Rasp
Senior Editor
Culture and Carnage
New History Show Aims to Restore Germans' Sense of Self
Shamed by the crimes of the Nazis, Germans regarded history as a dirty word for decades. Now the first national historical exhibition since World War Two aims to plug gaping holes in the nation's memory of its 2,000-year past with a treasure trove of relics that include Hitler's globe and Napoleon's hat. Its organizers hope the show will help answer the question: "Who are we?"
Germany's history, a 2,000-year cycle of destruction and rebirth, is going on display in June in an exhibition of 8,000 authentic objects ranging from the helmet-mask of a Roman soldier slaughtered by Germanic tribes to Adolf Hitler's giant globe.
http://www.spiegel.de/i
mg/0,1020,633457,00.jpg
Its aim is to provide a "visual memory" to help restore the country's lost sense of national identity, says Hans Ottomeyer, director of the German Historical Museum in Berlin where the show opens on June 2.
The permanent exhibition is attracting a lot of attention because the past is such a sensitive subject in the country that started World War II and perpetrated the Holocaust. It's also the first comprehensive show on German history since World War Two.
"The museum wants to remind, to be a place not just of shame but of information and critical self-contemplation. And of the question: 'Who are we'?" Ottomeyer told SPIEGEL.
The horrors of the Nazi period made Germans turn their backs on their country's past, and history teaching was neglected in the decades following the war, said Ottomeyer. Many Germans have only a sketchy knowledge of the centuries preceding the 20th century, he said.
"Until a few months ago I didn't know myself that be
fore 1918 there was no such thing as German citizenship. Before then, people were citizens of Prussia or Bavaria for example," Ottomeyer said.
The exhibition stretches back to 9 AD, the date widely recognised as the birth of the German "nation," when Germanic tribes wiped out three Roman legions in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, thereby stopping the advance of the Roman Empire east of the Rhine.
"Message in a bottle"
There is an iron mask of a Roman legionnaire's helmet dug up from the site of the Teutoburg battle in Kalkriese, northwestern Germany.
Suits of armour, original paintings, priceless manuscripts, uniforms and guns trace Germany's path through the Middle Ages, the Reformation and Thirty Years' War, the struggles among the regional dukedoms and kingdoms, the 19th century drive towards national unity, industrialization, and the carnage of the 20th century.
"Its focus on authentic objects makes the exhibition special. It's like a m
essage in a bottle to future generations," said Ottomeyer.
The 12 years of the Third Reich from 1933 to 1945 make up the biggest single part of the exhibition.
It has the 5 foot 7 inch high globe that stood in Hitler's office and symbolized his plans for world domination. The globe, which contains a bullet fired into it by a Red Army soldier who placed his pistol on Germany, was discovered in a Munich customs office. It was caricatured in the 1939 film "The Great Dictator" where Charlie Chaplin as "Adenoid Hynkel" dances around his office holding the earth in his hands in the shape of a big balloon.
Hitler's desk, hauled out of the burning chancellery by the Red Army, is also on display, along with the engine of a V2 rocket and Nazi iconography.
Also on show is a model of a crematorium in the Birkenau death camp and of the bombastic 180,000-seat "Hall of the People" designed, but never built, by Albert Speer.
Other exhibits include a 1514 painting of Charlemagne from the
workshop of Albrecht D?rer, a Turkish tent from the siege of Vienna in 1683 and a steam engine from 1847.
There is the uniform of Frederick the Great, and Napoleon's bicorne hat snatched from his carriage by Prussian Field Marshal Bl?cher on the battlefield of Waterloo.
Growing interest in Nazi period
In the last few years, German interest in World War II and its aftermath has been growing.
Magazines including SPIEGEL have increased their coverage of the period. New books and television documentaries have focused on the suffering of ordinary Germans in bombing raids and expulsion from eastern territories after 1945.
It's a debate that was taboo for decades given the suffering Germans inflicted on others, and it's being closely watched abroad.
Ottomeyer said the country was still recovering from the historical trauma of the Nazi period. "After being silent for decades, eyewitnesses have started to talk about their experiences. There is a n
ew questioning, and a new dialogue."
But the national memory now tends to focus on World War II. Ottomeyer wants the exhibition to show Germans more than that. "We hope its long-term view will have an effect on the general approach to history," he said.
That, he hopes, will help make Germans more aware of their identity -- a difficult subject because nationalism is tainted by Nazi crimes. But "Germany" emerged from many different regional tribes and kingdoms.
"There are many regional mentalities that only superficially merge into a national character," said Ottomeyer. The German language is the strongest unifying force, he said.
The plan for a national historical exhibition stems from 1987, when then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl founded the German Historical Museum. But the upheaval following the fall of the Berlin Wall led to numerous delays and redesigns.
