History workshop

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History workshops are groups or associations that are committed to researching and presenting regional history from below .

History of the history workshops

In Scandinavia , the tradition of the grave-where-you-stand ( Sven Lindqvist , Swedish book 1978) arose in the 1970s with a focus on local history and the connection of historical dimensions with everyday life. At the same time, the history workshop movement arose in England through the work of Raphael Samuel . The first history workshops in Germany emerged as part of the New Social Movements in the early 1980s. The Stadtteilarchiv Ottensen eV was founded as early as 1980 in the Ottensen district of Hamburg. The Berlin history workshop was one of the first history workshops in Germany . It was founded in 1981 in the autonomous cultural center Mehringhof by young, “free-floating” historians, activists of the squatter movement and other people from the alternative movement.

Facade of the Berlin history workshop, Goltzstraße (outside opening hours) in 2010

Focus of history workshops

History workshops critically deal with topics from industrialization , workers' , social , everyday , cultural and women's history . They see their work as political work that opposes an understanding of history by national conservatives and right-wing Gramscianism . The aim is to practice grassroots democratic history work that is focused on the people's direct living environments and their experiences .

The history workshop in Göttingen writes:

“Metaprocesses are given a different face on site. People, their actions and their experiences become 'visible'. Continuities, contradictions and breaks become visible, the bearers of social burdens step out of the shadow of the supposedly 'great' and 'mighty'. Empty and blind spots in the history of the city and the region become visible. The resistance of individuals and small groups, but also the acceptance and participation of the many become visible. "

The main research areas of the history workshops include:

  • History of National Socialism . Different phases can be distinguished: In the first few years the resistance against the regime was particularly important with a view to the labor movement , later the focus shifted to the persecution of the Jews and the Holocaust, in recent years the local reappraisal of the Forced labor in the focus of the history workshops.
  • Oral history
  • Biography research
  • History of minorities
  • General local history on topics or areas

History workshop activities

History workshops occasionally work with schools and adult education centers . Books are also written, but the actual activities are practical in order to make the story tangible. These history workshop activities include:

  • Workshop discussions
  • Slide / film lectures
  • Conversations with contemporary witnesses
  • Creation of exhibitions
  • Historical city tours (on foot, by bike, bus, horse-drawn carriage or ship)
  • Organization of city ​​rallies
  • Publication of books
  • Operation of archives
  • History festivals

See also

literature

Books

  • Berliner Geschichtswerkstatt (Ed.): Everyday culture, subjectivity and history. On the theory and practice of everyday history. Westphalian steam boat, Münster 1994, ISBN 3-924550-95-6 .
  • Etta Grotrian: History workshops and alternative historical practice in the eighties , in: Wolfgang Hardtwig and Alexander Schug (eds.): History Sells! Applied history as science and market , Stuttgart 2009, pp. 243-253
  • Hannes Heer , Volker Ullrich (Ed.): Discovering history. Experiences and projects of the new history movement. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1985, ISBN 3-499-17935-0 ( Rororo 7935 rororo non-fiction. Cultures and ideas ).
  • Sven Lindqvist: Dig where you stand. Handbook for Researching Your Own History. Verlag JHW Dietz Nachf., Bonn 1989, ISBN 3-8012-0144-9 .
  • Alf Lüdtke (ed.): Everyday history. For the reconstruction of historical experiences and ways of life. Campus, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1989, ISBN 3-593-33893-9 (2nd updated edition, ibid. 2000, ISBN 3-593-36338-0 ).
  • Peter Schöttler : Die Geschichtswerkstatt eV To an attempt to network grassroots democratic history initiatives and research. In: History and Society. 10, 3, 1984, ISSN  0340-613X , pp. 421-424.
  • Joachim Szodrzynski (Red.): History workshops yesterday - today - tomorrow. Move! Standstill. Departure? Published by the Research Center for Contemporary History in Hamburg and the Morgenland Gallery, Eimsbüttel History Workshop. Munich (recte: Ebenhausen) et al. 2004, ISBN 3-935549-91-1 , ( Hamburger Zeitspuren 2).
  • Klaus Tenfelde : Difficulties with everyday life. In: History and Society. 10, 3, 1984, pp. 376-394.
  • Jenny Wüstenberg, “From an alternative shop to a service provider: the Berliner Geschichtswerkstatt. A Case Study in Activist Memory Politics ”German Studies Review 32 (2009) 3: pp. 590-618.
  • Gert Zang : The unstoppable approach to the individual. Reflections on the theoretical and practical benefits of regional and everyday history. Working group for regional history, Konstanz 1985, ISBN 3-923215-08-8 ( series of publications of the working group for regional history 6).

Magazines

  • Workshop history - historical specialist journal for everyday and cultural history