History of Europe

How an exhibition divided the Germans

by Irene Altenmüller, NDR.de

Bad disparagement of former German soldiers or overdue processing of historical facts? Rarely has an exhibition polarized visitors, the media and politicians in Germany as much as the Wehrmacht exhibition that opened 25 years ago, exactly on March 5, 1995, in Hamburg under the title "War of Destruction. Crimes of the Wehrmacht 1941 to 1944".

"Clearing up the legend of the clean Wehrmacht"

What divides the Germans in such a way is the core thesis of the exhibition, which refers to the role of the Wehrmacht in World War II. She was actively involved in a "war of annihilation against Jews, prisoners of war and the civilian population, in which millions fell victim". According to the exhibition catalogue, the declared goal of the show is to do away with the "legend of the clean Wehrmacht".

The fact that German Wehrmacht soldiers committed war crimes was no longer disputed among historians in 1995 - but this view had not yet reached the general public and was tantamount to a provocation.

The power of images

In Kiel, the President of the State Parliament, Arens, also visited the 1999 exhibition. There were riots on the streets of the state capital.

In order to substantiate their thesis, the organizers of the exhibition, headed by the historian and publicist Hannes Heer, rely primarily on the effect of images:on large partition walls they show photo series and individual images of Wehrmacht soldiers committing atrocities, including soldiers laughing in front of hanged men. The images are intended to shock and outrage. There are also explanatory texts and historical documents, such as orders, excerpts from field post letters and quotes from eyewitnesses. But in view of the approximately 1,400 mostly harrowing photographs, many visitors hardly notice the categorizing texts.

"Filting your nest" or overdue clarification?

Although the catalog points out that the exhibition "does not intend to make a belated and blanket judgment on an entire generation of former soldiers", countless former members of the Wehrmacht feel personally defamed and condemned in a general way:"I find it very shameful that the Wehrmacht is generally blamed for this . We are polluters, we make ourselves look ridiculous," said a visitor from Hamburg to NDR. Others, on the other hand, speak of a generational lie that has finally been cleared up.

Violent reactions surprise the exhibition organizers

The traveling exhibition, which is the responsibility of the Hamburg Institute for Social Research and its founder and director, Jan Philipp Reemtsma, met with a tremendous social response, with a total of more than 850,000 people in 34 cities in Germany and Austria seeing the show. Countless others demonstratively stay away or react indignantly. The exhibition organizers were unprepared for the violent reactions.

Politics and the media are divided

The controversy between opponents and supporters quickly escalates, and the exhibition becomes a political issue. There are heated debates in the media and state parliaments, and the Bundestag is also dealing with the topic in a current hour.

Riots and an attack

In a number of cities - such as Leipzig - right-wing extremists are demonstrating against the exhibition.

The dispute is not limited to the verbal:in several cities there are demonstrations by neo-Nazis and violent riots with left-wing counter-demonstrators, including in Kiel, where ten people are injured in the riots. A bomb attack is carried out on the exhibition rooms in Saarbrücken. To this day it is unclear whether it was possibly the right-wing extremist terrorist trio NSU.

Historians criticize misattributed photographs

In the loud roar of indignation and approval, it is initially lost that some scientists also criticize the exhibition. The German-Polish historian Bogdan Musial was one of the first to complain that some photos had been incorrectly assigned and instead of people who were killed by the Wehrmacht, showed victims of the Soviet secret service NKVD. The exhibition organizers under Hannes Heer reacted rudely:they first sued Musial.

But other historians also report criticism and point to technical errors and problematic handling of the photos. The opponents of the exhibition are grist to the mill, they use the criticism to flatly devalue the show:the TV journalist Rüdiger Proske, for example, then describes it as the "most sophisticated depiction of historical misdirection in our country since the Third Reich".

Reemtsma withdraws exhibition

In response to the criticism, Reemtsma has the exhibition reviewed by historians.

Jan Philipp Reemtsma finally draws conclusions:he closes the exhibition and has it checked by a commission of historians. After a year-long audit, the latter declared that it had found "inaccuracies in the use of the material" and "factual errors". However, there are "no falsifications in the sense of the leading theses". The scientists thus confirm the basic statement of the exhibition about the involvement of the Wehrmacht in war crimes. However, the Commission criticizes the type of presentation:it is suggestive and too sweeping.

Revised version opened in 2001

The institute then had the exhibition completely revised under new management. On November 27, 2001, it reopened in Berlin under the title "Crimes of the Wehrmacht. Dimensions of the War of Extermination". Although the thesis remains the same, the difference to the first exhibition is clearly recognizable:the images are less dominant, instead the explanatory texts are more detailed. The origin of the images is precisely identified and where it is no longer clearly comprehensible, this is specifically pointed out.

At the second Wehrmacht exhibition from 2001, the explanatory texts come more into focus.

Apart from protests by right-wing radicals, there were no violent reactions to the new edition, which was shown in a number of cities until 2004. Nevertheless, there is criticism:It is a kind of "consensus exhibition" that ends the debate, criticizes the former director Hannes Heer. Reemtsma "couldn't stand the exhibition and presented a new one that was acceptable to the opponents".

A historical exhibition writes history itself

The Wehrmacht exhibition itself has long been a piece of contemporary history. Despite all the criticism, historians ascribe an important role to it in coming to terms with a dark chapter in German history, such as the historian Norbert Frei:"Through the exhibition, the crimes of the Wehrmacht were pushed into the center of society for the first time. That is the great merit of this Exhibition." For others, including Bogdan Musial, whose criticism contributed to the withdrawal of the show, the Wehrmacht exhibition revealed a lot about how the Germans saw themselves. In 2011 he said:"The Wehrmacht exhibition and the conflict surrounding it reflect the problems Germans face in dealing with the Nazi past to this day."