Outrage over Hitler lifelike statue.....

[zefs]

Outcry over plans for a 'tasteless' Hitler waxwork in Berlin's Madame Tussauds

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 5:01 PM on 02nd June 2008


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Plans by Madame Tussauds to install an Adolf Hitler waxwork at their new Berlin museum have been branded 'tasteless and embarrassing' by memorial groups.

Major World War II memorial groups fear the waxwork, which will go on display when the museum opens next month, will glorify Hitler's reign and say younger visitors and neo-Nazis could try to pose for pictures with the replica dictator.

They said the museum group were going for a 'shock effect' to increase visitors and that the man who ordered the extermination of millions of Jews should not be shown in the same style as popstars, statesmen and famous soccer players.

Johannes Tuchel, from the Gedenkstaette Deutscher Widerstand, a memorial for opponents of the Nazi regime, said: 'It's tasteless. A waxworks museum is meant to entertain and to amuse. It's not appropriate to have a Hitler figure there.'


Hitler was responsible for ordering the deaths of millions of Jews. A replica waxwork is due to go on display in Germany next month

Tuchel said Germany had many historical museums which informed citizens about the Nazi regime and the Holocaust, and adding a waxworks exhibition could hardly provide the necessary explanation and context to treat this chapter of history.

'It's embarrassing that this part of German history should be exhibited like this - there's also the danger that young people could try to take pictures with Hitler.'

Uwe Neumaerker from the foundation for Germany's central Holocaust memorial site, based just a few hundred meters away from the museum, also said the Hitler figure was tasteless.

He told the Berliner Zeitung daily: "This is all about producing a shock effect and attracting clients."

However a Madame Tussauds spokesman said Hitler deserved a place in the museum due to his impact on German history.

She said Hitler would be featured as a broken man in a dark, bunker-like setting, with panels providing explanations on the dictator, and that a figure of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill would be shown in the same room.

Enlarge The Tussaud's waxworks are world-famous for their realistic designs
Natalie Ruoss said: 'Our surveys show people want to see him because he belongs to Germany's past.'

Visitors will not be allowed to pose with the Hitler figure, who would be sealed off and under camera surveillance, and the museum will have to follow German law which bans artwork promoting or glorifying Hitler.

The dictator is already featured alongside U.S. President George W. Bush and former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in the London museum's 'world leader' section.

The new museum, which opens next month, will also feature waxworks of scientist Albert Einstein, Chancellor Angela Merkel and sports stars including former tennis champion Boris Becker.

Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit, whose waxworks image will also be part of the exhibition, has written a letter to the museum, asking for more information on how Hitler will be presented and urging organisers to treat the matter in a sensitive way.

In recent years, Germany has begun to treat Hitler with less caution.

The country's first mainstream film about Hitler, the 2004 movie "Downfall" sparked a heated debate because it portrayed the "Fuhrer" in more human terms, showing his mental and physical erosion during the final days of the war.

Last year, a taboo-breaking Hitler comedy by Swiss-born Jewish director Dani Levy was released in Germany.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...-Tussauds.html

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Man Rips Off Wax Hitler's Head
German police say man tears head off Hitler wax figure at new Madame Tussauds in Berlin
By GEIR MOULSON
The Associated Press
BERLIN



A man tore the head off a controversial Adolf Hitler wax figure at Madame Tussauds' new branch in Berlin on its opening day Saturday, officials said.

German police said they arrested the 41-year-old man. He was the second visitor to enter the museum, employee Stephan Koch said.

Koch said he and a colleague tried unsuccessfully to prevent the man from jumping over a table in front of the figure and damaging it, and said the assailant attacked his colleague.

The man pushed aside the two museum employees and "ripped off the head of the Hitler figure," police spokesman Uwe Kozelnik said on n-tv television.

The man said he was protesting against the display, Kozelnik said.

The Berlin resident was arrested and now faces an investigation on suspicion of causing damage to property and bodily harm, said Bernd Schodrowski, another police spokesman.

Koch said the damaged figure has been removed from the exhibition for now. Museum official Nathalie Ruoss said organizers would decide Monday what to do about the figure.

The presence of the Nazi dictator's likeness in the new museum led to criticism in German media over recent weeks, but defenders of the plan argued Hitler's role in German history could not be ignored.

Last month, Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit urged the museum to consider carefully whether to include Hitler and, if it did, to ensure that he not be shown as a "cult figure."

The museum, which is near the German capital's Brandenburg Gate, pledged to portray Hitler without glorifying him, as he would have looked shortly before his 1945 suicide.

It produced a likeness of the Nazi leader hunched over a desk in a dimly lit bunker. The figure, unveiled to journalists Thursday, showed Hitler — with deep lines furrowing his forehead — sitting beneath a map of Europe on the wall, monitoring the advance of allied troops from the east and west.

Museum officials offered assurances that visitors would not be able to touch, photograph or pose with the wax Hitler — unlike the rest of the 75 figures in the new collection. http://timjblair.spaces.live.com/?_c...ew&_c=BlogPart

[Truth Bearer]

This is pretty authentic looking I must say...This is how he's appeared in the museum.

[Truth Bearer]

Yes but he's part of history we just can't erase what happened.........The Germans and Jews must face up to it.

[Tsontos]

The statue was decapitated by someone yesterday