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New Madame Tussauds in Berlin, Hitler included
A new branch of Madame Tussauds opens in Berlin on Saturday, including in its display of famous figures in Germany history the most notorious one of all, Adolf Hitler.
But in order not to give the impression that Hitler was in any way a figure to be revered, the Nazi leader appears as a broken man in a mock-up of his bunker just before the end of World War II.
The Fuehrer is depicted as a defeated, shabbily dressed shadow of his former self -- in the London Madame Tussauds the waxwork is more youthful -- as the Red Army entered Berlin shortly before his suicide on April 30, 1945.
"We did surveys while we were planning the exhibition on the street with Berliners and with tourists, and the result was quite clear that Hitler is one of the figures that they want to see, " spokeswoman Natalie Ruoss said.
"Seeing as we are portraying the history of Germany we could hardly have left him out ... we want to show the reality," she said.
The Nazi leader is behind a table, preventing visitors to the museum in central Berlin, from posing for photos with him or damaging the waxwork.
Stephen Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, believes some Holocaust survivors might find the exhibition offensive but he was not opposed as long as it was done properly.
"Hitler should not become a tourist attraction but if this exhibition helps to some extent normalise the way of dealing with Hitler, as a kind of a demystification, let's try it," Kramer told AFP in late May.
"Erasing him from history is not going to bring the perished ones back, it's not going to heal the damage that he did, the crimes that he did. That would be counter-productive," he said.
Coming to terms with the Nazi period has entered a new phase in recent years, most notably with the 2004 Oscar-nominated drama "Downfall" which gave the man behind the Holocaust more of a human face.
Comedy has even got in on the act, with a slapstick film by a Jewish director about Hitler released in 2007 and filming currently underway of "Mein Kampf", a film about his early life that also cocks a snook at the dictator.
The other 74 waxworks are less controversial, although for foreign visitors many of the figures from German history, culture, sport and entertainment might cause some head-scratching.
Albert Einstein needs no introduction, nor does probably the current pope, and most people will have heard of Angela Merkel, Otto von Bismarck, Oliver Kahn and Ludwig van
Beethoven.
But in order not to give the impression that Hitler was in any way a figure to be revered, the Nazi leader appears as a broken man in a mock-up of his bunker just before the end of World War II.
The Fuehrer is depicted as a defeated, shabbily dressed shadow of his former self -- in the London Madame Tussauds the waxwork is more youthful -- as the Red Army entered Berlin shortly before his suicide on April 30, 1945.
"We did surveys while we were planning the exhibition on the street with Berliners and with tourists, and the result was quite clear that Hitler is one of the figures that they want to see, " spokeswoman Natalie Ruoss said.
"Seeing as we are portraying the history of Germany we could hardly have left him out ... we want to show the reality," she said.
The Nazi leader is behind a table, preventing visitors to the museum in central Berlin, from posing for photos with him or damaging the waxwork.
Stephen Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, believes some Holocaust survivors might find the exhibition offensive but he was not opposed as long as it was done properly.
"Hitler should not become a tourist attraction but if this exhibition helps to some extent normalise the way of dealing with Hitler, as a kind of a demystification, let's try it," Kramer told AFP in late May.
"Erasing him from history is not going to bring the perished ones back, it's not going to heal the damage that he did, the crimes that he did. That would be counter-productive," he said.
Coming to terms with the Nazi period has entered a new phase in recent years, most notably with the 2004 Oscar-nominated drama "Downfall" which gave the man behind the Holocaust more of a human face.
Comedy has even got in on the act, with a slapstick film by a Jewish director about Hitler released in 2007 and filming currently underway of "Mein Kampf", a film about his early life that also cocks a snook at the dictator.
The other 74 waxworks are less controversial, although for foreign visitors many of the figures from German history, culture, sport and entertainment might cause some head-scratching.
Albert Einstein needs no introduction, nor does probably the current pope, and most people will have heard of Angela Merkel, Otto von Bismarck, Oliver Kahn and Ludwig van
Beethoven.