14 DAY TRIAL // An exhibition held in Ulm, Germany decided to bring back memories of dictator hijacked holidays by putting on display ornaments featuring Kaiser Wilhelm, Joseph Stalin or Adolph Hitler.
The exhibition is called “Decorated” and holds Christmas tree decorations that praise the dictator and the regime rather than the holiday. The fanaticism revolving around these objects is shocking as Hitler's porcelain head hangs in the tree above all other ornaments.
The museum wanted to show how holidays have been transformed over time by crazy rulers that held nothing sacred and replaced Christmas with the celebration of their egos. One of the collection's top attractions is the Christmas tree of the Third Reich that features Hitler's head and swastika on a porcelain globe replacing the star from the top.
Other Hitler branded ornaments include silver balls with the Nazi Party salute or other memorable signs and replicas of the regime. For Russia the situation was slightly different, Stalin imposed all tree ornaments to be red stars symbolizing the soviet regime.
Kaiser Wilhem has its own glory spread around the holiday ornaments, with pictures of himself, with crazy German war ships and aircrafts, all in the holiday spirit. One of the most viewed photos features Kaiser “beneath Reich eagles with their wings spread out and model Zeppelin airships with the Iron Cross motif painted on their sides,” according to Daily Mail.
Dictators like Hitler or Stalin tried manipulating religious holidays like the winter celebration until getting Christ out of Christmas, and maybe turning it into a propaganda canal. Stalin declared that the soviets are atheist and Hitler didn't accept in any way to celebrate the birth of a Jewish baby, so their regimes worked towards making Christmas a regime celebration, praising the almighty dictator.
The Brotkultur Museum from Ulm features more than 400 ornaments, some belonging to the museum and some loaned from private families. Besides the propaganda ornaments, the exposition also holds other items dating back to the Middle Ages. In an attempt to recreate Christmas as close to history as possible, the museum also exhibits a few trees decorated with apples, nuts, biscuits or paper stars resembling the ones modest families used a few centuries ago.
The exposition offers an interesting road back on Christmas memory lane, from the middle age paper ornaments, to world-war specials and cheap contemporary Made in China globes and stars.