Adolf Hitler

09/15/2008

Nine Weeks After Beheading

Wax Hitler Returns to Berlin Looking More Dishevelled

Madame Tussauds has repaired its wax figure of Adolf Hitler and put him back on display in Berlin nine weeks after a visitor tore the dictator's head off. The new Hitler is protected by a thick wall and glass to prevent a new assassination attempt, and he looks more dishevelled than the original figure.

Adolf Hitler is back, but behind a concrete wall and thick window to prevent anyone from tearing his head off again.

Madame Tussauds has put the controversial wax figure back in its new Berlin museum nine weeks after a former policeman attacked and damaged it within minutes of the show opening its doors to the public for the first time.

This time however, any protestor will have a lot more trouble getting at him because the museum has built a concrete wall to protect the startlingly realistic looking figure, which can now only be seen through three thick-glassed square windows. Two security guards are permanently posted in the area which is also monitored by surveillance cameras.

Madame Tussauds had defied criticism that it was tasteless and inappropriate to display the figure of a man who caused so much suffering.

"Madame Tussauds is apolitical and neither comments on nor judges the people shown in the exhibition or what they did in the course of their life," it said in a statement in July after the beheading.

"The figures are selected according to their popularity or their significance in having a decisive impact on history, be that good or bad. Adolf Hitler represents a decisive part of Berlin's history that cannot be denied."

The repaired waxwork is shown in the same setting -- Hitler's bunker -- as desperate, fallen man sitting at his desk in the final days of his rule.

But the appearance of the new figure has been changed slightly to make him seem even more pathetic.

Hitler's hair is more dishevelled than before and his tie is loosened around his collar. He's also shown looking down rather than straight ahead, and the huge map of Europe has been removed from the wall next to him.

"The figure had to be repaired so it was clear that it wouldn't come back looking 100 percent like it did before," Madame Tussauds spokeswoman Natalie Ruoss told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "The aim is to show him in his final days."

"People just look at the figure and walk on, they're more interested in our other figures. It's only one of 75 figures we have."

While he still looks startlingly realistic, the loosened tie jars a little because it makes him look like an ageing man who has just had his face slapped at an office party.

The figure went on show on Saturday and there have been no assaults on it so far. "We haven't registered an increase in visitors as a result of the figure," said Ruoss.

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