NS in Karlsruhe

Since the 2014/2015 school year, three Karlsruhe secondary schools have been offering an inter-school seminar course entitled “NS in Karlsruhe”. The course participants view documents about local history in the City and State Archives, supported by students and lecturers of the “History of the State Ministries in Baden-Württemberg at the Time of National Socialism” research project. The academic results are displayed in artistic format in cooperation with the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) and in the digital sightseeing tour of the Stadtjugendausschuss Karlsruhe e.V. As part of the seminar sessions and based on the documents in the State and City Archives, students will learn about the classic methods of historical studies and can apply the theoretical findings in a topic-related manner. They are accompanied by students from the University of Heidelberg.

New forms of commemoration: The interrelation between art and historical studies

Memories though are subject to changes. While the academic processing of the local history is the initial focus, the cooperation with the ZKM Karlsruhe also opens up the opportunity to translate the themes artistically.

In a second step, the art mediators of the Museumskommunikation invite the participants to artistically implement their experiences, findings and associations and to seek out the forms of expression appropriate to them. Working with various media and technology is an integral part of the reflection about forms of knowledge and awareness in art and science and about the possibilities and limits of conveying. Because if history wants to be present in the here and now, it must gain importance in the everyday life of young people, it must be confronted by this, be re-questioned and communicated repeatedly and be deconstructed and reconstructed in order to keep memories alive.

At the end of the process, an extraordinary symbol of the successful collaboration of those involved will be presented in the form of an exhibition.