By Harry de Quetteville
There are no poppies on sale in Berlin. No uniformed members of the armed forces standing proudly in the U-Bahn, collecting those annual donations for a society’s salute to the fallen. But that does not mean there is no Remembrance in Germany – quite the contrary.
Strolling away from the Brandenburg Gate, past the site where student followers of the Nazi Party burned thousands of books, it is not unusual to hear Hitler’s name on the lips of tourists. But to hear Germans discuss the man who governed every aspect of their lives, or parents’ lives, or grandparents’ lives, is much rarer. Yet these days in Berlin, Hitler’s name is once again on everyone’s lips. The reason is a new exhibition, “Hitler and the Germans – The Nation and Crime” that has opened at the German Historical Museum (DHM). It is the first time that Germany has ever mounted an exhibition about him.
Judging by the queues, which form outside the museum early before opening each morning, he remains a captivating figure – and of the 50,000 who have packed in to see the show in the two weeks since it opened, at least 30,000 have been German. Nazi history may have been confronted before in Germany, but all too often the process has been wreathed in self-loathing or denial. This sober, popular examination, however, testifies to a new era of greater confidence for Germany, a future that is not hobbled by the past.
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