By Christoph Arens (KNA)
Hitler and the Nazis did not simply disappear into obscurity in 1945. Their legacy continued to preoccupy and trouble subsequent generations. To this day, as an exhibition in the House of History in Bonn shows.
“The womb from which it crawled is still fertile,” warned Bertolt Brecht with regard to National Socialism. For 80 years, Germans have been grappling with Hitler’s legacy and the burden his dictatorship imposed on the country. A new special exhibition entitled “After Hitler” in the House of History in Bonn has been highlighting how differently the various generations have dealt with the Nazi era since 1945.
Repression or confrontation, concern or indifference, sympathy and glorification: Björn Höcke’s speech about the Holocaust memorial as a “monument of shame” and Alexander Gauland’s trivialization of the Nazi era as a “bird shit” in German history show that this past is not yet over. Against the backdrop of the high poll ratings for the AfD, the Potsdam meeting of the right-wing scene as well as right-wing extremist terrorist groups and increasing anti-Semitic crimes, the exhibition, which has been planned for some time, is of burning topicality.
The exhibition organizers have opted for a “generational approach.” They want to show how differently the four generations since 1945 view the Nazi era: from the supposed “collective silence” of the generation that experienced it, to the questioning of the children’s generation, the polarizing judgment of the grandchildren’s generation, to the current post-reunification generation, which hardly ever meets contemporary witnesses and has to develop new forms of remembrance.
This perspective is linked to key events in the history of the Federal Republic and the GDR: for example, the denazification initially driven forward by the victorious powers, the “anti-fascist” founding myth of the GDR, the Auschwitz trials in the early 1960s, the TV series “Holocaust” shown in 1979, the Wehrmacht exhibition that was hotly debated in 1995, and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe that opened in 2005. They all show how strongly the tensions between the generations – for example between the generation that experienced the Nazis and the 1968 generation – have shaped German society.
The President of the House of History Foundation, Harald Biermann, told journalists about over 500 “outstanding objects” that will be on display until January 25, 2026. These include curiosities such as a copy of the fake Hitler diaries or a Christmas arch of lights that a right-wing extremist from Chemnitz used to depict the Auschwitz extermination camp and decorate his window in 2019.
Many of the objects are small and inconspicuous, but they invite reflection: for example, the first postage stamp in honor of the Scholl siblings – which was issued by the GDR and not the Federal Republic. Also the brownish ticket that Erna Meintrup used to travel from the Theresienstadt concentration camp to her hometown of Münster in 1945. “What was her home anyway?” asks exhibition organizer Hanno Sowade.
Also on display is the first bust of the Führer officially approved by the NSDAP – a work by the sculptor Hedwig Maria Ley from 1932. And a best seller until 1945. Shortly before the end of the war, Ley buried the original in the garden. But Hitler did not disappear: one of her gardeners dug it up and placed it on the mantelpiece in his living room until well into the 1980s. For Biermann, this is evidence “of the lasting effects of the worship of the Führer”.
“We did not want to describe major politics, but started from people’s concrete experiences,” says historian Sowade, underlining the concept of the exhibition. “We want to encourage visitors to ask their own families how they dealt with National Socialism.”
Surveys that are woven into the exhibition several times provide information about the attitude of the Germans. Until the early 1960s, for example, the Hitler assassins of July 20, 1944 were considered “traitors”. And until the 1960s, a majority described the “years of peace under the Führer” as the best time of the 20th century.
The last exhibit on the tour illustrates how much the Nazi era still influences us today: In August 2023, a telephone booth with a listening station that had been converted into a book box went up in flames near the Holocaust memorial “Platform 17” in Berlin. It was set on fire by a 63-year-old man who wanted to destroy the works inside – books about the Holocaust.
