Leibniz Research Alliance ‘Historical Authenticity’ | 2013 - 2021

Today, more than ever before, attitudes to the past are characterised by an intense striving for historical authenticity. In practical terms this manifests itself, for example, in the value attached to "authentic objects" in museums, collections and archives or to "authentic places" - be they historic buildings, urban architectural ensembles or memorial sites as apparently direct embodiments of history. This desire for historical authenticity and past "reality" goes hand in hand with an attachment to "tradition" and a longing to experience history "first hand". Ultimately, this is all bound up with a desire for things regarded as "genuine", with a wish to reconstruct and preserve the "true" and "original".

The Leibniz Research Alliance Historical Authenticity seeked to explore how contemporary conceptions of authenticity affect the way we deal with our cultural heritage by examining the reconstruction and conservation of historical artefacts, by studying the function of language as a cultural repository and instrument, by tracing the development of school textbooks and maps, and looking at the conception of museums, archives, monuments and memorial sites.

The Leibniz Research Alliance Historical Authenticity was a cooperation of historical, educational, social sciences and spatial research institutes as well as research museums. It will take a transdisciplinary and international approach, drawing on the full range of competence and expertise offered by cultural studies and by the social and life sciences at the participating research museums and institutes. Nineteen Leibniz institutes and three external partners were involved.

Speaker of the Leibniz-Research Alliance "Historical Authenticity": Prof. Dr. Martin Sabrow (ZZF Potsdam)
Cordinator of the Leibniz-Research Alliance "Historical Authenticity": Dr. Achim Saupe (ZZF Potsdam)

Website Leibniz Research Alliance "Historical Authenticity"

 

Forschung

Projekte

Geschichtskultur, Authentizität und Selbstkonstruktion seit den 1980er-Jahren

Achim Saupe

Forschungsprojekt
Im Rahmen des Forschungsverbundes Historische Authentizität untersucht das Projekt den Diskurs des Authentischen in unterschiedlichen geschichtskulturellen Feldern seit den 1980er Jahren: Im UNESCO-Welterbe, im Diskurs über städtische Ensembles, Bauten und Rekonstruktionen, in Museen, im Bereich von Gedenkstätten sowie in Bezug auf Minderheiten und subkulturelle und marginalisierte soziale Gruppen.

Guided tour in Berlin, Mainzer Str., Photo: Christine Bartlitz

Public History and Historical Tourism

Hanno Hochmuth

Research project in the framework of the Leibniz Research Alliance ‘Historical Authenticity’

Berlin is regarded as ‘the Rome of the contemporary period’. The varied history of the German capital contributes to a great extent to Berlin’s constantly growing appeal in global tourism. Especially Berlin’s ‘shadowy areas’ from the Nazi dictatorship and the Cold War constitute today a significant locational advantage.

Screenshot, Website: Project: en/counter/points: (re)negotiating belonging through culture and contact in public space and place

en/counter/points: (re)negotiating belonging through culture and contact in public space and place

Susannah Eckersley

Associated Reseach Project

en/counter/points aims to uncover (re)negotiations of belonging in different public spaces (museums, cultural platforms, heritage and memory sites and city spaces), time frames (linking past and present) and related to significant themes (migration, colonialism, post-socialism), in a changing Europe.

Kulturlandschaft Resurrektion Aurora / Altenburger Land, Außenwandbild: Friedliche Nutzung der Kernenergie von Werner Petzold, Fotos: Michael Ostheimer; Collage: Katja Stopka.

Time landscapes of socialism in literature, film, photography and the fine arts. An aesthetic-political topography of the GDR

Katja Stopka

Research project

The temporalization of landscape is a characteristic position of the historical materialism. This temporal nature is being addressed in artistic as well as literary depictions of landscape from the GDR. Therefore, they prove themselves as on the one hand affirmative, on the other hand critical reflections of constructions of the “socialist” authenticity.

