Alternative Blicke auf die eigene Stadtgeschichte. Geschichtswerkstätten und die Pluralisierung lokalen Geschichtswissens in den 1980er Jahren

Abstract

This contribution focusses on the attempts by local history groups emerging around 1980 to develop new and alternative perspectives on the history of their own city and region. It contends that the activities of these ‘history workshops’, by which they not only put new themes centre stage but also established new methods of historical research and public presentation, contributed to the construction of a pluralised historical heritage since the 1980s. The article analyses the particular modes of communicating and organising public actions towards the formation of an alternative knowledge about the local past. It demonstrates how the hidden history of places such as a con - centration camp near Überlingen on the Lake of Constance or the proletarian housing estate Lindenhof in Berlin was uncovered and raised to public consciousness.