![Neonaziaufmarsch in Muenchen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Neonaziaufmarsch_in_Muenchen.jpg)
The ''Wehrmacht'' exhibition (german: Wehrmachtsausstellung) was a series of two exhibitions focusing on the
war crimes of the ''Wehrmacht'' (the regular German armed forces) during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The exhibitions were instrumental in furthering the understanding of the
myth of the clean ''Wehrmacht'' in Germany. Both exhibitions were produced by the
Hamburg Institute for Social Research
The Hamburg Institute for Social Research is an independent private foundation whose scholarship is focused on both contemporary history and the social sciences. Founded in 1984 by Jan Philipp Reemtsma, it currently employs about 50 people with ...
; the first under the title "
War of Annihilation
A war of annihilation (german: Vernichtungskrieg) or war of extermination is a type of war in which the goal is the complete annihilation of a state, a people or an ethnic minority through genocide or through the destruction of their livelihood. ...
. Crimes of the ''Wehrmacht'' 1941 to 1944",
which opened in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
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on 5 March 1995 and travelled to 33 German and
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n cities. It was the subject of a
terrorist attack
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
but the organizers nonetheless claimed it had been attended by 800,000 visitors.
The second exhibitionwhich was first shown in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
in November 2001attempted to dissipate considerable controversy generated by the first exhibition according to the Institute.
History
The popular and controversial travelling exhibition was seen by an estimated 1.2 million visitors over the last decade. Using written documents from the era and archival photographs, the organizers had shown that the ''
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...
'' was "involved in planning and implementing a
war of annihilation
A war of annihilation (german: Vernichtungskrieg) or war of extermination is a type of war in which the goal is the complete annihilation of a state, a people or an ethnic minority through genocide or through the destruction of their livelihood. ...
against Jews,
prisoners of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold priso ...
, and the civilian population". Historian
Hannes Heer
Hans Georg Heer (known as ''Hannes'') (born 16 March 1941) is a German historian, chiefly known for the ''Wehrmachtsausstellung'' (German: "Wehrmacht Exhibition") in the 1990s. While controversial at that time, the exhibition is nowadays widely c ...
and Gerd Hankel had prepared it.
The view of the
"unblemished" ''Wehrmacht'' was shaken by the material evidence put on public display in different cities including Hamburg, Munich, Berlin,
Bielefeld
Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Detmold and the ...
,
Vienna
en, Viennese
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, and
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
.
On 9 March 1999 at 4:40am, a bomb attack on the exhibition occurred in
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken (; french: link=no, Sarrebruck ; Rhine Franconian: ''Saarbrigge'' ; lb, Saarbrécken ; lat, Saravipons, lit=The Bridge(s) across the Saar river) is the capital and largest city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken is S ...
, damaging the
adult high school
An adult high school or adult school is a high school facility designed for adult education. It is intended for adults who have not completed high school to continue their education. Some adult high schools offer child care, special integration pro ...
building housing the exhibition and the adjoining
''Schlosskirche'' church.
Wrongly attributed images, criticism and review
![Neonaziaufmarsch in Muenchen 04](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Neonaziaufmarsch_in_Muenchen_04.jpg)
After criticism about incorrect attribution such as pictures of Soviet atrocities wrongly attributed to Germans and captioning of some of the images in the exhibition, the exhibition was heavily criticized by some historians such as e.g. by Polish-born historian
Bogdan Musiał
Bogdan Musiał (born 1960 in Poland) is a Polish-German historian. In 1985 he left Poland and became a political refugee in Germany, where he obtained German citizenship. In 2010 he returned to Poland and became a professor at the Cardinal Stefa ...
and
Hungarian historian
Krisztián Ungváry
Krisztián Ungváry (born 30 October 1969) is a Hungarian historian of 20th century political and military history. He wrote about the siege of Budapest in World War II and researched the work of the secret service under the communist period o ...
. According to Ungváry, only ten percent of all the 800 photos of alleged war crimes were actually ''Wehrmacht'' crimes, the rest were
Soviet war crimes
The war crimes and crimes against humanity which were perpetrated by the Soviet Union and its armed forces from 1919 to 1991 include acts which were committed by the Red Army (later called the Soviet Army) as well as acts which were committed b ...
or crimes committed by Hungarian, Finnish, Croatian, Ukrainian or Baltic forces, or by members of the SS or SD, none of whom were members of the ''Wehrmacht'', or not crimes at all.
The head and founder of the Hamburg Institute for Social Research,
Jan Philipp Reemtsma
Jan Philipp Fürchtegott Reemtsma (born 26 November 1952) is a German literary scholar, author, and patron who founded and was the long-term director of the Hamburg Institute for Social Research. Reemtsma lives and works mainly in Hamburg.
Biog ...
suspended the display, pending review of its content by a committee of historians. After the review 20 out of 1400 pictures were found to be of
Soviet atrocities.
