ABSTRACT

Recent historical research has analysed the Cold War as an ‘imaginary war’, an interpretation that poses specific challenges for displaying the conflict in museums. In contrast to well-established representations of the First and Second World Wars in exhibitions, we find that the nature of the Cold War in Europe and the North Atlantic has made it difficult to tell stories of victimhood, heroism and military valour. Moreover, the memory and heritage of the Cold War have often been presented as monolithic and lacking specific chronologies, adding to the difficulty of telling stories through objects. This article explores how selected museums and exhibitions in the UK and Germany have addressed this double challenge. We examine how the conflict is portrayed, how buildings, images, text and artefacts interact in selected museums and exhibitions, and how they generate specific interpretations. We show these interpretations to be diverse and fractured: each museum chose different paths to staging the Cold War. From their comparison, in the context of heritage studies, we make the case for a distinct museology of the Cold War. We argue for a reflective approach that encourages the engagement of museum and heritage professionals with diverse material culture, filling the ‘empty battlefield’.

摘要

最近的历史研究将冷战分析为“想象中的战争”，这种解释对在博物馆展示冲突提出了具体挑战。与展览中公认的第一次和第二次世界大战的表现相比，我们发现欧洲和北大西洋冷战的性质使得讲述受害、英雄主义和军事勇气的故事变得困难。此外，冷战的记忆和遗产往往被呈现为单一的，缺乏特定的年表，增加了通过物体讲述故事的难度。本文探讨了英国和德国的精选博物馆和展览如何应对这一双重挑战。我们研究了冲突是如何被描绘的，建筑物、图像、文字和文物如何在选定的博物馆和展览中相互作用，以及它们如何产生特定的解释。我们展示了这些解释是多样的和支离破碎的：每个博物馆选择了不同的路径来上演冷战。从他们的比较来看，在遗产研究的背景下，我们为冷战时期的独特博物馆学提供了理由。我们主张采用一种反思方法，鼓励博物馆和遗产专业人士参与多元化的物质文化，填补“空旷的战场”。