The municipality of Uehlfeld has no less than four warrior and military associations. They exist in Schornweisach, Peppenhochstadt, Rohensaas and Tragelhochstadt. They take care of the war memorials in the community and try to decorate them as beautifully as possible for Memorial Day. For then the dead of the First and Second World War are commemorated every year at those very monuments.
Robert Keil is the second chairman of the Uehlfeld-Tragelhochstadt Military Association. The association takes care of the war memorials in the village of Uehlfeld, but also the one in Tragelhochstadt. So the club members try to maintain the monuments as well as to decorate them with flowers. But the war memorials decay more and more. Since the monument in Tragelhochstadt is made of sandstone, it is very susceptible to weathering. Due to frost in winter the stone bursts open more and more. Keil is particularly annoyed that the monument itself was not restored in the course of the village renewal. "It is up to the municipality to preserve the monuments", he explains. He also criticizes that in other communities there is always investment in the maintenance of the monuments, but this is not the case in Uehlfeld.
Who is responsible?
According to mayor Werner Stocker many villages stand before a village renewal or have it partly already carried out. One would like to try thereby to give a new place to the monuments. And also to rehabilitate her. So in Rohensaas, where they first made an emergency repair before completely renovating at the new location. According to Stocker, "nothing ever came in" for the village of Tragelhochstadt. He wishes for better communication. "Just demand that and suggest solutions", he appeals to the responsible club. "The military association is for us first of all the responsible one", he explains further. If this sees a need for remediation, then a written request should be made, which will then be processed. "We do not look for the problems and also not the building sites", he says.
Nevertheless, according to Werner Stocker, the company does not want to shirk its responsibility. One looks for solutions when it is brought to the attention of the municipality. Stocker considers the maintenance of war memorials, however, extremely important. "Keeping the peace involves constantly thinking about past world wars", according to Stocker. He sees big costs coming for all communities. This is because the monuments were all built at the same time and now have to be refurbished more and more often due to their age.
Stocker expects the state to contribute to the costs: "I see the state as having a responsibility to preserve these monuments in order to show future generations what war means, says Mayor Stocker. Because, according to him, "no mayor has sent his citizens to war". The state was responsible for this, he said, and so it was legitimate for it to share in the costs.
An outlook
Werner Stocker has been campaigning for an open Uehlfeld for a long time. For years, there has been a twinning agreement with the Polish municipality of Trabki-Wielkie. In July of this year, he then also. Now, for the time being, pupils from Uehlfeld and Trabki-Wielkie will get to know each other for five years. It is clear how he means it, when he says quite drastically: "If one speaks with one another, one does not slay oneself", says Stocker. The mayor continued: "We also entered into the partnership for the sake of peacekeeping."