Both models-the traditional military history museum and the newer military history museum with a wider focus on culture and society-exist and often overlap in the exhibition practices of twenty-first century museums. Consequently, museums can raise questions about the ethical ambivalences of warfare technology. Rather, they focus on the cultural contexts surrounding the introduction of new technologies and their impact on warfare and civilian life and on the way in which these contexts are entangled with other discourses of war. Furthermore, the way in which these museums exhibit modern military technology is based less on technical data, the emphasis on technological innovation and progress, the charting of military success, and nostalgia for innovations of the past. This newer model highlights the individual stories of ordinary soldiers and civilians, often in relation to everyday artifacts.

1 These museums are considerably more interested in the impact of war on humanity, society, and different cultures. Since the 1990s, however, an increasing number of military history museums dealing with the two world wars have shifted their focus away from strictly military themes and have begun to integrate a wide range of cultural and societal aspects of military conflicts.

This was often performed via an antagonistic “good versus evil” or “friend versus enemy” paradigm. A clear identification of the different parties involved in the war at hand formed the basis for such exhibitions. At times, these museums also provided broad surveys on political situations leading to wars. These narratives tended to thematize aspects of mobilization, the strategies and events of specific campaigns and battles, military leadership, and the heroism of soldiers. They also told specific stories of military and technological success. Earlier war and military history museums primarily exhibited military artifacts such as weapons, uniforms, and medals. Military history museums of the two world wars have undergone a considerable transformation in the last two or three decades.

Museum of military history tanks