Page 476 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo II

1116 XXXIX Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

Photo 4: (n. d.) „Zala kapit-
uljacii“ (The Hall of Capitula-
tion) in the
German-Russian Museum Ber-
lin-Karlshorst, in: Fotoarchiv,
Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.

Photo 5: (n. d.) „Leninskij
Zal“ (The Lenin-Hall) in the
„Muzej Kapituljacii“ (
Museum of Capitulation),
in: Fotoarchiv, Museum
Berlin-Karlshorst.

The tour ends in Marshall Zhukovs
office, where the very important
visitors signed the guest-book of
honour. For the following analysis
I focus on those exhibition-rooms
where the museal visualization of
the soviet master-narrative beco-
mes evident.
When visitors entered the „Mu-
seum of Capitulation“ they stood in
21
the so called „Leninskij zal“ (Le-
nin-Hall) and found themselfs confronted with a larger than live-sized Lenin-sculpture
(Photo no. 5). The guide would then have read aloud the quotation of the revolutionary
leader, which was written on the wall beside the sculpture: „No revolution is worth
anything unless it can defend itself.“ 22
This was interpretated as a justification of the historic creation and the ongoing
existance of an army. The purported history of this sculpture was used to support the
common struggle between the German Antifascists movement and the Red Army. The
following story was told: „As the Fascists wanted to melt down the sculpture for the pur-
pose of arm-production, the Soviet forced labourers and the German antifascists rescued
and hid the sculpture while risking their lives.“ This legend became part of the official
23
East-German war-commemoration.
21 All titles of the exhibition-rooms are noted in the: Naučnoėkspozicionnyj plan memoral’novo muzeja
istorii razgroma nemecko-fašistskich vojsk v berline, Ijun’ 1967) 1967, p. 2.
22 „Eine Revolution ist nur dann etwas wert, wenn sie sich zu verteidigen weiss“, in: Text für die Führung durch
die historische Gedenkstätte, 1985, p. 1. English translations of the german transcript of the tour by the author
of this paper.
23 „1943 brachten die Faschisten diese Leninskulptur aus der Stadt Puschkin bei Leningrad nach Eisleben (in der
heutigen DDR), um sie in Waffen umzuschmelzen. Die sowjetischen Menschen, die in die faschistische Skla-
verei getrieben wurden und deutsche Antifaschisten, retteten sie unter Einsatz ihres Lebens und versteckten
sie.“ in: Text für die Führung durch die historische Gedenkstätte, 1985, p. 2.