Master’s program in Public History

Since the winter semester of 2008–09, the Free University of Berlin and the ZZF have jointly offered a practice-oriented, consecutive master’s degree program in Public History. The program takes into account a considerable media interest in history and the growing social significance of museums, memorial sites and other places of historical learning. This unique degree program qualifies its graduates in particular for tasks requiring the preparation and communication of specialist knowledge in a broad public context. This includes work in the media, at publishing houses, museums and memorial sites, in organizations, foundations and companies.

 

Object / Focus of the degree program (PDF, in German)

Admission requirements (PDF, in German)

Structure of the program (PDF, in German)

Application (PDF, in German)

Study and examination regulations / Conditions of placement (PDF, in German)

Key information (PDF, in German)

Home page: public-history.fu-berlin.de


International Blended Learning Seminar “Europe and its Colonial Past. Practices, Narratives, Spaces of Memory”
October 2020 to January 2021 with an Excursion in September 2021

The MA seminar with participants from Lucerne, Paris, Cologne, Berlin, Nijmegen and Warsaw focuses on the analysis of practices and narratives of memory with regard to Europe’s colonial past. The construction, public usage, contestation and transformation of memory regarding European imperialism, colonialism and decolonization by different agents in the public sphere, especially museums, monuments, art, the media and political agents will be approached systematically. Against the background of postcolonial theories and theories on memory, the seminar aims at deconstructing blind spots in past and present constructions of European and national memories, on their mechanisms of exclusion that foster(ed) and perpetuat(ed) images of the ‘other’, of racism, discrimination and violence. Comparative perspectives on different national contexts and their entanglements are specifically analysed. In a digital classroom and live seminars with the professors, students will collaborate with their international colleagues and exchange ideas, reflect about texts and analyse primary sources in various formats (e.g. short collaboratively elaborated papers, forums, online live presentations etc.). Towards the end of the semester, two live events with the House of European History (Brussels) and the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Brussels) will be organised, followed, if the situation permits, by a voluntary on-site workshop in Brussels in September 2021.

  • English is the main language of communication.
  • Participants are MA students in the study programmes of the six partner Universities.

Modes of teaching and communication are: 

  • group work (collaborative work on chosen topics, short written assignments and oral presentations in live seminars) 
  • group discussions in live seminars and activities in the digital classroom
  • video/audio inputs by the profs.
  • possibility to participate in a two-day workshop in Brussels (trip and accommodation financed) in September

You may find some more information about the seminar here: https://portal.uni-koeln.de/international/uzk-weltweit/eduventure/eduventure-cologne-ivac/public-history

If you would like to learn about the teacher's motivations and expectations on the interdisciplinary exchange, please visit the website of the University of Cologne.


International Blended Learning Seminar "Europe. Practices, Narratives, Spaces of Memory"
14. to 20. December 2019

The MA seminar with participants from Lucerne, Paris, Cologne, Berlin, Nijmegen and Krakow focuses on the analysis of the construction, usage and transformation of practices and narratives of memory of Europe / with regard to Europe by different agents in the public sphere, such as museums, monuments, literature and film, architecture, media and political agents. With regard to European myths the spatial dimension – imagined spaces, transnational entanglements, borders and the construction of ‘external others’ – is of special interest. In a digital classroom, students will collaborate with their international colleagues and exchange ideas, reflect about texts and analyse primary sources in various formats (e.g. short collaboratively elaborated papers, blogs, chats, forums, etc.). In addition to online collaboration, the seminar will bring students together for a two-day workshop in Brussels, which will be organised at the House of European History. This workshop will enable students to apply conceptual and theoretical approaches and explore the dimensions of memory and identity with regard to institutions of public history, especially museums.

  • English is the main language of communication.
  • Participants are MA students in the study programmes of the six partner Universities.
  • Instructional modes:

- weekly group discussion and collaboration on Moodle
- mandatory two-day workshop in Brussels (trip and accommodation financed)
- short written assignments

  • Students will acquire 3 ECTS for participation and activities during the semester. Additional ECTS are possible in relation to additional work done according to the requirements of the respective University.
  • Semester dates: October 14 to December 20, 2019
  • The number of participants is limited. Please contact the respective Professor of your University.

The number of participants is limited. Please contact the respective Professor of your University.

Flyer International Blended Learning Seminar "Europe. Practices, Narratives, Spaces of Memory" (pdf)


Report

INTERNATIONAL AND INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDENT WORKSHOP ON THE MEMORY OF NAZI CRIMES
17. to 26. October 2019 in Gdansk, Riga and Sztutowo

Project management: Kathrin Lemme (Lemgo), Irmgard Zündorf (Berlin / ZZF), Thomas Lewe (Volda)

