Projekte „Demokratie vor Ort“ und „Tor zur Welt?! Ein außerschulischer Lernort zu DDR-Geschichte in Hamburg“: Vor Ort – Persönliche Erinnerungen von Hamburger:innen aus der DDR

In the organizer's words:

After the exhibition "Demokratie vor Ort - Persönliche Erinnerungen von Hamburger:innen aus der DDR" was shown in Hamburg in October in the central library of the Hamburger Öffentliche Bücherhallen at Hühnerposten, it will be on display in the Grenzhus Schlagsdorf from November 1, 2025 until probably March 2026.
Dr. Andreas Wagner, museum director of Grenzhus, and Luisa Taschner, educational director of the Bildungsforum am Grenzhus, will talk about the exhibition with project managers Jan Krawczyk and Theresa Hertrich during the opening.
There will also be another opportunity for interested parties to share their own opinions at a hands-on station. The cooperation between the Grenzhus Schlagsdorf and the Public History department will also be made visible with the traveling exhibition. After the exhibition was previously on display at the Kulturhaus Süderelbe, the Ottensen district archive, the Carl von Ossietzky Forum of the Hamburg State and University Library, the Eimsbüttel History Workshop and the Central Library (of the Bücherhallen am Hühnerposten), the project "Democracy on Site: Resonance - Space - Exhibition" (funded by the Stiftung
The topics of GDR remembrance and its visualization in Hamburg accompany the cooperation between the Hamburg State Center for Political Education and the Hamburg Central Library.
of the Hamburg State Center for Political Education and the Public History Department at the University of Hamburg. With the project "Gateway to Freedom? An extracurricular place of learning about GDR history in Hamburg", funded by the federal program "Youth remembers" in the SED injustice funding line of the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship, it has been continued since October 1, 2025. This funding ends in mid-2027.

The project "Gateway to Freedom?! An extracurricular place of learning about GDR history in Hamburg" aims to create a space where memories of the SED dictatorship and GDR injustice can be interwoven with Hamburg's local history and thus become firmly anchored in the Hanseatic city. The aim is to create an extracurricular place of learning that enables young people in particular to deal with GDR history (possibly for the first time) and also to discuss and make visible their own experiences on the topics of fleeing, arriving and settling into a new society. In addition, the learning location is intended to give contemporary witnesses the opportunity to store their memories for the long term and thus preserve them. The extracurricular place of learning is intended to create spaces for people, but above all with people: Their wishes, needs and ideas for implementation are included so that the learning place can become a place for everyone. The aim of the project "Gateway to freedom? An extracurricular place of learning about GDR history in Hamburg" is to develop a sustainable concept for such a place of learning in Hamburg. The project's objectives and genesis are based on cooperation.
The responsible supporting institutions are the University of Hamburg (Public History; Prof. Dr. Thorsten Logge) and the Hamburg State Agency for Civic Education. Some of the central cooperation partners are long-standing partners with whom the cooperation is institutionalized through the project and with whom a long-term and sustainable cooperation is sought for a potential learning location. These are the Grenzhus Schlagsdorf, the Stasi Records Archive Rostock in the Federal Archives, the Lernort Demokratie Verden and the Bündnis für deutsch-tschechische Zusammenarbeit.
Project coordination: Theresa Hertrich

Opening hours: daily from 10:00 to 16:30
Vernissage: November 1, 2025 at 11:00 in the Grenzhus
Schlagsdorf