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Digital platform highlights experiences of the GDR and transformation!
The University of Erfurt is presenting a digital platform on GDR history and transformation from September 24th, 2025 - interdisciplinary and accessible.
Digital platform highlights experiences of the GDR and transformation!
A new digital exhibition that deals with the dictatorship experience and the transformation processes in the GDR will be available online from September 24, 2025. This platform is aimed at anyone who would like to engage critically and from a multi-perspective perspective on the history of the GDR and the period of upheaval after 1989. The digital exhibition presents central sources and materials from the “Dictatorship Experience and Transformation” research network, which is currently funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research until the end of September 2025.
In the course of this interdisciplinary cooperation between historians, history didactics, art historians, literary scholars as well as social and film scientists, a comprehensive picture of the experiences and memories of the late GDR and the transformation period is created. The network aims to take into account the contradictory experiences and memories of the GDR and to integrate them into a social dialogue.
The digital platform and its content
The digital platform will not only convey research results in a thematically structured manner, but will also provide a media library. This media library enables the available digital copies to be accessed and critically viewed. Materials such as written sources, photographs, literary texts, interviews, films and works of art are clustered thematically as well as media-methodically and prepared didactically. These digital copies are published in a digital collection of the Thuringian University and State Library (ThULB) and can be found via digital libraries.
A central element of the platform is the examination of the experiences of people in the GDR and the transformation period. The year 1989 is viewed as the critical turning point in the last four decades. The research network includes ten sub-projects that work in two main areas: experience and memory as well as representation and judgment formation. These approaches are intended to help shed light on the current conflicts of memory that shape current debates on the GDR.
Invitation to the online event
An online event will take place on September 24, 2025 at 5 p.m. to officially launch the digital platform. Interested individuals must register by September 23, 2025 to gain access. After registering, participants will receive a link and access details for the event.
The development of this platform is the result of interdisciplinary collaboration between institutions such as the universities of Jena and Erfurt as well as foundations and memorials, including the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora memorials. The aim is to develop new ways of communication and exchange between academic and non-academic actors. The research network has already received positive reviews and will continue to be supported in order to make the research results accessible to a broad audience.
The research association is also active on Instagram for current information about events and updates. You also have the option of subscribing to the association's newsletter to stay informed about future developments.