Exhibit examines myth that Germany fended off Roman intrusions in historic battle
A Teutonic victory in 9 AD which wiped out three Roman legions was probably not the birth of Germanic supremacy, as has been claimed by generations of German nationalists, historians who worked on a new exhibition say.
The exhibition, which is spread across three museums and opens to the public on Saturday, revisits the myth that sturdy Teutonic warriors humiliated an army of inept Italians and ensured that Rome never again dared to tamper with the German heartland.
Generations of German schoolchildren have been raised on the story, which reached its apogee in the 19th century, when a vast statue of the Teutonic general Hermann was raised over the Teutoburg Forest at a presumed location of the battle.
So powerful is the myth that museum keepers have been warned to watch out for neo-Nazis making pilgrimages to the artefacts exhibited at the 2,000th-anniversary show in Haltern, Detmold and Kalkriese.
The truth, as it often turns out, is a little more complicated....
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The exhibition, which is spread across three museums and opens to the public on Saturday, revisits the myth that sturdy Teutonic warriors humiliated an army of inept Italians and ensured that Rome never again dared to tamper with the German heartland.
Generations of German schoolchildren have been raised on the story, which reached its apogee in the 19th century, when a vast statue of the Teutonic general Hermann was raised over the Teutoburg Forest at a presumed location of the battle.
So powerful is the myth that museum keepers have been warned to watch out for neo-Nazis making pilgrimages to the artefacts exhibited at the 2,000th-anniversary show in Haltern, Detmold and Kalkriese.
The truth, as it often turns out, is a little more complicated....