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Germany opens new military museum in Dresden

by Sean McLachlan (RSS feed) on Oct 15th 2011 at 2:30PM

A new military museum has opened in Dresden, Germany.

The Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr opened today and is sure to court controversy. With the shadow of the Third Reich always looming over the German historical consciousness, the design of the displays was a delicate matter. The museum's director says that the focus is on individuals, both as perpetrators and victims, as well as the many who stood aside and did nothing.

The museum covers the entire history of armed conflict, not just World War Two, and features many graphic images of death. German war atrocities are shown with an unflinching eye. Other countries don't get off lightly either. The American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed more than 185,000 people (mostly civilians), are memorialized with an artwork showing the victims' shadows left by the bombs' blasts.

[Photo courtesy Bundesarchiv]

Filed under: History, Learning, Europe, Germany

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Kelly Van Rijn Oct 25th 2011 8:07PM

Funny how the Germans feel the need to add the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to their display, as if to blunt their own Nazi past. Well, any rational person should be able to see the difference between two bombs that were dropped to end end a brutal war started by the Japanese, and the systematic initiation and conduct of a war against humanity as waged by the Germans. My only regret is that we did not have the atomic bomb sooner, so we could have dropped in earlier in the war, thereby saving more American lives.

Paula Jan 28th 2012 5:23PM

I visited Dresden a few years ago and thought it was a beautiful city. You can see some really cool Dresden gifts like postcards, magnets, calendar, posters, mugs, and more.

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