Be an earwitness to history
Listen to those who have experienced history for themselves: The Hessian State Centre for Political Education (HLZ) has based its "Contemporary Witness Memorial" documentation project on this basic idea. German-German history can be experienced in the Hessian-Thuringian border memorials on the basis of individual fates - a contribution to coming to terms with the SED dictatorship and GDR history and to forming one's own political opinion. And we were happy to support the online realisation of this project.
"In the little wood, it was shooting like crazy. And I asked my mum what it was. And she just said to me: Shut up! She didn't give me an answer." - The fear of an 11-year-old fleeing through the restricted area from Thuringia to Hesse. The helplessness of a customs officer in the face of the shooting of a young man. Or the feeling of being locked up in a country where it was better to talk about many topics only within one's own family: where factual reports describe the history but often remain colourless, eyewitness accounts complement "real life" and make it emotionally tangible.
Website as a virtual memorial
Capturing memories, processing them and publicising them - for individuals, school classes or as part of educational work at memorial sites - the user-friendly website we created is now available as a virtual memorial.
A comprehensive preliminary concept, which incorporated the results of workshops together with HLZ representatives, formed the basis for the overall concept.
In close collaboration with the client, a coherent, responsive design was created that allows the content to be explored in a target group-orientated and accessible way. A search function with an integrated map and flexible filtering also contributes to individualised user journeys.
Past experiences in a contemporary form
Graphic novels created by us, a video trailer and the professional video editing of the eyewitness accounts convey past experiences in an appealing, contemporary form.
In order to guarantee this in the future, we have trained the HLZ editors in the backend operation of their new WordPress site and will continue to be available for editorial and technical support.