Berlin Man Rips Head Off Hitler Statue

[Mindtoaster]

BERLIN (Reuters) - 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 exhibit.
"Then he went over to the figure and ripped off the head," a police spokesman said.
The man tore off the head in protest at the exhibit, the spokesman added. The police were alerted and arrested the man, who did not resist. He was later released though he remained under investigation for assault and damaging property.
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 it 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.
(Reporting by Paul Carrel and Sabine Ehrhardt; editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)



- Reuters

[Foldered]

Interesting. I think the fact that there was a sign posted asking people to not take pictures with it, etc, out of respect for the millions of lives lost shows that maybe they should not have put it on display out of respect for the millions of lives lost. I am all for artistic freedom, but it does seem tasteless to me and the protester did what, in my opinion, is the right thing to do.
Had he expected to get off scott free and had he resisted arrest, I may hold a different opinion on the matter. The fact that he was willfully arrested seems noble to me.

[Comrade Rage]

Good-what the guy did was right.
I don't know what the museum was thinking.

[spartan]

The museum is a waxwork museum which primarily shows waxworks of major figures in German history.

Hitler is a major part of modern German history whether people like it or not. Simply suppressing anything to do with him wont get rid of that fact nor will it somehow make right all the wrongs committed by him and his followers.

The waxwork wasn't there to celebrate Hitler and the nazis, it was there to educate and to allow people the chance to see a lifelike waxwork of the man who has so much come to define the twentieth century and has had a major impact on the pshyche of most people even today. (For all the wrong reasons of course)

The vandaliser's actions seem to have backfired as most visitors expressed shock at his actions with one even stating it was "intolerant"!

All in all this was a great way to create sympathy for the far-right who are experiencing a renaissance of sorts with all the recent problems with immigration, terrorism and the global economic crises.

[Comrade Rage]

@spartan:

I guess you're right. I just like seeing figures of Hitler getting vandalized.:)

[Foldered]

All in all this was a great way to create sympathy for the far-right who are experiencing a renaissance of sorts with all the recent problems with immigration, terrorism and the global economic crises.
While I can agree with most of what you're saying, I wouldn't quite go as far as to say that it creates sympathy for the far-right.

[RHIZOMES]

I agree with spartan. Seeing a lifelike model of who I would say was one of the most evil men in history would be interesting, nothing glorifying about it. I'd say if the waxwork showed him as some sort of powerful strongman dictator rather than a little wuss hiding in a bunker, would be way more disrespectful.

[Autonome-Antifa]

Respect!!!!

[Holden Caulfield]

im going there tonight, i wanna to rip heads of Hitler Statues:D

[Autonome-Antifa]

I promise to give the person how chop the head of again a crat of beer.

[Bilan]

It's just art...But the ripping off of his head just added to it.

[F9]

he did good,what they try to revive him through a wax?People will not feel ok seeing his sculpture and know what harm he did to them!Its just silly to make assholes reapear even through a sculpture!

Fuserg9:star:

[TheDifferenceEngine]

Could they not do a waxwork of him with a gun in his mouth?

Maybe a red stain on the wall behind him?

[RHIZOMES]

Could they not do a waxwork of him with a gun in his mouth?

Maybe a red stain on the wall behind him?

:lol:

That would be a better one.

[Foldered]

It's just art...But the ripping off of his head just added to it.
This.

It's a sort of ... collaboration.

[Qwerty Dvorak]

I think it's a question of cultural context. Over here in Ireland, artistic freedom would have greater weight against national sensitivity because we don't have such a controversial and dark history so the man wouldn't have such a strong case. In Germany however it is clear from the strong anti-Nazi laws that national sensitivities are much stronger so the man may have more justification to do what he did.

[Lacrimi de Chiciură]

or they could just leave the ripped off head next to it, then we could say 26 people worked on it.

