Research, Documentation and Exhibition Projects
of the Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam, the Potsdam Museum and the State Capital Potsdam - Lindenstraße Memorial Site (2007 – 2013)

Project coordination at the ZZF: Prof. Dr. Thomas Schaarschmidt / Dr. Hans-Hermann Hertle

Located in the heart of historic Potsdam, the Lindenstrasse memorial site is a unique place of memory. With its history under National Socialism as well as in the Soviet Occupation zone and GDR, it is a symbol of the political persecution and violence practiced during two different German dictatorships in the course of the twentieth century. At the same time it stands for the efforts to overcome communist one-party-rule, and the victory of democracy ushered in by the Peaceful Revolution of 1989-90.

The permanent exhibit on display today is the result of project work carried out between 2007 and 2013 by the ZZF and Potsdam Museum. This work was in large part supported by the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship (Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur), the Ministry for Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg, and the Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media, as well as by the European Union, the cultural initiative “Kulturland Brandenburg,” the Brandenburg State Office for Political Education (Landeszentrale für Politische Bildung), the “Lindenstrasse 54” association, and the Society of Friends and Sponsors of the Center for Contemporary History in Potsdam.

Since 2008, the Potsdam Museum has set aside funds for work at the memorial site. Federal and state funding has enabled the memorial site to expand its visitor facilities. The site’s positive development has been accompanied by a steady increase in visitor numbers – from about 5,000 in 2003 to about 20,000 annually in recent years.

Project coordination at the ZZF: Prof. Dr. Thomas Schaarschmidt / Dr. Hans-Hermann Hertle
Curator: Gabriele Schnell (Gedenkstätte Lindenstraße)
Design: Stefan Charné, Inga Falkenberg, Björn Gripinski (Designbüro freybeuter, Potsdam)

Project description and publications