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How Hitler really died
He was beheaded! Well, his waxwork version at Berlin's new Madame Tussauds didn't survive for an hour after it opened:
A man has been arrested after tearing the head off a wax figure of Adolf Hitler at a newly opened branch of Madame Tussauds in Berlin.
The 41-year-old man was held after attacking the waxwork, only hours after the attraction opened on Saturday.
The inclusion of Hitler in the exhibition has aroused controversy in a country where Nazi symbols are banned.
But the exhibition's organiser said it could hardly depict German history without portraying Hitler.
It pointed out that Hitler waxwork depicted him in the hours before his suicide, a defeated figure slumped in his bunker as the Red Army reached Berlin.
The Fuhrer was positioned behind a table, which was supposed to prevent visitors posing with the statue - or damaging it.
'Showing reality'
Erasing him from history is not going to bring the perished ones back
Stephen Kramer
Central Council of Jews in Germany
"We did surveys while we were planning the exhibition on the street with Berliners and with tourists, and the result was quite clear that Hitler is one of the figures that they want to see," said Madame Tussauds Natalie Ruoss.
"Seeing as we are portraying the history of Germany we could hardly have left him out... we want to show the reality," she said.
Despite some criticism in the media, Stephen Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said he did not object to Hitler being shown, as long as it was done properly.
"Hitler should not become a tourist attraction but if this exhibition helps to some extent normalise the way of dealing with Hitler, as a kind of a demystification, let's try it," Mr Kramer told the AFP news agency.
"Erasing him from history is not going to bring the perished ones back, it's not going to heal the damage that he did, the crimes that he did. That would be counter-productive," he said.
The waxwork museum also includes other German historical figures like Otto von Bismarck, Karl Marx, Beethoven, Bach and Einstein.
The foreigners featured include Winston Churchill, Mikhail Gorbachev and Tom Cruise.
The 41-year-old man was held after attacking the waxwork, only hours after the attraction opened on Saturday.
The inclusion of Hitler in the exhibition has aroused controversy in a country where Nazi symbols are banned.
But the exhibition's organiser said it could hardly depict German history without portraying Hitler.
It pointed out that Hitler waxwork depicted him in the hours before his suicide, a defeated figure slumped in his bunker as the Red Army reached Berlin.
The Fuhrer was positioned behind a table, which was supposed to prevent visitors posing with the statue - or damaging it.
'Showing reality'
Erasing him from history is not going to bring the perished ones back
Stephen Kramer
Central Council of Jews in Germany
"We did surveys while we were planning the exhibition on the street with Berliners and with tourists, and the result was quite clear that Hitler is one of the figures that they want to see," said Madame Tussauds Natalie Ruoss.
"Seeing as we are portraying the history of Germany we could hardly have left him out... we want to show the reality," she said.
Despite some criticism in the media, Stephen Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said he did not object to Hitler being shown, as long as it was done properly.
"Hitler should not become a tourist attraction but if this exhibition helps to some extent normalise the way of dealing with Hitler, as a kind of a demystification, let's try it," Mr Kramer told the AFP news agency.
"Erasing him from history is not going to bring the perished ones back, it's not going to heal the damage that he did, the crimes that he did. That would be counter-productive," he said.
The waxwork museum also includes other German historical figures like Otto von Bismarck, Karl Marx, Beethoven, Bach and Einstein.
The foreigners featured include Winston Churchill, Mikhail Gorbachev and Tom Cruise.
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