Exhibiting the Nazi past: museums, memory, and public history in Berlin
Date
2021-05-28
Authors
Semmens, Kristin Anne
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Abstract
Since the re-unification of Germany, historians have written numerous books about reworking, reconstructing and rethinking the country's Nazi past. These works do not consider the way in which Germany's institutions of public history, such as museums and memorial centres, are also involved in a reworking of this past. This thesis explains why academic historians rarely consider the exhibit to be a valid form of historiography and addresses their critiques of the exhibition medium. The thesis also argues for a recognition of the museum's role in creating public memories of the Nazi past. By focusing on a range of displays about the Third Reich in the city of Berlin, from those at the major national museums to smaller, temporary exhibits, the work analyzes how museums depict the perpetrators, victims and resisters of this period. In describing the sources used, and in evaluating the individual exhibits, the thesis also establishes a methodology for studying the oft-neglected museal narrative as a form of historiography.