldier has developed further connotations.

In Germany, there is no official Unknown Soldier. Dr Christoph Mick explains: "The memory of WW1 was so contested that there was no agreement on how to interpret the war, how to give meaning to the war, and where to place such a tomb." In fact, when the Nazis observed that Britain's Unknown Soldier was such a powerful symbol of national unity, they decided that Adolf Hitler himself should be the German Unknown Soldier, so as Dr Mick remarks, "Germany's Unknown Soldier was alive".

Britain's Unknown Soldier is focused firmly on those who have fallen and should be mourned. In France, however, the Unknown Soldier also symbolises France's desire for peace in the future, and so also gives hope to those who live.

The French Unknown Soldier is buried at the Arc de Triomphe. The last time French military troops marched through the Arc was on November 11th 1920, when the Unknown Soldier was laid to rest there. This means that for France, the Unknown Soldier also symbolises peace, as his tomb literally prevents French troops marching to glorify military victories. The Arc was also surrounded by chains for forty years, a symbol of the loss of Alsace and Lorraine to the German Empire in 1871. The chains were removed after the French victory in WW1, as the ordinary soldier had liberated the provinces by his sacrifices.

But what is the future of the Unknown Soldier? Soon there will be no one to remember WW1, or even WW2, and so our tangible connection with the origins of the Unknown Soldier will be lost. It is also now the case that every British soldier is identified and brought home for burial, and so cannot be 'unknown'. "The way we remember the Unknown Soldier has changed," says Dr Mick. "The Unknown Soldier in Westminster Abbey represents all those who have fallen for their nation, but also anticipates those who will fall for their nation in the future."