German museum removes Elon Musk portrait as ‘Nazi salute’ controversy rages on
The Deutsches Museum in Munich has removed an Elon Musk exhibit (Wikimedia Commons/Getty)
The Deutsches Museum has removed an exhibit featuring Elon Musk as the row over a gesture he made earlier this week shows little sign of abating.
A spokesperson for The Deutsches Museum, in Munich, said that part of the reason for the removal of the space-themed exhibit, which featured portraits of physicists and rocket pioneers Max Valier and Hermann Oberth alongside Musk, was because there wasn’t enough space to include a “comprehensive historical portrayal” of the billionaire.
The nature of the exhibit’s design meant it was “difficult to react to current news events.”
Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk caused a storm after making gestures at an event marking Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday (20 January), which many people have likedned to a Nazi salute.
“It can always be problematic to pay tribute to people who are still alive in such a prominent position in an exhibition because such a presentation can be seen as an uncritical tribute,” the museum spokesperson told Fortune magazine. “A person’s life-time achievements can often only be correctly assessed in retrospect.
“There is only room for a few lines of text on the exhibition panel, which does not allow a comprehensive historical portrayal of a person or the classification of their life’s achievements.”
Musk has hit out at critics of his gesture, which involved him twice thumping his chest before thrusting his hand into the air.
Writing on X/Twitter, he condemned the Democratic Party, which he used to support. “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is so tired,” he said.
Responding to a reply which asked: “Can we retire the calling people a Nazi thing?” he wrote, “Yeah exactly,” with a yawning emoji.
But leading Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hit back in a video, saying: “I don’t care what Elon Musk is doing behind the presidential seal but in this country, we hate Nazis.
“Two of the most foundational things in American history are that we beat the Confederates [in the US civil war] and we beat the Nazis… it’s very important for us to assert these things.”
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