A new exhibition at Bonn's history museum Haus der Geschichte unpacks half a century of founding myths. Some 900 objects from East and West Germany, as well as from the reunified nation, link pivotal historic moments.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H. Kaiser
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'German myths since 1945'
Two German states rose from the rubble of World War II, with each developing its own founding myths. An exhibition at Bonn's history museum examines these different narratives, as well as the ones of a reunified Germany.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H. Kaiser
Hermann the warrior garden gnome
The Cherusci war chief Arminius, also known as Hermann, defeated the Romans in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 A.D. Millennia later, the Nazis instrumentalized this myth alongside other earlier Germanic legends for propaganda purposes. After the war, these figures were all but forgotten. Today he can be found as a caricature of himself — as a garden gnome. Germans love their garden gnomes.
Image: Zeitgeschichtliches Forum Leipzig / Punctum/B. Kober
'The Miracle of Bern'
"Gooooal!" The elongated word rings out in the museum's hall. Every German instantly recognizes the radio report on Germany's unexpected victory in 1954 at the Soccer World Cup. After the country's wartime defeat, Germans finally had a reason to express public enthusiasm for their country. But it was Sönke Wortmann's 2003 film that made the event into a founding myth by evoking collective memory.
Image: Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland/A. Thünker
'Economic Miracle'
The 1955 Volkswagen Beetle in the exhibition epitomizes the "Economic Miracle" ("Wirtschaftswunder") of the West German economy. The term describes the nation's rapid economic recovery after World War II. The VW above was item number 100,000,001. The millionth car, specially designed for the milestone, had a technical problem. Fortunately, this cream-colored replacement was ready to go.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H. Kaiser
Prescribed myths
In comparison to West Germany, the eastern German Democratic Republic made a concerted effort to create myths that evoked socialist cohesion. Statues dedicated to fallen soldiers from the Soviet Union's Red Army were one such attempt. The Bonn exhibition, on display through September 16, dedicates a separate area to the different myths of East and West Germany.
Image: Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Germany as a peacemaker?
Still feeling guilty for Germany's Nazi past, some politicians have seen themselves as being responsible for world peace. The decision taken by former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in 2003 to abstain from the "coalition of the willing" that participated in the Iraq war under US leadership further strengthened that myth. The Bonn exhibition counters this myth by focusing on German arms exports.
Image: Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland/A. Thünker
Environmental protection pioneer?
The same holds true for the image of Germans as environmentalists. As a reaction to the perceived threat to German forests that some feared would disappear, the 1980s saw a growing ecological awareness. Sigmar Gabriel, the former economy minister, opened the offshore wind farm Nordsee Ost with an oversized plug in 2015 in an effort to support Germany's energy transition.
Image: Haus der Geschichte/Martin Magunia
Failed myths
"Wir sind Papst" ("We are Pope") cried the sensationalist German tabloid Bild after Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. The paper distributed the slogan on 500,000 badges at the 2005 Catholic World Youth Day in Cologne. "The attempt to turn the event into a national story, however, failed," said the exhibition's curator, Daniel Kosthorst.
Image: Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Community without myths
In 2012, the European Union was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The original award is part of the exhibition, but organizers claim it did not strengthen a common identity or a "European myth." They believe the identities of Europeans continue to be based on national myths.
Image: Haus der Geschichte Bonn/Peter Hoffmann
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As soon as you walk into the current exhibition on "German myths since 1945" at the Bonn history museum, it becomes clear that this show is divided in two, just as the country was from the end of World War II through 1990.
On the one side you have founding myths of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), or West Germany, and on the other you have those of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), or East Germany. After 1949, both entities developed into their own respective German state, each with a totally contrasting political structure.
Subjective and separate
When we speak of myths, we aren't talking about made-up legends or the fake news of today, the exhibition's curator, Daniel Kosthorst, explained. Rather, it's about "stories of collective memory." Kosthorst underlined that there was no shared German myth in the aftermath of WWII, something which the exhibition makes plainly clear. Instead, each German state developed its own, often politically-grounded myth.
The stories presented from the early years of the capitalist, democratic FRG after its founding in 1949 include the "Economic Miracle" ("Wirtschaftswunder") and the introduction of the former West German currency, the deutsche mark. Both examples suggest that hard work and good policies helped achieve a strong postwar recovery.
In the GDR of that same era, posters and other socialist propaganda objects show how the state's foundation was built on a top-down "antifascist" narrative.
Both East and West German founding myths involved distancing themselves from Nazi Germany. But it's only after 1990 that Germans in a newly reunified country were able to create and share a new founding myth based on the experience of two countries coming together again as one.
A box with deutsche marks shows how the currency, no longer in circulation, was important in the West German narrativeImage: picture-alliance/dpa/H. Kaiser
Myths through hindsight
With some 900 exhibits spanning seven decades of German history, visitors to "German Myths" can build their own impressions as to which political, sporting, cultural and societal events have become the stuff of founding narratives. Above all else, the selection shows how subjectively myths are perceived and propagated.
A quote from French writer and critic Marcel Proust, written in giant letters on the show's first wall, sets the tone for the visit: "Reality is only formed in memory." Oftentimes, it's only through hindsight that we can judge which events went on to become historically important dates, or even mythical ones.
The exhibition "German myths since 1945"at Haus der Geschichte in Bonn is on display through September 16. It was previously on show in Leipzig.
