Why German Museums Have No Option but to Present a "Black Armband" View of History

Hans-Martin Hinz, in the Australian (5-5-05):

... German museums have established a tradition of helping come to terms with the realities of the Third Reich and exhibitions are extensively discussed in the media.

Political criticism is not entirely absent. A few years ago a travelling exhibition about the crimes of the Wehrmacht, prepared by a private research institute in Hamburg, went almost unnoticed in the first five German cities it visited. Then conservative politicians started an outcry over the accusations made against German soldiers, which made it a first-rate media event and resulted in a large number of visitors for the rest of its tour.

All in all, however, direct influence of politics on museum work in Germany is rather small and academic freedom, guaranteed in the constitution, is largely a reality. What political regulation there is generally occurs through the granting or denying of public funding for specially commissioned projects, but rarely for work relating to the war.

The exhibits have been quite varied in conception, from the traditional approach of army museums to social-historical examination of the fate of individuals. Bilateral or multilateral projects, which allow various viewpoints to be presented, are increasing in number.

For example, on the site of the German surrender, which became the Soviet headquarters, a new permanent exhibition about the war in eastern Europe was opened 10 years ago. Before German reunification, it dealt with military strategy and operations; now the focus is on the fate of individual soldiers and civilians from both sides. Historians and curators from Russia and Germany worked on the exhibit together and the museum is supported by both countries.

The German Historical Museum in Berlin has prepared two large exhibitions to mark the 60th anniversary of the war's end. The first compared the culture of remembrance of 1945 and its aftermath in European countries, the US and Israel, and the way myths and constructions were developed in the intervening 60 years. A symposium on politics and guilt was held at the same time.

The second exhibition, 1945: The War and its Consequences, which has just opened, compares the effect of the war and its aftermath on East and West Germany.

In the process of coming to terms with taboos, examination of flight and exile has come to play a decisive role in contemporary debate. For decades, those topics were seen as prejudicial to reconciliation between Germany and its neighbours in the east; there are those, for example, who for a long time claimed areas ceded to Poland after the war.

A few years ago, however, German Nobel laureate Gunter Grass wrote of flight and exile from regions in eastern Germany, which are now in Poland, in his novel Crabwalk. Single-handedly he made the topic socially acceptable.

Associations of the exiled want to establish a centre in Berlin to preserve the memory of this injustice. The Polish fear a new historical relativism, which could deny German responsibility for the war and present Poles as perpetrators of German exile. The Polish are not opposed to the idea of an exiles' centre, as such, since they too were victims of re-settlement, but they do demand a Europe-wide approach to the idea and a different location for it.

Since the topic is so politically charged, the German Government has, for the moment, abandoned all support for the plan. So museums must engage with the subject more strongly to confront the potential for a rising sense of competing victimhood.

Exhibitions about war and its aftermath in Germany are presented in an objective and carefully documented way. More space by far is given to questions of guilt and responsibility, and to preserving the culture of remembrance as the years distance visitors from the events depicted.

With the war generation dying out, the material traces left by history gain significance for future generations. So, too, the responsibility of museums to present the causes and assess the events of this time grows. Ultimately, remembrance of this tragedy should help shape the future of the world by peaceful means. Museums provide a valuable contribution to the work of peace.