IZS Audiowalk
Idea, concept and technical implementation:
Christine Bartlitz, Violetta Rudolf and Julia Wolrab, past-__-0000-__-present. History in Berlin format(www.past-at-present.de)
Implementation and organization: Aleksandar Nedelkovski, Institute for Contemporary History and City Presentation Wolfsburg; Christoph Röthig, Eichendorffschule Wolfsburg
Participating students from Eichendorffschule Wolfsburg: Miriam Buchhauser, Connor Fast, Luis Gerich, Christian Giemsa, Felix Göthe, Nicole Günther, Daria Häfner, Jona Hölter, Daniel Knor, Roman Köhler, Chiara Meister, Mel-Morin Moser, Jamie Mrugalla, Lea Rösel, Nele Schömers, Chantal Staus, Jan-Hendrik Staus, Jonas Trabandt, Til Ulrich
Interview partners: Murat B., Hani Hawile, Mohamed Ibrahim, an Italian "guest worker" (anonymous), a Tunisian "guest worker" (anonymous), Giovanni Lazzara, Aleksandar Nedelkovski, Florentine Schmidtmann, VW workers
Speaker: Salome Dastmalchi, Nadim Jarrar
Sound recordings: Joep Hegger (The Vocal Coach)
Sound editing: Hanna Klinger (audio pieces 2-10, 22), Violetta Rudolf, Julia Wolrab
Sounds from the databases (noises and sounds): Audioyou(https://www.audiyou.de/), Hörspielbox(http://www.hoerspielbox.de/), Salami(http://www.salamisound.de/). The data was sent via WeTransfer(https://wetransfer.com/)
"Audiowalk Wolfsburg - A Migration Story"
| Audio pieces |
|||||
| 1 |
Introduction | 9 | Sara Frenkel |
17 | Italy in Wolfsburg |
| 2 | Migration: Interview with Aleksandar Nedelkovski |
10 | Refugees from 1945 |
18 | Somehow I had settled in here |
| 3 |
Forced labor | 11 | Inner-German migration |
19 | A mosque in the green |
| 4 |
Olga and Piet |
12 | Guest worker agreement and Italian village | 20 | Interview with Murat |
| 5 |
Eudokia: Dragged to Wolfsburg | 13 | Arrival in Wolfsburg |
21 | Interview with Hani Hawile from Syria |
| 6 |
Fit for work: Forced Labor at VW |
14 | Home leave | 22 | Work colleagues |
| 7 |
Warehouse city Wolfsburg | 15 | Adult education center | ||
| 8 |
Forced labor memorial | 16 | Lupo Martini Wolfsburg | ||
The gives an overview of different migration movements, their reasons and shows that immigration is an essential factor of Wolfsburg's city history: The audio walk introduces people who had to do forced labor during World War II and explains the historical background. It asks what it was like for Italians and Tunisians to come to Wolfsburg as so-called guest workers and tells how Wolfsburg became home for some of them. He explores how refugees from the GDR and other German-speaking regions found a home in Wolfsburg. Finally, he directs his gaze to the present and sheds light on the situation of people arriving today, for example because they had to flee war and terror. With excerpts from letters, diary entries, newspaper articles, interviews and essays, the audio walk reveals different perspectives and creates a kaleidoscope of Wolfsburg's migration history.
The audio walk is a joint project of the Institute for Contemporary History and City Presentation (IZS), the history profile course of the Eichendorff School and the Berlin public history agency past-__-0000-__-present.
1. introduction
A brief introduction to the structure and creation of the audio walk. The voices of all participating students welcome the listeners.
2nd Migration: Interview with Aleksandar Nedelkovski
Wolfsburg has remained a city of immigration to this day. Aleksandar Nedelkovski from the Institute for Contemporary History and City Presentation gives an overview of Wolfsburg's migration history.
3. forced labor
More than 20,000 people were forcibly deported to the "city of the KdF car" to perform forced labor at the Volkswagen plant during the Nazi dictatorship starting in 1940.
4. olga and piet
Olga and Piet met in the Volkswagen factory in the fall of 1943. They were both forced laborers. A love affair developed between them.
5th Eudokia: Dragged to Wolfsburg
Eudokia P. was deported from Ukraine in 1943 and had to perform forced labor in the armaments production of the Volkswagen factory. She describes her arrival in the city.
6. able to work: Forced Labor at VW
What did the word "fit for work" actually mean to the forced laborers at the Volkswagen factory during the Nazi era?
7. warehouse city Wolfsburg
In what is now the city center, there were countless barracks camps at that time, where civilian workers, prisoners of war, forced laborers and concentration camp inmates had to live.
8. forced laborer monument
The memorial for forced laborers and concentration camp inmates commemorates the people who were deported to the "city of the KdF car" during the Nazi tyranny.
9. sara frenkel
The square, not far from Wolfsburg's pedestrian zone, was named after the Polish-Jewish forced laborer Sara Frenkel, who worked as a nurse in the "city of the KdF car".
10. refugees from 1945
By 1949, 1.8 million Germans had come to Lower Saxony from the former eastern territories. Many of them came from Silesia. They found a new home in Wolfsburg.
11. intra-German migration
Migration also took place and continues to take place within Germany. For example, in 1989/90, when many people from the GDR came to Wolfsburg after the Peaceful Revolution. Florentine Schmidtmann, a doctoral student at the Center for Contemporary History Research in Potsdam, tells us what it was like for people back then and what traces remind us of it today.
12. guest worker agreement and italian village
In the course of the recruitment agreements concluded by the German government from the mid-1950s onwards to attract new workers, the first Italian "guest workers" arrived in Wolfsburg in January 1962. Volkswagen had accommodation built for the workers - the site, which was fenced in with barbed wire, was soon popularly known as the "Italian Village".
13. arrival in Wolfsburg
Rocco Artale, honorary citizen of the city of Wolfsburg, came as a "guest worker" to work at Volkswagen. He tells of his arrival and his first time in Wolfsburg.
14. home leave
In July 1962, Wolfsburg's main train station is bustling with activity. Special trains take 850 Italian workers on home leave. These vacations have a special significance.
15. adult education center
At the Wolfsburg Adult Education Center, the workers were able to catch up on their Italian school-leaving qualifications.
16 Lupo Martini Wolfsburg
Lupo Martini Wolfsburg was the first sports club founded by "guest workers" in the Federal Republic of Germany. Today, in addition to Italians and Germans, Tunisians, Portuguese and Spaniards, for example, are also involved in the club.
17. Italy in Wolfsburg
Around 5500 Italians have stayed in Wolfsburg. Two students from the history profile course conduct an interview about life, work, Italian culture and feelings of home in Wolfsburg.
18. somehow I had settled in here
More than 40 years ago, the first so-called guest workers from Tunisia arrived in Wolfsburg, mostly to work for Volkswagen. Many of them have remained here to this day.
19. a mosque in the green
Mohamed Ibrahim, managing director of the Islamic Cultural Center Wolfsburg, reports about the mosque not far from the Großer Schillerteich. In this way, he takes the audience to this place, which is also very special architecturally.
20. interview with Murat
Murat came to Wolfsburg from Afghanistan in 2014. The search for work and a new task keep him busy. (Murat's voice was dubbed at his request).
21 Interview with Hani Hawile from Syria
Hani Hawile had to flee Syria because of the war there. He arrived in Wolfsburg in July 2015. The youth center "Haltestelle" has since become an important contact point for him.
22. work colleagues
An interview with VW workers and Aleksandar Nedelkovski in May 2017 at the History Workshop in Wolfsburg.