[rednordman]

This is interesting as it reminds me of some pictures that a saw in a Sunday Times article once. Basically it was about some Russian Author who had live in the f. Soviet Union and showed photos of some bronze models of Stalin and Lenin with large painted crosses grafitied over them. I believe that it was taken somewhere in Moscow but am not too sure. I wonder whether this received any controversial reaction at all (the article didn’t actually mention anything about them, so please set me straight if anyone knows more). Point I’m trying to make is that although to many people both Hitler and Stalin are considered to be monsters, I just get the impression that in today’s society it is actually become more politically correct and socially acceptable to criticize Communism and Communist Icons than that of the far right (Hitler, Mussolini, Franco and Pinochet) Sure they ALL get slated you may think, but I have to wonder. The fact that it took for a man to physically decapitate the head of Hitler to make world news, and let’s be honest they really are portraying the man to be a mindless vandal, make me think. All this in a country that took a hammering because of him and one that has ever since established an array of anti-Nazi laws; you would think that having this waxwork made in the first place would cause massive offence. OK, the waxwork artist may have claimed to have produced it for sheer artistic reasons, but this one definitely appeals to the darker side of a humans psyche.

Don’t know whether I’m clutching at straws here and I apologise in advance if I am but what would the reaction be if it had of been Stalin or Lenin instead? How would people have reacted then? Because I’m pretty sure that the majority of the British public will have seen the man in this (A Hitler) case as a stupid vandal than one making a point.

[Red October]

I'd rather look at a decapitated Hitler anyway.

[Comrade Rage]

I'd rather look at a decapitated Hitler anyway.
This, although I do like the idea of a wax Hitler with the gun in his mouth, or putting a red stain on the wall behind him.:D

What about a wax figure of his niece running away?:lol:*


*=For those of you who don't know: Hitler pursued a romantic affair with his niece Angela Raubal, until she committed suicide because of shame.

[Pirate turtle the 11th]

This, although I do like the idea of a wax Hitler with the gun in his mouth, or putting a red stain on the wall behind him.:D

What about a wax figure of his niece running away?:lol:*


*=For those of you who don't know: Hitler pursued a romantic affair with his niece Angela Raubal, until she committed suicide because of shame.

also in that relationship he used to get her to piss on him so he could get a sexual vibe of it.

[Foldered]

Don’t know whether I’m clutching at straws here and I apologise in advance if I am but what would the reaction be if it had of been Stalin or Lenin instead? How would people have reacted then? Because I’m pretty sure that the majority of the British public will have seen the man in this (A Hitler) case as a stupid vandal than one making a point.
It's shady ground to say that you're "pretty sure" they would react that way. I'm sure the reaction would be rifted; there would be people who see it as mindless vandalism and those who look a little closer and see it as a statement.

[RHIZOMES]

This is interesting as it reminds me of some pictures that a saw in a Sunday Times article once. Basically it was about some Russian Author who had live in the f. Soviet Union and showed photos of some bronze models of Stalin and Lenin with large painted crosses grafitied over them. I believe that it was taken somewhere in Moscow but am not too sure. I wonder whether this received any controversial reaction at all (the article didn’t actually mention anything about them, so please set me straight if anyone knows more). Point I’m trying to make is that although to many people both Hitler and Stalin are considered to be monsters, I just get the impression that in today’s society it is actually become more politically correct and socially acceptable to criticize Communism and Communist Icons than that of the far right (Hitler, Mussolini, Franco and Pinochet) Sure they ALL get slated you may think, but I have to wonder. The fact that it took for a man to physically decapitate the head of Hitler to make world news, and let’s be honest they really are portraying the man to be a mindless vandal, make me think. All this in a country that took a hammering because of him and one that has ever since established an array of anti-Nazi laws; you would think that having this waxwork made in the first place would cause massive offence. OK, the waxwork artist may have claimed to have produced it for sheer artistic reasons, but this one definitely appeals to the darker side of a humans psyche.

Don’t know whether I’m clutching at straws here and I apologise in advance if I am but what would the reaction be if it had of been Stalin or Lenin instead? How would people have reacted then? Because I’m pretty sure that the majority of the British public will have seen the man in this (A Hitler) case as a stupid vandal than one making a point.

I would say fascism is mroe taboo then communism.

[rednordman]

Its shady ground to say that you're "pretty sure" they would react that way. I'm sure the reaction would be rifted; there would be people who see it as mindless vandalism and those who look a little closer and see it as a statement. On Second thoughts you are probably correct, just been getting a little disheartened recently with a lot of blatantly pro-bnp, far fight and anti-leftist (often tagging people on the left with things that they actually do not stand for) media within the last few years (i suppose it's my own fault for taking this nonsense to heart:)). In fact, maybe this is just a trend that will die out in a few years time. This is how I see things in the UK at the moment and do not know how things are else where but hear a lot of bad things:(.