The committee's report in 2000 stated that accusations of forged materials were not justified, but that some of the exhibit's documentation had inaccuracies and that the arguments presented were too sweeping. In a written statement, Reemtsma said:
In its report from November 2000, the committee reaffirmed the reliability of the exhibition in general, explaining that the errors had already been corrected. The committee recommended that the exhibition be expanded to include perspectives of the victims as well, presenting the material but leaving the conclusions to the viewers.
Notably, the exhibition does not inform about the ''Wehrmacht''s crimes in
occupied Poland
' (Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 October 2 ...
on either side of the
Curzon Line
The Curzon Line was a proposed demarcation line between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Union, two new states emerging after World War I. It was first proposed by George Curzon, 1st Marque ...
. They were presented later as an entirely different exposition called ''Größte Härte: Verbrechen der Wehrmacht in Polen September/Oktober 1939'' (Crimes of the ''Wehrmacht'' in Poland, September/October 1939) by the Deutsches Historisches Institut Warschau.
Revised exhibition, 2001–2004
The revised exhibition was renamed ''Verbrechen der Wehrmacht. Dimensionen des Vernichtungskrieges 1941–1944.'' ("Crimes of the German ''Wehrmacht'': Dimensions of a War of Annihilation 1941-1944").
It focused on
public international law
International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...
and travelled from 2001 to 2004. Since then, it has been moved permanently to the
Deutsches Historisches Museum
The German Historical Museum (german: Deutsches Historisches Museum), known by the acronym DHM, is a museum in Berlin, Germany devoted to German history. It describes itself as a place of "enlightenment and understanding of the shared history o ...
in Berlin.
Films
The documentary ''Der unbekannte Soldat'' (The unknown soldier) by
Michael Verhoeven
Michael Verhoeven (born 13 July 1938) is a German film director.
Life and work
Verhoeven is the son of the German film director Paul Verhoeven (not to be confused with the Dutch film director Paul Verhoeven). He married actress Senta Berger in ...
was in cinemas from August 2006, and has been available on DVD since February 2007. It compares the two versions of the exhibitions, and the background of its maker
Jan Philipp Reemtsma
Jan Philipp Fürchtegott Reemtsma (born 26 November 1952) is a German literary scholar, author, and patron who founded and was the long-term director of the Hamburg Institute for Social Research. Reemtsma lives and works mainly in Hamburg.
Biog ...
.
See also
*
Myth of the clean ''Wehrmacht''
*
War crimes of the ''Wehrmacht''
*
Nazi crimes against the Polish nation
Crimes against the Polish nation committed by Nazi Germany and Axis collaborationist forces during the invasion of Poland, along with auxiliary battalions during the subsequent occupation of Poland in World War II, consisted of the murder of ...
*
German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war
During World War II, Nazi Germany engaged in a policy of deliberate maltreatment of Soviet prisoners of war (POWs), in contrast to their general treatment of British and American POWs. This policy, which amounted to deliberately starving and work ...
References
*
Further reading
*
Hartmann, Christian; Hürter, Johannes; Jureit, Ulrike (2005): ''Verbrechen der Wehrmacht. Bilanz einer Debatte''
'Crimes of the Wehrmacht: Review of the Debate'' Munich:
C.H. Beck
Verlag C. H. BECK oHG, doing business as Publishers C. H. Beck (german: Verlag C. H. Beck), is a German publisher with its headquarters in Munich and a branch office in Frankfurt. The company was established in 1763. Historically, its headquarte ...
,
External links
Institut für Sozialforschung: Verbrechen der Wehrmacht. Dimensionen des Vernichtungskrieges 1941-1944Bericht der Kommission zur Überprüfung der Ausstellung "Vernichtungskrieg. Verbrechen der Wehrmacht 1941 bis 1944" (PDF, 362 KB)Deutsche Nationalbibliothek: Titel zum ThemaVolker_Ullrich_(Die_ZEIT,_22_January_2004):_Conversation_with_Ulrike_Jureit,_Jan_Philipp_Reemtsma_and_Norbert_Frei_to_close_the_exhibition.html" ;"title="Ulrike Jureit">Volker Ullrich (Die ZEIT, 22 January 2004): Conversation with Ulrike Jureit
, Jan Philipp Reemtsma and Norbert Frei to close the exhibition">Ulrike Jureit">Volker Ullrich (Die ZEIT, 22 January 2004): Conversation with Ulrike Jureit
, Jan Philipp Reemtsma and Norbert Frei to close the exhibitionbr>
'Zwei Ausstellungen - eine Bilanz' von Jan Philipp ReemtsmaKlick-nach-rechts: Materialiensammlung rund um die Wehrmachtsausstellung"The Wehrmacht exhibition that shocked Germany"at Witness History (BBC World Service)
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War crimes of the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
Military history of Germany during World War II
Traveling exhibits
1995 establishments in Germany
History of museums
Museology