Museum Diplomacy: Poland and Germany
Posted in Internationalism, Politics on 19. Feb, 2009
It seems for every act of international relation that involves museums, be it Neil MacGregor acting as a cultural diplomat in Iran or the Beijing Palace Museum loaning artefacts to Taiwan to thaw out relations a bit (despite Taiwan National Palace Museum not returning the favour yet. Early days), there appears to be an equal nationalistic response. Sarkozy’s Museum of French History, for instance, which would probably include Sarkozy’s approach to foreign nationals. Gordon Brown’s idea for a Museum of “Britishness” may have been shelved, but the fact he came up with the idea is slightly baffling.
Now there’s the issue of museums becoming diplomatic problems between nations. Poland are criticising Germany over their plans for a “Museum of Expellees”. After World War II, borders were redrawn, and 12 million German nationals were displaced. But it seems the appointment of politian Erika Steinbach to lead the committee seems to be a major problem, with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying that Poland would never accept her in such a position.
Guys, guys, World War II was a big piece of history for the whole world. Museums are no longer in the trade of being utter propaganda machines or centres of historical revisionism. Twelve million PEOPLE having to move, probably great distances, probably into a different one culture and probably into a very different political system has to be an important part of history, right? Such a museum would be a centre documenting a massive shifts in Europe during a time of massive shifts. And since there are museums dedicate to almost everything, why must this become so politically divisive? I’m sure approaching delicate issues isn’t beyond a museum’s staff.
Let’s remember, there two sides to every war: Soldiers and non-combatants.
Name:
Peter Rentschler Aikman
data:
2008-09-23 19:00:30
email:
itspete99@aol.com
The expulsion of the Germans l945-l947 was a major crime. Some l5 million Germans, mainly old men, old women, mothers, girls and boys, were brutally driven from their ancient homes in Silesia, East Prussia, West Prussia, Eastern Brandenburg and East Pomerania. Of the 15 million, some two to three million were killed or died. There were numerous incidents of murder, mass rape of German women, old women and young girls ages 8 to 80, and the plundering of private property. These acts were committed by Poles, Czechs and Russians and they are a black page on the history of all these countries. Why do you Poles hate (fear?) Erika Steinbach so much. Don’t the Germans who were mercilessly expelled from their Homeland have the right to remember what happened to them? It doesn’t matter where Frau Steinbach came from. She has the authority and the support of the German expellees. As our famous president Abraham Lincoln said: ‘Nothing is settled until it is settled fairly.’ The Oder-Neisse Line is still not a fair solution and until a better solution is found, there will be no real peace. The crimes committed AGAINST the Germans in World War II by the Allies were as terrible as those committed BY the Germans. The Poles, Czechs and others need to admit the crimes they committed against the Germans during the Expulsion. Many of us here in the USA know the truth about the crimes committed against the Germans (the Expulsion, the murderous air war that cost 500,000 German lives and the treatment of German POWS by the Americans on the Rhine fields. We don’t need the hateful propaganda and falsehoods coming from Eastern Europe. I certainly know what the Poles themselves suffered, but it does not change the reality and horror of the Expulsion of the Germans. (The above was written in response to a lenghly Polish article on the background and moral fiber of Erika Steinbach
Pete, your idea is noble, nationalism is dangerous and outdated, yadda, yadda, I’m right there with you. But most people are not so enlightened. To wit, I dare you to write a similar post on a similar topic: the forced migration of Greeks from Turkey and Turks from Greece in the bloody chaos that followed WW1, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the birth of modern Turkey. Try convincing people that that topic deserves to be treated in a neutral, objective and “truthful” fashion in a museum setting, and you will learn the true meaning of “flame war.” And those population transfers happened a generation earlier than the post-WW2 expulsions. I think you’re fighting a losing battle, and I predict that the “Museum of Expellees” will never exist – it’s too convenient of a political football in intra-EU relations.
True, it may never exist. It’s sad that the perfect place to discuss the most difficult parts of our history is still considered a place of glorification.
Well, perhaps time heals most wounds, eventually. The best example of a post-conflict museum I’ve ever seen is the Flanders Fields museum in Ypres, Belgium — a non-political, factual AND interesting portrayal of a horrific historical event. All sides of the conflict are sensitively represented.
Museums have instrumentalized history for a variety of political reasons. History books continue to do the same. The problem with German history is that museums, history books, the media give you a skewed picture of what happened. Root causes of certain events — e.g. the expulsion of the Germans 1945-48 — are ignored or reduced to primitive mono-causal explanations (Hitler). After 100 years of anti-German sentiment in the media, the mythologies of 20th century propagandists have taken hold, and no one is actually asking for nuances — most people are happy with the caricatures. It is time for the museums to endeavour to give a fuller picture and rely, for instance, on the books by Professor Alfred de Zayas (Nemesis at Potsdam, A Terrible Revenge, The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau) that put things into proper historical perspective and brings not only black-and-white, “good guys”/”bad guys” analysis, but demonstrates that matters are infinitely more complex and that the Germans were not only perpetrators but also victims of horrendous crimes and injustices. Where is there a museum devoted to the 15 million German expellees? To the 600,000 civilian victims of Allied bombing? To the victims of the hunger-blockade of 1918-1920? The de Zayas books were published 1977-1986 by top publishers Routledge, Macmillan, Ullstein, Kohlhammer — and are still in print in 5th, 7th, even in 14th editions. But these highly praised books have not succeeded in changing the biased picture that prevails in academia, where political correctness stifles the free exchange of ideas and the development of a better approach to understanding the past and the present.
—-