Exclamation points of history

The American anthropologist Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett has stated that museum objects and in situ presentations are not given as such, but only come about through specific meta-cultural operations and museum practices. These always involve an interpretation of remains, which is inseparable from current world views and didactic concepts. We would like to adopt this approach to examine memorial sites of the contemporary history of Berlin: looking at selected monuments and memorials to National Socialism and the GDR dictatorship, we will seek to explore how the preserved traces have been transformed into historical objects as well as the strategies used to turn authentic locations into museum sites. We would like to focus particularly on the specific character and use of media, the communication structures of the various installations and sites, as well as the amount of influence design elements and measures have on the creation and effectiveness of the messages to be conveyed.