Hitler exhibit opens in Berlin wax museum

By · July 3, 2008

An exhibit of Adolf Hitler in a bunker was unveiled at a Berlin wax museum amid criticism.

Berlin’s new Madame Tussaud’s waxworks on the famed Unter den Linten Avenue in former East Berlin, which opens to the public officially on July 9, unveiled the Hitler figure Thursday despite protests from politicians and historians.

As promised, the model of Hitler is depicted not as an intimidating figure but in his last days, holed up in his bunker. Nearby is a map of Europe showing the approaching armies of the western Allies and the Red Army from all sides.

Susanne Keller, manager of the Berlin venue, told reporters today that she thought “we are presenting him appropriately.”

The museum also dedicates space to the resistance against the Third Reich, with wax figures of such activists as Sophie Scholl and others who were executed for challenged the regime.

The exhibit is roped off in order to prevent people from posing with the figure “out of respect for the millions of people who died during World War Two,” according to a sign at the museum. It is illegal in Germany to glorify Hitler or show Nazi symbols.

Hitler committed suicide 63 years ago, during the last days of World War II, only a short walk away from Unter den Linden. A small informational marker stands today at the site of his former bunker.