This red candle holder was made around 1945 from a gasmask filtering case and a metal pipe. It is part of a larger section of the museum’s collection, which is called ‘Pale Things’ (“Blasse Dinge”) in reference to a former exhibition (1989). It is about improvised emergency products, that were developed during and especially after World War II from found materials as well as repurposed military objects, like helmets, gasmasks, ignition boxes, etc.
These emergency products and conversion objects come from private but also from small-scale production. Through conversion, military objects experience a civilian and thus a morally irreproachable purpose. Whether the change is due to pacifist motives or is simply due to necessity remains an open question.
8 May 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe.
