Busts of the Führer at the Museum of German History in Berlin.

Why did we so love Adolf?

A new exhibition in Berlin tries for the first time to fathom the secret of Hitler’s hold on his people – with mixed results, says the German press.

Published on 15 October 2010 at 13:19
Busts of the Führer at the Museum of German History in Berlin.

The first German exhibition ever to focus entirely on Hitler is causing quite a stir. Hitler and the Germans at the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin tries to deconstruct the complex relationship between the Nazi dictator and his willing nation through hundreds of artefacts, photographs and documents.

“Is it about us or him?” asks Der Tagesspiegel. “Those expecting character analyses, psycho-biographies” or the portrait of a “criminal monster, a myth, a pop icon or a ghost will be disappointed”, warns the Berlin daily. Museum-goers are actually in for “a good book on the history of National Socialism”, a way of “avoiding at all costs the postwar fixation on demonising the past”.

"Too much stress on brainwashing"

For the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the be-all and end-all question about Nazism is: “How was that possible?” On that count, the show “does not strive to conceal the atrocities behind the connection between Hitler and the Germans”. On the contrary, right at the entrance are three portraits of Hitler flanked by images of barbarity and destruction. But “the biggest problem with the exhibition”, opines the paper, is that by foregrounding the impact of Hitler’s “charisma and propaganda”, it obscures the “material benefits” Nazism conferred on its adepts. “The Third Reich was a huge machine for career advancement in every area,” the SZ reminds its readership. The exhibition shows how the propaganda was based on children’s toys and grown-up games, but exaggerates its hold on the German psyche.

Still, observes Die Welt, “the collection of kitsch busts, letters of adulation and declarations of love from children and adults alike” is designed to underscore “the longing for a redeemer that was deeply engrained in German society at the time”. The exhibition “debunks the myth of the Führer’s ‘charisma’”, cutting him down to size as “a middling imposter steeped in kitsch, not a diabolical genius”.

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Still world's best-known German, even if he was Austrian

And yet Hitler “remains the most famous German – even though he was Austrian”, points out the Tagesspiegel. As Die Welt puts it, “Like it or not, Hitler is still our foremost national trademark,” adding that the international press turned out in droves before the show even opened, which “would have been inconceivable for any other historical subject”. That interest lies “in the nature of things”, says Die Welt, “for there will never be a definitive and unequivocal answer to the question of how such a monstrous regime could gain ascendancy in a country as civilised as Germany and count on such widespread support among the German people almost to the bitter end”.

But the show may well help German and foreign viewers alike, hopes Die Welt, “to have less respect for and fear of dictators present and future” and to detect the “despicable failures hidden behind the masks of great leaders”.

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