Since the racial justice movement set off by the killing of George Floyd sweep across the country , dozensof monuments have been toppled by protesters or formally remove . critic say that statues of Confederate leaders , enslavers , and colonizer glorify the despicable parts of American story . accord to the monuments ' defenders , statues are historical artefact , and ruin them is the same as pretending thathistorynever fall out . This debate is n’t unique to the United States ; Germany has been grip with similar questions for decades , and asAtlas Obscurareports , theCitadel Museumin the Berlin suburbia of Spandau is one reaction .
Located in the sometime provisions depot of a Renaissance fortress , the Citadel Museum shoot for to display monuments to oppressive physical body and regimes in a unlike linguistic context than what was originally intended . A bronze Alexander Melville Bell stigmatize with a swastika is the centerpiece of an exposition on churches under National Socialism , Nazi statues riddled with bullet holes are displayed in the condition they came in , and an eight - ton granite school principal of Vladimir Lenin lies on the ground where kid can climb on it .
Many of the museum ’s artifacts helped sanitise racist and anti-semitic barbarity , and the curator understand the dangers of displaying them rakishly . One means they ’ve disjoint the items from their roots is by displaying them in unlawful positions . statue are shown rest on their sides or even upside down . visitant are encouraged to disturb and " play " with the small-arm to move out any illusion of sanctity .
The Citadel Museum is n’t the only place of its kind . In Budapest , Hungary , Memento Park houses statues of Lenin and other communistic leaders that no longer belong in key fix . As sure statue continue toface scrutinyin the U.S. , relocate them — whether it ’s to a Mungo Park , museum , or cemetery — could be a potential alternative to complete destruction .
[ h / tAtlas Obscura ]
