Düsseldorfer Leerstellen
About the Project
The Düsseldorfer Leerstelllen project emerged from an in-depth seminar and is inspired by Leerstellen projects in other cities (Bonn and Munich). With our initiative, we want to honour the memory of
German crimes during the Nazi regime and the Second World War at a local level.Do we already know everything or are there topics that are underrepresented in our memory? Where did the crimes take place? Far away on the eastern front or right on our doorstep?
With our Düsseldorfer Leerstellen, we want to remember people and places. We started this work in the summer semester of 2023 and want to fill more and more empty spaces with memories in the future.
The aim of this project was to create a website using the Hypotheses platform, on which students would present their research findings in the form of texts, podcasts and presentations. The students' contributions are presented on the website in four different categories
- Places
- Biographies
- Memories
- Forced labour
The ‘Places’ section is primarily concerned with the old abattoir in Düsseldorf-Derendorf, where Jews were gathered before being deported during the National Socialist era. It also deals with the district of Viersen outside Düsseldorf, where the situation of Jewish schoolchildren and residents of Viersen during the Nazi era was investigated. This is accompanied by an interactive map on which the various Leersteellen are marked. Under ‘Biographies’, the website contains a large number of biographies of victims, which are illustrated again with the help of presentations. Under the category ‘Memories’, there are two texts about the forced accommodation centres and queer remembrance in Düsseldorf. The text on the forced accommodation centres not only deals with the history of the forced accommodation centres, but also addresses the question of whether and how they can be remembered. The text on queer memory in Düsseldorf is dedicated to the question of the legal basis and ideological characteristics on which queer people were persecuted in Germany. The Düsseldorfer Leerstellen project is an open project. Accordingly, further contributions will follow.
ELLF poster exhibition
The Düsseldorfer Leerstellen was presented on 3 December 2024, together with 10 other e-learning projects in the form of a poster, at the ELFF poster exhibition. The poster show took place in the P.A.L.M.E building (16.38).
More information can be found here.
