The Munich Clock was installed at Manchester United's Old Trafford ground in February 1960 to commemorate those lost as a result of the Munich Air Disaster.
It has a white square face with black numerals and fingers and ‘Feb 6th 1958’ above the clock dial and ‘MUNICH’ below it. The clock is a working clock and not an obsolete fixed memorial, yet on many images and articles found online it is presented as permanently frozen at the time of the crash at 3.04pm.
This is an appropriation of the memorial to create a memorial that amplifies the sense of tragedy – perhaps feeling more commemorative and special - especially around narratives and posts for the anniversary of the Disaster.
The images and accounts of the stopped clock perpetuate a myth that the clock is permanently and purposefully stopped in a gesture by the club. It is an appropriation of the truth, but it has been widely adopted as a fact. A stopped clock does reference traditional death rituals whereby clocks were stopped in a house to mark a death, or to prevent further death. These rituals were undertaken to prevent bad luck and as part of pre-funeral ceremonies. The ritual of stopping a clock after death may therefore have been appropriated for the Munich Clock memorial by a number of sources as a seemingly obvious traditional tribute.
Those commemorators who know the ‘truth’ about the clock rarely challenge the commemorative acts of others who perpetuate the myth. Challenging the inaccuracies within the Munich Air Disaster commemorative network could be seen as insensitive and unnecessary. Afterall it’s just a clock. However commemorators who assert their authoritative knowledge of the commemorative network over others often do so as ‘truth tellers’ or educators. Accuracy and facts are important to many commemorators of the Disaster and that inaccuracy persists, and in the case of the frozen clock appears to even proliferate, suggests that commemorators can appropriate and corrupt memorials to create what they see as more fitting tributes.
If the authenticity of a commemorative act is challenged that act may not cease, simply because it is not a ‘truth’. An act may be discredited, but myths such as the stopped Munich Clock are simple, constructed commemorative acts that are believable. Their 'believe-ability' means they are deemed as appropriately commemorative and they persist in the network, even though they are not factually correct. Therefore, it becomes not what is wholly true but what is deemed to be appropriate, that becomes the barometer for which acts prevail across the commemorative network.
Does the truth matter in this context?
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