Bauhaus-Universität Weimar Officially Unveils Commemorative Media on National Socialist History
On 27 January, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar will mark the end of its multi-year project, »Erinnerungs- und Informationsmedien auf dem Campus«. The aim of the project was to investigate the Nazi history of university buildings and to make it public. The project focusses on two buildings: Marienstraße 13/15, once the headquarters of the »Thüringer Landesamtes für Rassewesen« (Thuringian State Office for Racial Affairs), and Belvederer Allee 6, a former »Jewish House«.
The new commemorative media, which includes information boards and interactive elements, are intended to make the history of the sites more accessible. »Our aim is not just to provide information, but to encourage people to pause and critically examine the past«, says Chancellor Dr. Horst Henrici. The project also included educational activities encouraging students, researchers, and the local community to engage with campus history and its links to National Socialist crimes.
The official ceremony will take place on Monday, 27 January at 3 pm in Belvederer Allee 6. The programme includes lectures and a tour of the memorial locations. Jannik Noeske, project coordinator and scientific associate in the Institute for European Urban Studies at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, stresses the importance of the commemorative project: »As a research and design institute, we are responsible for actively engaging with our own history. We can fulfil this responsibility by designing commemorative media. At the same time, we are sending a message to the city and the region that remembrance is not something we are obliged to do, but a social process that needs, no more than ever, to be initiated and developed.«
This project, which was funded by the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar’s Presidential Board, has allowed the university to build upon a culture of remembrance in the city of Weimar and comes hot on the heels of the renaming of the university’s largest lecture hall to the »Maurice-Halbwachs-Auditorium« in December 2024 and sends a strong message in support of remembrance and commemoration.
Opening ceremony of the commemorative media on campus at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Monday, 27 January 2025, 3 pm
Meeting point: Belvederer Allee 6, 99423 Weimar
Further information on the event can be found at: https://www.uni-weimar.de/de/architektur-und-urbanistik/aktuell/termine/titel/einweihung-erinnerungsmedien-auf-dem-campus-der-bauhaus-universitaet-weimar/