Controversial art
January 12, 2012
At first glance, it's easy to miss the metal box with the name Adolf Hitler. It's one among a series of drawers featuring the names of the 4,781 members of the German parliament elected between 1919 and 1999.
The installation by French artist Christian Boltanski is a reminder of the history of German democracy. It's located in the cellar of the German parliament building and has been there since 1999 when the Bundestag moved from Bonn to Berlin.
Parliamentarians pass the display when they take the underground corridors to reach one of the administrative buildings that belong to the parliament. Occasionally, a group of visitors come to see the subterranean installation. It's a work which has great symbolic value but a relatively modest impact.
Hitler installation dented
All that changed when it emerged earlier this month that the rust-colored installation had been vandalized. It turned out that someone had dented Hitler's drawer. Workers have since temporarily touched up the artwork but the widely-reported affair has underlined the strong emotions that the display continues to inspire.
French artist Christian Boltanski told Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel last week that his work was intended to cause controversy.
It does not honor Hitler, but is meant to be a “reminder to take care of our democracy," he said, adding that the damaged deserved to be repaired.
Many German parliamentarians agree.
“I think it's only right that the artwork has been repaired,” Monika Grütters, parliamentarian from the ruling Christian Democratic Party (CDU) said, adding that it showed respect towards the artist.
But Sven Schulz, member of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Berlin said the damage should never have been fixed, arguing it should have been visible for all to see.
“The artwork can withstand such a change,” Schulz said. “We should be confident enough to deal with it,” he said.
“I think a damaged work of art makes a very strong statement,” Luc Jochimsen of the opposition Left party echoed.
Black box for absent democracy
The dent to the metal drawer with the words “Adolf Hitler 1933” has also ignited a debate over whether Hitler was really fairly elected.
Together with 297 parliamentarians of his party, Hitler was elected to the Reichstag in March 1933. The National Socialist party had already consolidated its power in Germany by that time. Some historians are of the view that the elections were far from free and fair since many voters and politicians of other parties were systematically repressed.
Several politicians, in particular Communists and Social Democrats, could not even stand in the elections because they were thrown into concentration camps. The Nazis then effectively got rid of the parliament.
The period when there was no parliament between 1933 and 1949 is symbolized in Christian Boltanski's display by a black box.
Distorting history?
In recent days, it has been questioned whether the display bearing Hitler's name has a place at all in an installation on German democracy.
“If the view that the last free elections took place in November 1932 is accepted, then the artwork must be modified,” Michael Feldkamp, historian attached to the German parliament, wrote in a newspaper article.
“Visitors still receive the answer - these Nazi parliamentarians were still democratically elected even though they belonged to those that dug the grave of the Weimar Republic,” he wrote, referring to the democratic parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany.
But some German politicians resist the idea of removing the parliamentarians from 1933 from the exhibit, saying it would amount to a distortion of history.
“You have to keep the wound open,” said Luc Jochimsen, who belongs to the Bundestag's art committee. “Hitler was an elected representative, not an extraterrestrial.”
Wolfgang Wieland of the Green Party said the removal of Nazi names would do disservice to members of parties that were elected to the parliament despite the terror of the Nazi regime.
“In 1933, a few Social Democrats who voted against Hitler's seizure of power were also elected to the parliament,” Wieland pointed out.
‘No memorial to Hitler'
Some have suggested modifying the explanation accompanying the artwork. So far, the work only contains the names of parliamentarians and when they worked. Only the boxes with the names of politicians from the Weimar Republic, who were murdered by the Nazis, have a black tape with the words “Victims of National Socialism.”
Wolfgang Wieland said he would welcome an additional explanation. Foreign tourists, in particular, needed to be told “that this isn't some kind of memorial to Adolf Hitler,” he said.
What's missing in Boltanski's installation are the parliamentarians from the last East German parliament who in 1990 decided to join West Germany. They were undoubtedly freely elected.
Some say it's only a matter of time before Boltanski's artwork is expanded.
“I'm still waiting for the time when history is so far along that these parliamentarians (from former East Germany) also appear in the installation,” Luc Jochimsen said.
Author: Mathias Bölinger / sp
Editor: Kate Bowen