:Swastika2:
New History Show Aims to Restore Germans' Sense of Self
Shamed by the crimes of the Nazis, Germans regarded history as a dirty word for decades. Now the first national historical exhibition since World War Two aims to plug gaping holes in the nation's memory of its 2,000-year past with a treasure trove of relics that include Hitler's globe and Napoleon's hat. Its organizers hope the show will help answer the question: "Who are we?"
Germany's history, a 2,000-year cycle of destruction and rebirth, is going on display in June in an exhibition of 8,000 authentic objects ranging from the helmet-mask of a Roman soldier slaughtered by Germanic tribes to Adolf Hitler's giant globe.
http://www.spiegel.de/i
mg/0,1020,633457,00.jpg
Its aim is to provide a "visual memory" to help restore the country's lost sense of national identity, says Hans Ottomeyer, director of the German Historical Museum in Berlin where the show opens on June 2.
The permanent exhibition is attracting a lot of attention because the past is such a sensitive subject in the country that started World War II and perpetrated the Holocaust. It's also the first comprehensive show on German history since World War Two.
"The museum wants to remind, to be a place not just of shame but of information and critical self-contemplation. And of the question: 'Who are we'?" Ottomeyer told SPIEGEL.
The horrors of the Nazi period made Germans turn their backs on their country's past, and history teaching was neglected in the decades following the war, said Ottomeyer. Many Germans have only a sketchy knowledge of the centuries preceding the 20th century, he said.
"Until a few months ago I didn't know myself that be
fore 1918 there was no such thing as German citizenship. Before then, people were citizens of Prussia or Bavaria for example," Ottomeyer said.
The exhibition stretches back to 9 AD, the date widely recognised as the birth of the German "nation," when Germanic tribes wiped out three Roman legions in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, thereby stopping the advance of the Roman Empire east of the Rhine.
"Message in a bottle"
There is an iron mask of a Roman legionnaire's helmet dug up from the site of the Teutoburg battle in Kalkriese, northwestern Germany.
Suits of armour, original paintings, priceless manuscripts, uniforms and guns trace Germany's path through the Middle Ages, the Reformation and Thirty Years' War, the struggles among the regional dukedoms and kingdoms, the 19th century drive towards national unity, industrialization, and the carnage of the 20th century.
"Its focus on authentic objects makes the exhibition special. It's like a m
essage in a bottle to future generations," said Ottomeyer.
The 12 years of the Third Reich from 1933 to 1945 make up the biggest single part of the exhibition.
It has the 5 foot 7 inch high globe that stood in Hitler's office and symbolized his plans for world domination. The globe, which contains a bullet fired into it by a Red Army soldier who placed his pistol on Germany, was discovered in a Munich customs office. It was caricatured in the 1939 film "The Great Dictator" where Charlie Chaplin as "Adenoid Hynkel" dances around his office holding the earth in his hands in the shape of a big balloon.
Hitler's desk, hauled out of the burning chancellery by the Red Army, is also on display, along with the engine of a V2 rocket and Nazi iconography.
Also on show is a model of a crematorium in the Birkenau death camp and of the bombastic 180,000-seat "Hall of the People" designed, but never built, by Albert Speer.
Other exhibits include a 1514 painting of Charlemagne from the
workshop of Albrecht D?rer, a Turkish tent from the siege of Vienna in 1683 and a steam engine from 1847.
There is the uniform of Frederick the Great, and Napoleon's bicorne hat snatched from his carriage by Prussian Field Marshal Bl?cher on the battlefield of Waterloo.
Growing interest in Nazi period
In the last few years, German interest in World War II and its aftermath has been growing.
Magazines including SPIEGEL have increased their coverage of the period. New books and television documentaries have focused on the suffering of ordinary Germans in bombing raids and expulsion from eastern territories after 1945.
It's a debate that was taboo for decades given the suffering Germans inflicted on others, and it's being closely watched abroad.
Ottomeyer said the country was still recovering from the historical trauma of the Nazi period. "After being silent for decades, eyewitnesses have started to talk about their experiences. There is a n
ew questioning, and a new dialogue."
But the national memory now tends to focus on World War II. Ottomeyer wants the exhibition to show Germans more than that. "We hope its long-term view will have an effect on the general approach to history," he said.
That, he hopes, will help make Germans more aware of their identity -- a difficult subject because nationalism is tainted by Nazi crimes. But "Germany" emerged from many different regional tribes and kingdoms.
"There are many regional mentalities that only superficially merge into a national character," said Ottomeyer. The German language is the strongest unifying force, he said.
The plan for a national historical exhibition stems from 1987, when then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl founded the German Historical Museum. But the upheaval following the fall of the Berlin Wall led to numerous delays and redesigns.
:Swastika2: