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60 years after the plane crash: A New reading of Dag Hammarskjöld’s diary Markings

From 1958, the lyric character of the diary entries becomes more intense. On the other hand they gain a further dimension of universality. They can be interpreted as saying that he would like the personal to remain even less known, and that the poeticizing is a means of concealment. Both may be equally true. If Markings were a fictional diary, one might say that the foreshadowing of death was a structural feature

By Birgit van der Leeden October 25, 2021

Zeichen setzen Zum Gedenken an Dag Hammarskjölds Tagebuch „Vägmärken“

Dag Hammarskjöld died on the night of September 17, 1961 after a still unexplained crash landing in the border area between the former Belgian Congo and Northern Rhodesia, when he was on his way to negotiate during the Congo Crisis. The author argues that Dag Hammarskjöld as a cosmopolitan is the trailblazer of a way of thinking that is still totally absent despite economic globalization: respect for those who are different.

Essay by Birgit van der Leeden September 14, 2011