 

Potsdams City, Photo: Pixabay

Der Potsdamer Stadtumbau – Authentisierungsstrategien im Widerstreit

Anja Tack

Forschungsprojekt
Teil des Verbundprojektes: „Urban Authenticity: Creating, Contesting, and Visualising the Built Heritage in European Cities since the 1970s (UrbAuth)”

Das Projekt historisiert den Stadtumbau Potsdams, beleuchtet die Interessen der Akteur*innen und untersucht, mit welchen visuellen Medien die unterschiedlichen Positionen illustriert und beglaubigt werden.

The Berlin castle (photo and editing: Kristin Meißner)

Controversial city centre:  The debate on the Berlin centre after 1989 and the negotiation of belonging in public space

Kristin Meißner
Completed research project

As part of the HERA research network „en/counter/points: (re)negotiating belonging through culture and contact in public space and place“ the project analysed urban planning debates on the Berlin city centre after 1989.

Urban Authenticity: Creating, Contesting, and Visualising the Built Heritage in European Cities since the 1970s

Achim Saupe

Verbundprojekt
Koordination: Leibniz-Institut für Raumbezogene Sozialforschung in Erkner (IRS)

Im Projekt wird untersucht, wie in öffentlichen Debatten, medialen Präsentationen und städtebaulichen Praktiken Teile des Bauerbes einer Stadt in Wert gesetzt werden, indem ihnen Authentizität zugesprochen wird. Die Debatten werden anhand von vier Fallbeispielen in Städten der Bundesrepublik, der DDR, Polens und Frankreichs näher untersucht: Nürnberg, Potsdam, Szczecin und Marseille.

 

en/counter/points: (re)negotiating belonging through culture and contact in public space and place

Achim Saupe

HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area)-Projekt

Im interdisziplinär ausgerichteten Projekt werden öffentliche Räume und Bauten als Orte der Aushandlung gesellschaftlicher Zugehörigkeit ana­lysiert. Das international besetzte Forschungsprojekt mit Wissenschaftler*innen aus Großbritannien, Polen, Italien, den Niederlanden und Deutschland beschäftigt sich mit Beispielen aus Polen, Bosnien, Ser­bien, Maze­do­nien, Frankreich, Italien, Spanien, Großbritannien und Deutschland.

Leibniz Research Alliance ‘Historical Authenticity’ | 2013 - 2021

Today, more than ever before, attitudes to the past are characterised by an intense striving for historical authenticity. In practical terms this manifests itself, for example, in the value attached to "authentic objects" in museums, collections and archives or to "authentic places" - be they historic buildings, urban architectural ensembles or memorial sites as apparently direct embodiments of history. This desire for historical authenticity and past "reality" goes hand in hand with an attachment to "tradition" and a longing to experience history "first hand". Ultimately, this is all bound up with a desire for things regarded as "genuine", with a wish to reconstruct and preserve the "true" and "original".

The Leibniz Research Alliance Historical Authenticity seeked to explore how contemporary conceptions of authenticity affect the way we deal with our cultural heritage by examining the reconstruction and conservation of historical artefacts, by studying the function of language as a cultural repository and instrument, by tracing the development of school textbooks and maps, and looking at the conception of museums, archives, monuments and memorial sites.

The Leibniz Research Alliance Historical Authenticity was a cooperation of historical, educational, social sciences and spatial research institutes as well as research museums. It will take a transdisciplinary and international approach, drawing on the full range of competence and expertise offered by cultural studies and by the social and life sciences at the participating research museums and institutes. Nineteen Leibniz institutes and three external partners were involved.

Speaker of the Leibniz-Research Alliance "Historical Authenticity": Prof. Dr. Martin Sabrow (ZZF Potsdam)
Cordinator of the Leibniz-Research Alliance "Historical Authenticity": Dr. Achim Saupe (ZZF Potsdam)

Website Leibniz Research Alliance "Historical Authenticity"

 

Forschung

Projekte

Geschichtskultur, Authentizität und Selbstkonstruktion seit den 1980er-Jahren

Achim Saupe

Forschungsprojekt
Im Rahmen des Forschungsverbundes Historische Authentizität untersucht das Projekt den Diskurs des Authentischen in unterschiedlichen geschichtskulturellen Feldern seit den 1980er Jahren: Im UNESCO-Welterbe, im Diskurs über städtische Ensembles, Bauten und Rekonstruktionen, in Museen, im Bereich von Gedenkstätten sowie in Bezug auf Minderheiten und subkulturelle und marginalisierte soziale Gruppen.

