Hitler Returns to the Heart of Berlin - in Wax.

By Reuters

A life-size wax figure of Adolf Hitler has gone on display in the heart of Berlin in what museum officials said was the first such public exhibition of the Nazi dictator in post-war Germany.

"Provided it's all just art, it's permitted," a Culture Ministry spokesman

Hitler shares a room at the "Galerie Art'el" museum with his World War Two adversaries Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, overlooking the former Cold War border crossing Checkpoint Charlie in the once-divided German capital.

Museum director Inna Vollstaedt said Hitler would soon be reunited with his former Nazi henchmen Hermann Goering, Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels in the waxwork displays. "Until now there has never been a wax figure of Hitler displayed in Germany. We have these men to thank for the Berlin Wall. We want them all," she said, referring to the Cold War barrier.

Although it has been nearly 60 years since Hitler and his top deputies killed themselves at the end of the Third Reich, artists must be mindful of the anti-fascist laws. German authorities have long been at pains to distance the country from Hitler's legacy. The remains of the Fuehrer's bunker in central Berlin have been sealed off to prevent neo-Nazis from turning it into a shrine.

In the museum an unusually placid-looking Hitler stands conservatively attired in a grey jacket by a window, while seated figures of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and former Beatle Paul McCartney drink tea nearby.