Gedenk­ und Lernort

A memo­r­i­al trail in the out­door area, a basic exhi­bi­tion in the his­toric main build­ing of the for­mer sana­to­ri­um and nurs­ing home, com­ple­ment­ed by an exten­sion that sheds light on the fates of those mur­dered, and a com­pre­hen­sive accom­pa­ny­ing edu­ca­tion­al pro­gram – anoth­er sig­nif­i­cant step towards cre­at­ing a memo­r­i­al and learn­ing cen­ter for the vic­tims of the Nazi ​“euthana­sia” crimes has been achieved.

The steer­ing group – con­sist­ing of experts from the Friedrich-Alexan­der Uni­ver­si­ty Erlan­gen-Nurem­berg (FAU), the City of Erlan­gen, and the Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tal Erlan­gen under the lead­er­ship of Prof. Dr. Saf­fer­ling – has pre­sent­ed a thor­ough fea­si­bil­i­ty study in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Berlin-based agency chezweitz and hoskins archi­tects. Under the guid­ing prin­ci­ple of ​“Remem­brance, Learn­ing, Liv­ing,” they are devel­op­ing a con­cept for an open, par­tic­i­pa­to­ry, and inclu­sive memo­r­i­al site. The focus is on the entire site: a space that invites dis­cus­sion, encour­ages active par­tic­i­pa­tion, and per­ma­nent­ly embeds remem­brance in every­day life.

The results of this fea­si­bil­i­ty study will be fur­ther explored. Sceno­graph­ic design approach­es, edu­ca­tion­al for­mats, and exhi­bi­tion for­mats will be test­ed in pub­lic events, the sup­port­ing struc­ture will be estab­lished, fund­ing will be secured, and appro­pri­ate memo­r­i­al rit­u­als will be addressed repeat­ed­ly. The pub­lic will be informed, involved, and involved in the con­cep­tu­al design, sup­port­ing part­ners for imple­men­ta­tion will be nom­i­nat­ed in a selec­tion process, and final­ly, the ren­o­va­tion and imple­men­ta­tion will begin.

In Erlan­gen, we will suc­ceed in ush­er­ing in the future of memo­r­i­al site design. This future lies in life and the con­stant­ly re-ask­ing ques­tion: How can we apply what we have learned from the past to the chal­lenges of today? How can we achieve coex­is­tence with com­plete mutu­al respect?