Guided tour in Berlin, Mainzer Str., Photo: Christine Bartlitz

Public History and Historical Tourism

Hanno Hochmuth

Research project in the framework of the Leibniz Research Alliance ‘Historical Authenticity’

Berlin is regarded as ‘the Rome of the contemporary period’. The varied history of the German capital contributes to a great extent to Berlin’s constantly growing appeal in global tourism. Especially Berlin’s ‘shadowy areas’ from the Nazi dictatorship and the Cold War constitute today a significant locational advantage.

Screenshot, Website: Project: en/counter/points: (re)negotiating belonging through culture and contact in public space and place

en/counter/points: (re)negotiating belonging through culture and contact in public space and place

Susannah Eckersley

Associated Reseach Project

en/counter/points aims to uncover (re)negotiations of belonging in different public spaces (museums, cultural platforms, heritage and memory sites and city spaces), time frames (linking past and present) and related to significant themes (migration, colonialism, post-socialism), in a changing Europe.

Kulturlandschaft Resurrektion Aurora / Altenburger Land, Außenwandbild: Friedliche Nutzung der Kernenergie von Werner Petzold, Fotos: Michael Ostheimer; Collage: Katja Stopka.

Time landscapes of socialism in literature, film, photography and the fine arts. An aesthetic-political topography of the GDR

Katja Stopka

Research project

The temporalization of landscape is a characteristic position of the historical materialism. This temporal nature is being addressed in artistic as well as literary depictions of landscape from the GDR. Therefore, they prove themselves as on the one hand affirmative, on the other hand critical reflections of constructions of the “socialist” authenticity.

 

Potsdams City, Photo: Pixabay

Der Potsdamer Stadtumbau – Authentisierungsstrategien im Widerstreit

Anja Tack

Forschungsprojekt
Teil des Verbundprojektes: „Urban Authenticity: Creating, Contesting, and Visualising the Built Heritage in European Cities since the 1970s (UrbAuth)”

Das Projekt historisiert den Stadtumbau Potsdams, beleuchtet die Interessen der Akteur*innen und untersucht, mit welchen visuellen Medien die unterschiedlichen Positionen illustriert und beglaubigt werden.

The Berlin castle (photo and editing: Kristin Meißner)

Controversial city centre:  The debate on the Berlin centre after 1989 and the negotiation of belonging in public space

Kristin Meißner
Completed research project

As part of the HERA research network „en/counter/points: (re)negotiating belonging through culture and contact in public space and place“ the project analysed urban planning debates on the Berlin city centre after 1989.

Urban Authenticity: Creating, Contesting, and Visualising the Built Heritage in European Cities since the 1970s

Achim Saupe

Verbundprojekt
Koordination: Leibniz-Institut für Raumbezogene Sozialforschung in Erkner (IRS)

Im Projekt wird untersucht, wie in öffentlichen Debatten, medialen Präsentationen und städtebaulichen Praktiken Teile des Bauerbes einer Stadt in Wert gesetzt werden, indem ihnen Authentizität zugesprochen wird. Die Debatten werden anhand von vier Fallbeispielen in Städten der Bundesrepublik, der DDR, Polens und Frankreichs näher untersucht: Nürnberg, Potsdam, Szczecin und Marseille.

 

en/counter/points: (re)negotiating belonging through culture and contact in public space and place

Achim Saupe

HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area)-Projekt

Im interdisziplinär ausgerichteten Projekt werden öffentliche Räume und Bauten als Orte der Aushandlung gesellschaftlicher Zugehörigkeit ana­lysiert. Das international besetzte Forschungsprojekt mit Wissenschaftler*innen aus Großbritannien, Polen, Italien, den Niederlanden und Deutschland beschäftigt sich mit Beispielen aus Polen, Bosnien, Ser­bien, Maze­do­nien, Frankreich, Italien, Spanien, Großbritannien und Deutschland.