Nervous Germany stages first Hitler exhibition, Hitler and the Germans
HITLER is back in town. An extremely nervous Germany is staging the first exhibition dedicated to the Nazi leader since the Fuhrer killed himself in his Berlin bunker in 1945.
The exhibition, entitled Hitler and the Germans, shatters a taboo. Since World War II there have been scores of museum displays on the Holocaust, on slave labour, on the murdering doctors, cruel judges and massacring soldiers, and all have triggered debates and protests.
Hitler, himself, however, has always been out of bounds - and in Berlin most of all, lest neo-Nazis swarm to the museum to pay tribute to the dictator of the Third Reich. The emotional power of Hitler was shown two years ago when a wax model was put on display in the Berlin branch of Madame Tussauds - prompting an enraged visitor to push past security guards and rip off the figure’s head.
It seems, though, that times have changed. “Neo-Nazis have not been known to cross the threshold of museums in the past,” said Hans-Ulrich Thamer, curator of the Hitler show in the German Historical Museum in Berlin. A spokesman, Rudolf Trabold, added: “We should even hope that they do come and get to grips with what we are putting on show, and how we’re doing it.”
The exhibition will open on Friday and continue until February next year.
The museum itself is part of the old Zeughaus, or arsenal, the scene of an unsuccessful attempt to blow up Hitler. Across the road is the Bebelplatz where Nazis made a huge bonfire out of “decadent” books.