The First World War Monuments in East Prussia as a place of memory or a memorial areas

In southern part of East Prussia at least 494 monuments commemorating the fallen during the first World War. Their social function, due to scarce scientific resources, is not easily definable. With a considerable degree of cautiousness, it can be assumed that they had played a crucial role in the Eastern Prussian province identity-forming process, particularly when the narrative of the First World War was used to serve in the mechanism of Nazi propaganda. In following years, specifically after 1945, these monuments were either destroyed, neglected or forgotten, being an element of unwanted German heritage. The way of perceiving them changed after 1989 when these monuments began to be seen as a desirable element of local landscapes, the evidence of past rooted in local history.