Discovering and Understanding historical (identity) political spatial productions – street names, monuments and architecture.
The subject of the project was critical ‘artefacts of memory’ in the city of Cologne. These are street and square names, monuments and architecture that in many ways perpetuate controversial ideologies such as militarism, nationalism and colonialism into the present. One of the project goals is to identify and analyse these historical traces, relics and their narratives. Corresponding results were initially prepared prototypically and as a hypothesis in the form of a digital city tour respectively an app. This links the analogue urban space, street and square names, historical buildings or monuments with historical facts. The app is aimed at a broad and young audience and offers easily accessible texts, historical images, maps and scientific sources as well as audio walks, thematically curated tours and links to further information.
Historical urban developments, imaginations of history, mentalities and identity constructions – the political production of space – from the past are placed in relation to each other and to our present. In further iterative drafting and empirical investigation steps, the criteria for the success of such hybrid (analogue/digital) educational spaces will be narrowed down.
Project duration since 2024/25
Participants:
Charlotte Liebergesell, Hannah Thiel, Jakob Troll, Katinka Hüttner, Lilith Hawemann, Mariia Kolkutova, Marie Backhaus, Philipp Schulz, Robin Grigo, Tim Lingens, Zoe Garba
Supervisor:
Prof. Andreas Wrede
Excerpts Audio Walk
Intro:
Militarismus:
Nationalismus:
Kolonialismus:
Nationalsozialismus:
Kaiser Wilhelm II Reiterstandbild:
Bismarckstraße:
Rudolfplatz:
Texts spoken by Elisabeth Hartmann and Jule Marie Schacht.
