A Matter of Opinion - Historical Postcards Reconsidered

The cards depict streets, squares, shops, and everyday scenes, providing fascinating insights into life in bygone times. At the same time, they raise key questions about our current understanding of history:

• What image of Kreuzberg emerges when people look at these historic postcards today?
  
• What is depicted—and what remains invisible?
  
• Which images shape our perception of the past, and which gaps remain?
  

As part of an interdisciplinary digitization project at the FHXB Museum – carried out in cooperation with the ZZF Potsdam – master's students in the Public History program at the Free University of Berlin have developed an online presentation that uses the postcards to tell selected stories about Kreuzberg.


Two of these student works will be presented as part of the event: "Where are the Queers at?!" examines queer (in)visibilities in the postcards, while "Persecution and Expropriation" explores Jewish life during the Nazi era, which ultimately remains largely unrevealed in the postcard collection. Both projects exemplify what historical postcards tell us about history today, or rather, what they don't tell us.


The event is supported by the EU-funded project EUROPAST – Facing the Past. Public History for a Stronger Europe. The goal of this international project is to sustainably strengthen academic excellence and research capacities in the field of public history – particularly at Vilnius University. To this end, a long-term network is being established between leading institutions: the ZZF Potsdam, the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH), and Lund University.


The event offers exciting insights into the digitized Plewka Collection as well as current research perspectives and international collaborations in the field of public history. The focus will be on the question of how history can be communicated publicly today—both in analogue museums and on digital platforms.

• With Dr. Irmgard Zündorf (ZZF Potsdam), Sonja Lindhauer (FHXB Museum), Janika Stolt (FU) and Marina Kochedyshkina (FU)