Hitler waxwork starts war of words in Berlin

A waxwork model of Adolf Hitler is to go on display in Berlin, 183 metres from the city's Holocaust memorial, in a move that has outraged groups and politicians.

The effigy, which will be part of an exhibition at a new Madame Tussauds museum near Brandenberg Gate, will deal with Hitler's last days as a broken man.

However, the decision has been described as "unspeakable" and "disgusting" by politicians, while the Holocaust Memorial Association described the display as "like a Nazi Disneyland".

Uwe Neumarker, the association's executive director, said: "It's tasteless. They didn't think about history, they just wanted to lure in the tourists looking for the Fuhrer bunker and make some money."

Madame Tussauds said the figure would be displayed alongside a waxwork of Winston Churchill.

While the model of Hitler in Madame Tussauds in London shows the Nazi leader defiant and in full health, the German version will show him alone in his bunker as his plans for global domination are shattered by the Allies.

"We show Hitler as an older, broken man," said Natalie Ruos, a spokesman for the museum. "Panels will detail the crimes of the Nazi regime."

She added that unlike other figures on display, visitors would not be allowed to photograph themselves next to the Hitler waxwork for fear of encouraging right-wing extremists turning the site into a place of pilgrimage. The new Berlin Madame Tussauds is due to open in July on Unter der Linden in the centre of the city.

Other waxwork figures on display will include a number of German celebrities, such as the actresses Marlene Dietrich and Romy Schneider and the former tennis player Boris Becker.

Symbolic place

Hitler made his last stand and watched the final collapse of the Nazi regime from his Fuhrer bunker before committing suicide when defeat was inevitable. "This is a very symbolic place," said Neumarker. "It's near to the Brandenburg Gate, to the old Nazi sites like the Fuhrer bunker, and of course, it is very near to us, at the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe."

The memorial, which comprises thousands of concrete menhirs, was unveiled in 2005, after lengthy disputes over every detail of its design.

Politicians from both Left and Right have condemned the museum's decision to put a Hitler waxwork on display so close to the Holocaust memorial. "It is tasteless beyond compare," said Michael Braun, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative CDU party.

Politicians from the Left-wing SPD and Green party also fiercely criticised the move. "As far as I know, Liza Minnelli, Hitler and Churchill will be the stars on display," said Neumarker.

"But the fact is, history is more complex. You can't treat it like that."