(In)Visible Places

Siegfried Hirschmann was the founder of Deutsche Kabelwerke, inventor of the “Cyklonette” – one of the first motorised tricycles – and creator of the DEKA tyre brand. As a Jewish entrepreneur, he played a decisive role in shaping German industrial history in the early 20th century. Yet, he does not have a Wikipedia entry, nor hardly any public acknowledgement of his
accomplishments.


State-of-the-Art Technology Conveys Historical Engineering Skills

The exhibition uses state-of-the-art technology to bring an almost forgotten industrial empire back to life. Relying on holograms, models, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), it provides immersive access to Hirschmann’s life and work.


The Kulturerben e.V. association developed the project in cooperation with the Museum Fürstenwalde, and young people from schools in Berlin and Brandenburg realised it. Together with a team of artists and experts in VR and AR, a project group of teens was shown how they can use digital technologies to bring history to life and make it accessible.


Curatorial Team

Students from the Ulrich-von-Hutten-Gymnasium Berlin, Katholisches Schulzentrum Fürstenwalde and the Europaschule OSZ Oder-Spree, in collaboration with artists Johann Winkelmann and Aron Rauschhardt and the AR/VR expert team from i-mmersive, made up the curatorial team.


Why is the Exhibition at the Forschungscampus Dahlem?

The exhibition (In)Visible Places: Siegfried Hirschmann – A Forgotten Industrial Pioneer is more than just a tribute – it marks a starting point for critical examination of suppressed biographies at the Forschungscampus Dahlem. Where important researchers such as Lise Meitner or Fritz Haber once worked, the focus is now deliberately on people whose contributions disappeared from collective memory due to political exclusion, antisemitism or discrimination.


The exhibition links forgotten biographies with the stories of research objects, revealing the mechanisms of suppression. It invites visitors to question their remembrance culture and open up new narrative approaches to science and history. This participatory project on Siegfried Hirschmann exemplifies how engagement and digital technologies can bring an almost erased biography back into collective memory.


The project was supported by the Museum Fürstenwalde and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz. It was funded by the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture, the Brandenburg State Agency for Civic Education, the EWE Stiftung, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the Stiftung Großes Waisenhaus zu Potsdam, Bauwert AG and Ethikbank.


A special exhibition of the Forschungscampus Dahlem ‒ Staatliche Museen zu Berlin