Hitler mania:  First postwar exhibition so popular it has been extended three weeks

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Updated: 12:45 EST, 6 January 2011

So many people have been flocking to Germany's first postwar exhibition devoted to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler that it has been extended by three weeks.

Over the past three months, 'Hitler and the Germans' has attracted more than 170,000 visitors.

The Berlin exhibition, which will now run until February 27, explores explores the links between German society and Hitler's rise to power in 1933, and how he managed not only to win power but to cling on to it  it even as total defeat loomed.

It features a hoard of bizarre Nazi artefacts including propaganda posters, busts of Hitler, a card game helping players to learn the names of top Nazis, SS cufflinks, toy soldiers and a red swastika lampshade.

Despite widespread concern in German media that the exhibition could prove popular among neo-Nazis who idolise Hitler, no problems have been reported

'There has been great interest among Germans and also international tourists,' said German Historical Museum spokesman Rudolf Trabold. 'They have come from all over Europe.'

The museum was especially pleased with the numbers given that the exhibit probes Germany's legacy under the Nazis, including World War II and the Holocaust.

'Hitler, Nazis, war and their relationship with German society is not a nice Christmas theme,' Trabold added.

A cigar case, a Fuehrer pack of cards (left) and even a party decoration with a swastika. The exhibition shows how Nazi images filtered into every aspect of German society

Beer mugs with swastikas and SS cuff-links show the extent of how the party's influence reached in everyday life

The exhibition is housed in a modern annexe behind the museum on Unter den Linden - the boulevard that Hitler stripped of the linden trees that gave it its name - with no advertising, in deference to German law forbidding the display of Nazi symbols.

But inside the viewer is immersed in a world of propaganda ranging from cigarette packets with the swastika, complete with collectible uniform cards, to a handcart for selling the party paper, 'Voelkischer Beobachter'.

There had been widespread concern in German media that the exhibition could prove popular among neo-Nazis who idolise Hitler, but no problems have been reported.

Impact on German society: The curators of the exhibition are at pains to stress that their focus is on the society that created the dictator and not Hitler, the man

'In no way do I consider it a glorification,' Stephan Kramer, secretary general of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said.

'It's an important contribution, but it still doesn't ask the question of how could someone like Hitler come to power.'