|
|
| Museum Unveils Wax Hitler, Hitler loses his head (333343) | |||
 |
|||
| Home > OTChat | |||
|
[ Read Responses | Post a New Response | Return to the Index ] |
|
||
|
Museum Unveils Wax Hitler, Hitler loses his head |
|
|
Posted by monorail on Sun Jul 6 03:07:49 2008 Museum unveils wax Hitler Berlin - Berlin's new waxwork museum on Thursday unveiled a figure of a glum-looking Adolf Hitler in a mock bunker during the last days of his life, an exhibit that has been criticised as being in bad taste. The row over the figure overshadowed the media preview of the new branch of Madame Tussaud's which opens its doors to the public on Saturday. Critics say it is inappropriate to display the Nazi dictator, who started World War Two and ordered the extermination of Europe's Jews, in a museum alongside celebrities, pop stars, world statesmen and sporting heroes. "Of course the figure will arouse interest but we hope people will realise he is part of an exhibition with a range of attractions," said Meike Schulze, head of Midway Attractions in Germany which is responsible for Madame Tussaud's here. "It will be a shame if he dominates everything." Her plea appeared to fall on deaf ears. Bush, Merkel ignored About 200 reporters and cameramen all but ignored US President George W Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, plus the likes of Beethoven, Albert Einstein, Madonna and Brad Pitt. Instead, they pushed and jostled to peer into a dark corner where the unmistakable figure of Hitler is seated. Dressed in a grey suit, Hitler gazes downwards with a despondent stare, his arm outstretched on a large wooden table with a map of Europe on the wall of his gloomy bunker. "We wanted to show him like this, in the last days of his life," said Schulze who defended the decision to put him on show, saying market research had shown there was demand for his inclusion, as long his portrayal was sensitive. About 25 workers spent about four months on the waxwork, using more than 2 000 pictures and pieces of archive material and also guided by a model of the "Fuehrer" in the London branch of Madame Tussaud's where he is standing upright. It is illegal in Germany to show Nazi symbols and art glorifying Hitler and the exhibit is cordoned off to stop visitors posing with him. Out of respect Unobtrusive signs ask visitors to refrain from taking photos or posing with Hitler "out of respect for the millions of people who died during World War Two". Camera surveillance and museum officials will stop inappropriate behaviour, said Schulze. Institutions such as the foundation for Germany's central Holocaust memorial site have condemned the idea of the exhibit as tasteless, saying it had been included to generate business. However, the wax figure is the latest in a gradual breaking down of taboos about Hitler. The 2004 film Downfall provoked controversy as it portrayed the leader in a human light during the last days of his life and last year a satire about Hitler by Swiss-born Jewish director Dani Levy was released in Germany. Wax Hitler loses his head 05/07/2008 14:42 - (SA) Berlin - A man tore the wax head off an effigy of Adolf Hitler in Berlin on Saturday, just minutes after a new branch of the Madame Tussaud's waxwork-museum chain opened for the first time to the public. German police said they detained the man, 41. He had crossed a rope barrier and touched the figure, and another member of the public tried to pull him away, with the head coming away in the melee. Police said the detained man, from the nearby leftist neighbourhood of Kreuzberg, appeared to have been opposed to the inclusion of the Nazi dictator in the 75-figure show. The decision by London-based Tussaud's, part of the Merlin Entertainments company, to include Hitler in the show, at an address on Berlin's grandest street, Unter den Linden, has roused fierce passions in the German capital. Responding to warnings that it might become a site of pilgrimage for neo-Nazis, Tussaud's depicted Hitler as a broken man in his bunker just before his 1945 defeat and death. There are eight Tussaud's museums round the world. The other European shows are in London and Amsterdam. The Saturday opening was extensively reported in the German media. While Hitler has been shown in German school textbooks, television history shows and feature films like Downfall in 2004, critics said the Tussaud's show was using him for entertainment. The newspaper Bild reported on Saturday that another subject of a Tussaud's effigy, former chancellor Helmut Kohl, was seeking legal advice about his own inclusion in the show. Tussaud's had approached him and he had set certain conditions, but they were not met. "I never gave permission," he was quoted saying. - Sapa-dpa |
|
|
|