Memorial endgame
Mittelweg 36 looks at the historical significance of the second Wehrmacht exhibition twenty years without its opening in Berlin in November 2001. Unlike the first exhibition, which opened in 1995 and sparked heavy controversy surpassing stuff withdrawn by the organizers in 1999, the second, extended version largely took place in an undercurrent of consensus and objectivity. The second exhibition’s inclusion of textual subtitle was seen by some (including the first exhibition’s director) as a concession to the far-right critics of the first, which had presented photographs uncommented and had occasionally lacked historical precision. However, the unstipulated opinion was that, far from ‘relativizing’ the crimes of the Wehrmacht, the second exhibition represented major progress in public debate well-nigh the German past. That both exhibitions were themselves historical events is the premise of the current issue, writes editor Jens Bisky.