How is history represented in our daily lives? How do we remember events in our past? How should we deal with difficult memories? In an international and intercultural workshop, university students from Istanbul spent a week with peers from, Essen, Weimar, Erlangen and Göttingen.
The workshop was be based on genuine examples of a culture of remembrance – like public places, buildings and monuments in Weimar with all of their social and cultural attributes. Open spaces often have a long and sometimes also ambivalent history but how do people use public places nowadays, are they still modern and for general use – what do they stand for? Do we need monuments as a means of constructing national identity, and how should we handle “negative” heritage (e.g. National Socialism)? Inspired by what they saw and experienced in Weimar, the students addressed the topics of discussion in an international context.
During the one-week workshop which took place in November 2014 in Weimar, the students received theoretical lectures, attended guided tours and seminars that helped them deepen their knowledge in the topic. They studied public spaces and buildings and monuments in Weimar, with all its social and cultural characteristics; as objects of cultural memory. Inspired by the Weimar experience in urban space, students situated the issues in an international context. As part of a final presentation, participants had the opportunity to discuss their project and results with experts in cultural memory.
The project was supported by the EU Erasmus + youth development program, and undertaken in collaboration with Klassik Stiftung Weimar and Stiftung Zollverein.
You may visit the blog prepared by the participants: https://facesofremembrance.wordpress.com/
Project Partners: Klassik Stiftung Weimar ve Stiftung Zollverein
Funder: AB Erasmus+
Project Team Member: Banu Pekol
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