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Hitler waxwork sparks controversy in Berlin

Berlin's mayor has expressed concern at Madame Tussauds' plans to include Adolf Hitler among prominent Germans who will be immortalised in wax at its new museum, his spokesman said on Monday.

  • AP
  • Published: 09:17 June 3, 2008
  • Gulf News

Berlin: Berlin's mayor has expressed concern at Madame Tussauds' plans to include Adolf Hitler among prominent Germans who will be immortalised in wax at its new museum, his spokesman said on Monday.

Klaus Wowereit has written a letter to the wax museum's curators urging them to consider carefully whether to include the Nazi dictator and, if they still do, to be careful how they present him, spokesman Guenter Kolodziej said on Monday.

Kolodziej said, "In the mayor's view, he should not be shown as a cult figure."

Madame Tussauds' Berlin museum is scheduled to open on July 9. Spokeswoman Katrin Srumsdorf said the museum planned to send Wowereit an official response on Tuesday.

She stressed that curators recognise Hitler needs to be treated with sensitivity. Unlike in London, where he stands along with major world leaders, Hitler's likeness in Berlin will be hunched over a desk in a dimly lit bunker, she added.

Srumsdorf said, "He will appear as an old, broken man, as he might have looked in the days just before he committed suicide."

The Hitler statue will be the only one on display behind glass, which means visitors won't be able to have their pictures taken with it, and the exhibit will be constantly monitored by video cameras.

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