Hans Bouwmeester shares some pictures of his diorama depicting a political parade in Nurnberg before the war.



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A really unique & different dio! All those figures blend well & set a nice perspective to the scene. I especially like "Fat Herman" in his blue uniform. Trying that many figures would rob me of what little sanity I still have. Only one thing (and maybe I'm looking at it wrong) but the horse seems to be standing still.

I hate this. Sometimes I question my own sanity, with my fascination for military vehicles, war scenes. But this dio is a real no go, creepy.

A really nice change to the dioramas that you usually see, really nice work on the street and figures. Thank you for showing a different side to dioramas, great work.

Good slice of history diorama. A piece that captures a moment in time in three dimensions as opposed to some incident during a battle.

With all the staff car kits out there, this could be only the beginning of parade dioramas.

Hi Weesiep, without the intention of starting a discussion and absolutly respecting your feelings about this dio but look at it this way. Every "military" diorama only depicts a situation in which man are into or about to go into 'war' with or without tanks and/or cannons. Many dio's even shows casualties or dead soldiers. Sure it's nice to paint tanks but let's never forget why they were made and how they were used and still nobody has a problem with such diorama's. I love history and have been (not anymore) an advanced collector of WW2 stuff but I was never very interesting in the war but mostly in how it got so far. This diorama depicts nothing more than the complete madness of an entire nation following it's "leader". Or, in other words, a piece of history in 3D. I also did a dio on a train arriving at a KZ, unloading it's "cargo". Is it sick? Is it mad? No, it's history in 3D and I can tell you that I've been contacted by some museums which love to have it in their collection to show it to their visitors. So, showing history can sure be creepy but, in my opinion, never a "no go". After all he who does not learn from history is bound to make the same mistake again.

You sound like you have given it some thought, fair enough. I agree that the whole hobby has some aspects that each and everyone of us needs to think about for themselves. I hope you are not "that guy" in the black and white combat pants with the SS truppen jacket you always see one or two of on modeling shows. a KZ lager I can still see as paying homage but for me this dio is a no go.

Rest assure, I'm not. I'm a 59 year old retired consultant. Married, two grown ups and a lot of time on my hands.
Now lets leave it upto that. Shall we.

This dioaram is depicting a dark chapter in our history, nontheless, it does foster discussion and thought. It is typical that someone will allways pull out the "Nazi" or SS club and this will still be the case in 200 years. A rationale and sane person however can reflect on the topic without the initial thought that everyone doing so is a an SS mimic or whatsoever, but there are always some people who do not understand so. An open mind set does help, especially after the modeller stated his intention and business.

Most of us model war scenes, as has been said, so we should take the diorama as such and not use it for history bashing.

^^^This. There are so many models/diorama's out there that could be seen as offensive/controversial to many different people, no different than any of thousands of pictures freely available on the internet or in history books (actually, not nearly as bad). When editing this feature, I did have some concerns about backlash regarding the subject, but felt it should be shown. Remember: “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”

Agreed Colin I respect your editorial policy, no argument about that.

Like some others my first/gut reaction when I saw this was “No” too…and for part of me it still is. And yet we all depict tanks and weapons which destroyed, burned alive and atomised human beings (many of them “the good guys”), so why shouldn’t we accept a depiction of a Nazi rally which ultimately led to destroying, burning alive and atomising human beings? Dial H for Hypocrisy.

And yet, and yet…I like to believe most of us on this site are memorialising rather than celebrating war – the only thing I’m celebrating is Germany’s defeat, anyway. With this diorama, as you say Hans, it’s straight historical reportage but unfortunately it’s open to interpretation as at least ambivalent because it is, after all, depicting a celebration of an evil political philosophy. My wife’s grandparents, great aunts and great uncles were all murdered because of it, and we all know approximately how many others. It might be history but it’s also still within living memory. Consequently there is a sensitivity to this subject that you seem oblivious to, and apparently not for the first time.

Subject matter aside I can appreciate your skills and the amount of work involved but you shouldn’t be surprised that some might wonder about your motive in choosing this particular subject, especially when it was not expressed in your accompanying text to the photos. Choosing a “political” scene because you’re interested in the uniforms doesn’t really explain (to me) why this one – and incidentally there’s a reason for the name of this website, was there any armour in your concentration camp dio either?

Anyhoo as you have a taste for the “somewhat controversial” you might consider a companion diorama to this one e.g. the scene in the gymnasium of Nuremburg prison on October 16, 1946. There are some excellent photos for reference and a couple of those guys are still wearing their uniforms too.

Well said Tim , definitely two sides to everything, it is a controversial subject and will always remain so.

It's best this is my final contribution to this subject of which I am glad it stirred things up a little. It should, just like the KZ-dio. As I wrote to Colin recently nobody has a problem making Dio's about soldiers that are on their way to or even in battle. People fighting people, people killing people, decade after decade. We even like it "realistic' placing some killed or wounded figures in our dio's. Well, lets give our 1/35 models a name, a history and a family before painting them and placing them on our hobby-battlefield......wouldn't that change the way we look at it ? I think it would. How can we be proud of the Wittmann or Peiper-bust we made knowing what the did? And still we are. Would anyone be disturbed by a Red Square Victory parade? How many innocent people were killed by Stalin? In my younger days I build those dio's by the dozen but I decided to give history a 3D-look making the more "controversial" scenes like this "parade", the "putsch" and, certainly the KZ-train. Battlefield or Parade, after all horror is horror no matter what the scene is.

Regards, Hans

Btw, You would, be surpised to find out how many museums contacted me if they could have the KZ-dio in their collection.

Well, there are so many other dios he could have depicted that is right. But there is always someone pushing the boundary or doing something new. How many people has the modern West tortured and killed "of course, always in the name of freeodm", how many has Stalin killed... 3 of my family were killed, they had to rat poisen themselves in 1944 in front of their children! Still, this dio does not offend me as long as there are no Sieg Heil paroles with it. You can always exaggerate Dioram..... Using moderrn technology should be a nogo for you then as it uses slave labour and child workers and quite a few of medical studies and some knowledge is based on Nazi torture research... hypocrisy it is. A last hing, don't look at these things if you don't like them, no single person forces you to open a link. The discussion seems way too heated.

The discussion is not heated at all.

I think it is nicely done! History is something to be discussed, not buried as such. This shows a "snapshot in time". Well done!

We can't censor the past, anymore than we can go back to high school. As adults, we need to practice a good example for the blind youth- just because it makes you 'uncomfortable' doesn't mean it need to be erased. Great job re-enacting a part of all of our history.

Excellent work Hans!!

Nicely done. Pity we live in a world where so many are so easily offended. What next? Censor dioramas depiction combat scenes and corpses. That's the reality of war. Building model panzers and painting German army figures does not make one a nazi, anymore than building Russian tanks makes one a communist. Appreciate dioramas for what they are, complex artworks depicting scenes from history.

To the community's credit, it's worth noting that no one has called for this dio to be censored. Some have said it is not to their liking, but none have called it inapropriate or unsuitable for display on the site.

Good on y'all.

Excellent diorama Hans, one to be proud of. I for one applaud your pushing the limits. History is just that, and should not be censored. Thank you for sharing with us.

Thanks. I do not have the intention of "pushing" limits with some of my dio's and, let's be honest and fair, if this is what I can order in the UK, painted and ready to "play" I'm afraid I'm really missing the fuzz.
king&counrty
In my country we have the miniature-city Madurodam but while in Germany be sure to visit Miniatur Wunderland. Be sure to bring the kids.
So, let's talk modelbuilding again, shall we