Just minutes after opening its doors, the new Madame Tussauds museum in Berlin lost one of its most recognizable figures. A man shoved aside two security guards and ripped Hitler's head off.
This time around, Adolf Hitler's stay in Berlin was considerably shorter than his first stint in the German capital. On Saturday morning, just seconds after the new branch of Madame Tussauds wax museum (more...) opened its doors for the first time, a visitor brushed aside two security guards, jumped over the desk at which Hitler was sitting, and tore the Führer's head off.
The man, a 41-year-old from the Kreuzberg neighborhood of Berlin, was just the second visitor to enter the museum. "Never again war!" the man yelled as he attacked the wax figure.
"There were two security guards there, but they couldn't prevent the attack," said Natalie Ruoss, a museum spokeswoman, shortly after the incident. According to the police, one of the guards tried to stop him but the man was able to throw him to the floor. The attacker stands to be charged with assault and property damage.
The museum, located on Unter den Linden not far from the Brandenburg Gate -- and just a few hundred meters from the World War II bunker where Hitler committed suicide in the final days of the war -- remained open after the attack. The headless Hitler, however, had to be hauled away.
Initial reactions were more of bemusement than surprise. "It is more a work of art to rip Hitler's head off than it is to present him in the first place," said Frank Zimmerman, a Social Democratic parliamentarian from Berlin. Henryk M. Broder, a reporter and commentator for SPIEGEL, said wryly: "Finally an attack on Hitler was successful."
Whether the €200,000 wax dictator makes a return depends on how bad the damage turns out to have been, said Ruoss.
Even prior to Saturday's opening, the Hitler figure was controversial (more...). Many thought it tasteless that Madame Tussauds intended to include him in an exhibit that presents many famous and influential Germans from history. The museum, for its part, claimed that, like it or not, Hitler was a major part of Germany's 20th century and thus belonged in the exhibit. Curators promised to present Hitler in such a way as not to glorify him -- and had him sitting behind a heavy desk as he would have looked in his bunker not long before his death.
That Hitler had such a brief stay in Berlin comes as something of a surprise. A Hitler figure in a museum in Hamburg hasn't been touched once in the decades it has been there. The museum there, called the Panoptikum, also has wax figures of Hitler's propaganda guru Joseph Goebbels and the outsized Nazi air force head Hermann Göring. Resistance activists like Hans and Sophie Scholl are also on display.
A figure of Hitler at Madame Tussauds in London has been damaged a number of times since it was put on display in 1933. Only in 2002 did attacks on the Osama bin Laden figure begin outnumbering those on the Führer.
Whatever you think of Hitler, you must admit that's a damned good waxwork.
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The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done.
Yeah! You show your righteous fury at a man nearly seventy years dead by... damaging an inanimate object...
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Jade Falcon wrote:Whatever you think of Hitler, you must admit that's a damned good waxwork.
I just scrolled to the image on the SA forums without reading any part of the story, and was surprised that it was not a genuine photograph. The subject is one of, if not the, most reprehensible men who has ever lived, but this sculpture is artistic mastery.
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Qwerty 42 wrote:I just scrolled to the image on the SA forums without reading any part of the story, and was surprised that it was not a genuine photograph. The subject is one of, if not the, most reprehensible men who has ever lived, but this sculpture is artistic mastery.
That's what I was trying to say, I abhor the man and what he stood for, but that is really something.
Don't Move you're surrounded by Armed Bastards - Gene Hunt's attempt at Diplomacy
I will not make any deals with you. I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own - Number 6
The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done.
Qwerty 42 wrote:
I just scrolled to the image on the SA forums without reading any part of the story, and was surprised that it was not a genuine photograph. The subject is one of, if not the, most reprehensible men who has ever lived, but this sculpture is artistic mastery.
It looks more like an oil painting than a photograph.
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I think one reason this one was attacked was simple Name Recognition...
Not of Hitler, but of Madame Tussauds. The wax museums she started are the premiere museums of their kind. You know someone's 'made it', when they're added to Madame Tussauds.
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Kane Starkiller wrote:This really is nothing more than a simple case of vandalism and should be treated as such.
And assault:
"There were two security guards there, but they couldn't prevent the attack," said Natalie Ruoss, a museum spokeswoman, shortly after the incident. According to the police, one of the guards tried to stop him but the man was able to throw him to the floor. The attacker stands to be charged with assault and property damage.
That is a might fine piece or work, and the guy who thrased it deserves to be fined, or put in jail for the vandalism and assault.
Just because the statue looks like a horrible horrible man, doesnt mean you have to take it out on the statue.
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I'll echo everyone else and say it looks like vandalism.
Turns out that a five way cross over between It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the Ali G Show, Fargo, Idiocracy and Veep is a lot less funny when you're actually living in it.
Jade Falcon wrote:
I just scrolled to the image on the SA forums without reading any part of the story, and was surprised that it was not a genuine photograph. The subject is one of, if not the, most reprehensible men who has ever lived, but this sculpture is artistic mastery.
It *is* a good waxwork, but I don't find it a good depiction of Hitler in his final days.
There's a newsreel of him which was the last media recording to survive, and although it's black-and-white you can see that he's practically decrepit. By comparison the waxwork is downright flattering.
And yeah, charge in the same way as if the guy had assaulted a couple people in order to vandalize a washing machine. The target of the vandalism doesn't add anything, this time.
I find myself endlessly fascinated by your career - Stark, in a fit of Nerd-Validation, November 3, 2011
Wow, someone from Hollywood just accused someone else of using artistic licence!
I agree though; he was on the verge of breakdown in the closing days of the war. Probably spent all his energy telling senior party members they had cunts for eyes.
tim31 wrote:
I agree though; he was on the verge of breakdown in the closing days of the war. Probably spent all his energy telling senior party members they had cunts for eyes.
Kanastrous wrote:There's a newsreel of him which was the last media recording to survive, and although it's black-and-white you can see that he's practically decrepit. By comparison the waxwork is downright flattering.
Is that the well known bit where he's awarding medals to a line of Volksturrm and Hitler Youth, he pats one small boy on the cheek?
There were rumours that he was ravaged in his later years by syphillis, which might account for his condition, plus of course the Parkinsons. The best depiction I've seen of Hitler though is in the film Downfall (AKA Der Untergang).
Don't Move you're surrounded by Armed Bastards - Gene Hunt's attempt at Diplomacy
I will not make any deals with you. I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own - Number 6
The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done.
tim31 wrote:Wow, someone from Hollywood just accused someone else of using artistic licence!
Normally, artistic license has purpose. What is the purpose of making Hitler look better than he really did at the time?
Baby, honey, bubitsch, we gotta think about positioning him for his next vehicle. People don't want old and tired and desperate, you gotta connect with the young people!
I find myself endlessly fascinated by your career - Stark, in a fit of Nerd-Validation, November 3, 2011
Kanastrous wrote:There's a newsreel of him which was the last media recording to survive, and although it's black-and-white you can see that he's practically decrepit. By comparison the waxwork is downright flattering.
Is that the well known bit where he's awarding medals to a line of Volksturrm and Hitler Youth, he pats one small boy on the cheek?
Yes.
And Der Untergang was brilliant.
I find myself endlessly fascinated by your career - Stark, in a fit of Nerd-Validation, November 3, 2011
Your head is humming and it won't go, in case you don't know, the piper's calling you to join him
