vc318

Man Rips Head Off Hitler Wax Figure - AOL News

BERLIN (July 5) - A man tore the head from a controversial waxwork figure of Adolf Hitler on the opening day of Berlin's Madame Tussauds museum on Saturday, police said.

Just minutes after the museum opened, the 41-year-old German man pushed aside two security men guarding the figure before ripping off the head in protest at the exhibit, a police spokesman said. The police were alerted and arrested the man.

The waxwork figure of a glum-looking Adolf Hitler in a mock bunker during the last days of his life was criticized as being in bad taste. A media preview of the new branch of Madame Tussauds on Thursday was overshadowed by a row over the exhibit.

Critics said it was 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.

Dressed in a grey suit, the figure of Hitler gazed 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.

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 Tussauds where he is standing upright.

It is illegal in Germany to show Nazi symbols and art glorifying Hitler and the exhibit was cordoned off to stop visitors posing with him.

Unobtrusive signs asked 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 were meant to stop inappropriate behavior.

Institutions such as the foundation for Germany's central Holocaust memorial site condemned the idea of the exhibit as tasteless, saying it had been included to generate business.

The wax figure is the latest in a gradual breaking down of taboos about Hitler in Germany more than 60 years after the end of the war and the Holocaust in which some six million Jews were killed.

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.

To glorify such an evil person? I can't imagine what this museum was thinking. I kind of sympathize with that guy for tearing Hiteler's head off. Next, we'll be seeing wax statues of KKK members! Just terrible.

COOLCAT200

I agree I can't believe anyone would glorify one of the most evil men in history.

iheartjustinchambers

Why would anyone glorify such a person as Adolf Hitler such a controversial figure??

Sofa

Glorifying?

Its just a wax figure, representing a historical figure of some sort, not glorifying or bashing...

4N6 DNA

I must agree with Sofa on this one. I feel that these wax figures aren't meant to glorify the subject but to simply represent a realistic visual of famous (infamous in this case I suppose) individuals. Don't some of the other Madame Tussauds have wax figures of murderers and famous criminals? The only glorifying I felt when I went to visit was impressed upon the makers of the figure. Personally, I am not so much concerned about the Hitler himself being made into wax, but I must admit that the location is a bit distasteful. Is he only at the Berlin location? When I went to the one in DC I did not see Hitler there.

sunnykerr

Yeah, I don't think making him into a wax statue inherently glorifies the bastard, but I do think that putting him at this particular location was one of the stupidest ideas I've ever heard of.

It's not like he's a part of some distant history people have maybe read of in the books.

This is what happens when you court controversy so blatantly. You rile people up and some of them are gonna act on their, very deserved, emotions.

vc318

I'm just surprised that in Germany of all places that someone would take the time to build a model of someone who had many innocent people exterminated.

iheartjustinchambers

^^ Exactly!!

Jerry D

I do think it was ill advised to have a wax figure of Hitler in a new museum in Germany, but I don't think they were trying to glorify him.

sunnykerr

What we learn from this is, evidently, that some historical figures are too fresh in people's collective memories to be viewed as merely figures of history.

I wonder how a wax figure of Pol Pot would fare in Cambodia... or, I don't know... anybody else got suggestions as to other people who really shouldn't be made into objects at museums as yet?

vc318

^ The hijackers from 9/11 and Bin Laden are probably at the top of my list.

I realize that understanding why these certain events happened in history and the people responsible for these events are necessary, but as Sunny mentioned, some topics are still too sensitive to be dealt with - as with the figure in this article.

AdriaMichelle

Why put a Hilter wax in the first place there? Its almost like they glorifying for what he did. I don't understand that at all. So wrong to put that there. He was the most evil man in history.

Nad

I read the other day that there's also a wax Hitler at Madame Tussauds in London. They even showed a piece on that in the news, he stands right beside Winston Churchill and - from what I gathered - you can have your picture taken with him, which you are not allowed to in Berlin.

While I don't think it was the best decision to put him into the exhibition in Berlin, there is the fact that Hitler's regime is a part of german and world history. It can't be stretched enough, how evil and dispising the Nazi regime was though and we should never stop to educate people about that part of history. Of course you can debate about whether or not it is educational to put his wax figure at Madame Tussauds, but I don't see how it glorifies him.

sunnykerr

I think there's also a debate as to whether he was put there to educate and/or honour history... or if it was more a question of creating controversy and, therefore, attrack visitors.

Because none of us, none of our children, none of their children and none of their children's children, should ever, ever forget what Hitler and the Nazis did. Never. But it's not like we needed the physical reminder. Or, if we did, it would have been better to honour the heroes than to represent the villains.

I think, anyway.

And it's different for Germany than it is for England. Germans will forever carry that nutbag in their cultural baggage. I'm not saying that it's necessarily wrong that it should be so, but Germans today have probably some legitimate right to be annoyed that that's the case. He doesn't represent them. He may never have, seeing as not all Germans bought into the propaganda or turned a blind eye.

It's not the same. Most people in England were the "good guys." And that's how the world remembers England's involvement in World War II. That's not how we remember Germany.

sum1

I think it's offensive to have a wax figure of Hitler on display. And I don't think they should be making films to "humanize" him either.