Obermayer German Jewish History Award (Anniversary)

Challenging students to see beyond what they’ve been taught

Geschichtomat project weeks give teens a deeper perspective on German Jewish history while teaching practical media skills

On a damp November morning, teenagers from Hamburg’s Bahrendfeld district school (Stadtteilschule Bahrenfeld) are walking up to strangers in the Platz der Republik park, where a large black monument blocks the view of an imposing 19th century building, Altona Town Hall. “Can we ask you a few questions?”

The monument is a memorial to the lost Jews of Hamburg’s Altona district. It was created by American Jewish artist Sol Lewitt (1928-2007) and placed here in 1989. There were about 5,000 Jews in this district before the Nazis came to power. “Did you know what this is?” the pupils ask those willing to talk on camera. Very few have noticed the black-painted, rectangular sculpture, though they pass by often.

The students will edit the comments of passersby and an interview with Anne-Kathrin Reinberg, Hamburg’s specialist on visual art, into a short documentary that will become part of the Geschichtomat website. Geschichtomat is a history project that is building a virtual map of Jewish sites in Hamburg while bringing pupils on a journey into the past and present. The name roughly translates as “history machine.”

With the help of historians and media experts, pupils research, interview sources and eyewitnesses, visit museums and archives, shoot and edit their own videos, and write texts. Their projects are uploaded to the website.

There, one can hear the voices of teenagers from schools across the city as they explain the origin of Jewish names, tell the history of a local Jewish family in the Nazi-era, explore the landscape of memorials in the city, or explain Jewish traditions and holidays. Visitors to the site can choose among dozens of topics, from culture and religion to migration and persecution. All projects are produced by pupils, with professional guidance. 

Since Geschichtomat was founded in 2013 by Ivana Scharf, more than 800 students have participated and almost 200 short films have been produced. 

The organization was recognized in December 2018 with a special prize from the Berlin-based Foundation for Education and Society (Stiftung Bildung und Gesellschaft) for its contribution to introducing teenagers to new digital technology, through creative projects. “The project is a wonderful example of how one can use digital media to explore history,” said Birgit Ossenkopf, deputy director of the foundation, at the time.

The website has become a resource for new projects, with teaching materials created by kids for kids about such topics as kosher food, Jewish holidays, and the Kindertransport—a short-lived rescue program that helped Jewish children flee Nazi Germany and Austria to England.

Though children learn about other religions in class, as well as about the Nazi persecution and genocide of the Jews, they don’t usually learn much about what happened close to home. A survey showed that almost 90 percent of Geschichtomat participants had never dealt with Jewish history and culture in Hamburg before. 

“When you learn about Jewish life in German schools you learn about the Holocaust and maybe about persecutions in the Middle Ages,” says Carmen Bisotti, manager of Geschichtomat, which is based at Hamburg’s Institute for the History of German Jews. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very important part. But if the only thing you learn is that Jews were a persecuted minority and not a part of society, you get a wrong impression.”

Working in public schools with educators and pupils during a “project week,” Geschichtomat facilitates first-person interviews, access to primary sources, and direct experience. 

Panagiotis Maltasiadis, head of the high school department of the Joseph Carlebach school in Hamburg, says his students who have participated developed both personal and practical skills. Geschichtomat, he says, “helps our students become self-confident and democratic” contributors to German society.

The pupils experience a “perspective change,” says teacher Nicole Sassen of the Bahrenfeld district school. “Jews are not always the victim, or a group that is just being hated again. It’s just a group with a different religion.”

Sometimes pupils get a chance to meet local Jews. Pupils have interviewed rabbis and visited the synagogue and Jewish school. These encounters are “very important,” says Bisotti. “If you know someone from a minority or different religion you are less likely to have prejudices against them. Because you realize that they are just as normal as you are.” But meeting people from the Jewish community in Hamburg is not part of every project week, simply because there are only a few thousand Jews here. “[They] simply do not have the time to talk to students at least eight times a year,” Bisotti says.

Geschichtomat was founded after Scharf, taking a walk in her home city, noticed a sign marking Troplowitz Street. She knew that Oskar Troplowitz (1863-1918) was one of the most famous people in 20th century Hamburg, as founder of the Nivea skin cream company. When Scharf looked further she learned he had been Jewish. This story inspired her to help others learn more about local Jewish history—“to help them understand what an important and yet normal part of history Jewish people are in Hamburg and in Germany.” 

Sometimes, a school project will resonate beyond the expected scope. A few years ago, kids looked into the story behind a stumbling stone in front of their school. It was dedicated to a former Jewish pupil who had been deported and murdered in the Holocaust. 

“When they started, there wasn’t even a picture of the girl. They did an interview, created a video, and then project week was over,” says Bisotti. “But a couple of weeks later, their teacher called us, very excited. [A relative] in the United States had seen the video. She eventually came to Hamburg, visited the class, and brought photos.”

Today, Sassen’s pupils, aged 14-15, are working on projects about Jewish holidays and rituals, about the persecution of Jews in the Nazi period, and about post-war remembrance. On Geschichtomat project days, kids are especially focused, says Sassen.

“I always associated Jews with discrimination,” says pupil Leona. 

“I have heard kids today call each other ‘you Jew,’” comments her classmate, Yagmur. “It’s racist.”

“We get to know about their lives. It’s not just that they were persecuted,” says Mascha. 

In many schools, Bisotti says, old prejudices are still there. “We want to show that Jewish people are, and were, just normal German citizens, just like any others. And we hope that some barriers are going down.”