Report by Jan Casper, Sara Elkmann, Linda Graul, Malte Grünkorn, Lily Prollius

On October 17th 2019, about 30 students and six teachers from universities in Germany, Norway, Poland and Latvia met in Gdansk to start a ten-day interdiscplinary workshop on memories and representations of World War II history in general and the history of the Hamburg deportations of Jews, Sinti and Roma in particular. Under the auspices of the workshop title “Memory Dialogues”, students from ten different countries and diverse disciplinary backgrounds in journalism, design, media production and public history came together to discuss different approaches and strategies to commemorate Nazi crimes. The workshop has been a cooperation between the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Ostwestfalen-Lippe and the project „Documentation Center Hanover Station Memorial“, which, as a part of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, is developing a new permanent exhibition in Hamburg’s HafenCity to be opened in 2022. The Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam (ZZF) together with Volda University College, University of Bergen, University Lodz, the Latvian Academy of Culture in Riga, the Stutthof Concentration Camp Memorial, the Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Lodz and the Žanis-Lipke-Museum in Riga joined the project as partners. For the Public History Master programme at Free University Berlin, five students travelled to Gdansk and contributed to the workshop under supervision of ZZF’s Irmgard Zündorf, who is in charge of the Centre’s Public History programme.

The Hanover Station Memorial and its future Documentation Center commemorate over 8000 Jews, Sinti and Roma from Hamburg and Northern Germany who were deported to Ghettos and Concentration Camps in Eastern Europe. The deportation of over 750 Jews from Hamburg to Riga on December 6th  1941 served as the workshop’s historical framework. This is why the participants travelled from Gdansk to the Latvian capital and finished their workshop in Sztutowo/Stutthof Museum, since most of the Hamburg Jews who survived the Ghetto and Camps in Latvia were eventually send to Stutthof Concentration Camp.

In the following text the Berlin students report on the workshop and its outcomes, namely the five different concepts for the entrance hall in the soon-to-come Documentation Center Hanover Station Memorial the workshop was ought to produce.

Workshop description

Presentation of results
(Five Concepts for the entrance wall in the Documentationcenter Hanover Station Memorial)

A short report of the workshop in German can also be found on the Neuengamme Memorial site:
https://www.kz-gedenkstaette-neuengamme.de/nachrichten/news/wie-stellen-sich-studierende-eine-gelungene-ausstellung-vor/

Flyer INTERNATIONAL AND INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDENT WORKSHOP ON THE MEMORY OF NAZI CRIMES (pdf)


International Workshop "Rethinking Memory Culture", 30 September to 10 October 2018 in Łódź, Poland

Organisation: Volda University College (Norwegen), Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe, Universität Łódź (Polen), Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam (ZZF) and Centrum Dialogu Marek Edelmann in Łódź.

Report by Anna Linnéa Herrmann, Michaela Hofmann, Mariane Pöschel, Anna Schattschneider, Charlotte Wittenius, Irmgard Zündorf

Twenty students of graphic design and journalism from Norway, art students from Poland and film studies and public history students from Germany met for ten days in Łódź (Poland) in early October to develop concepts to commemorate and remember the Litzmannstadt (Łódź) ghetto.
As well as exploring the history of the ghetto that existed in German-occupied Poland from 1939 to 1944, the focus was on working at an interdisciplinary and international level. The students of public history began with a brief introduction to the history of the city, of German occupation policy, of the ghetto and of the Polish culture of remembrance. This was followed by guided historical tours looking at the geography of the city, the remaining traces of the ghetto and the existing memorial sites, signs and inscriptions. These include the "Radegast train station" memorial commemorating the deportations, a monument to the Polish citizens who saved Jews, and various inscriptions on the ground marking the former ghetto boundaries. Holocaust survivor Joanna Berens-Tomczyńska, who lived through the Second World War in Poland as a Polish Jewish child, provided a very personal perspective. More (pdf)


Publications

The new publication series Public History – Geschichte in der Praxis (Public History – History in Practice) was launched in 2016 in cooperation with UTB publishing house to support the department’s teaching mission. The series presents increasingly relevant topic areas and fields of activity that address history outside of an educational context. Its focus is on the current state of research, the development of specific methods, practical applications and occupational uses. The series is edited by Irmgard Zündorf and Stefanie Samida.

Public History

Master’s program in Public History

Since the winter semester of 2008–09, the Free University of Berlin and the ZZF have jointly offered a practice-oriented, consecutive master’s degree program in Public History. The program takes into account a considerable media interest in history and the growing social significance of museums, memorial sites and other places of historical learning. This unique degree program qualifies its graduates in particular for tasks requiring the preparation and communication of specialist knowledge in a broad public context. This includes work in the media, at publishing houses, museums and memorial sites, in organizations, foundations and companies.

 

Object / Focus of the degree program (PDF, in German)

Admission requirements (PDF, in German)

Structure of the program (PDF, in German)

Application (PDF, in German)

Study and examination regulations / Conditions of placement (PDF, in German)

Key information (PDF, in German)

Home page: public-history.fu-berlin.de


International Blended Learning Seminar “Europe and its Colonial Past. Practices, Narratives, Spaces of Memory”
October 2020 to January 2021 with an Excursion in September 2021

The MA seminar with participants from Lucerne, Paris, Cologne, Berlin, Nijmegen and Warsaw focuses on the analysis of practices and narratives of memory with regard to Europe’s colonial past. The construction, public usage, contestation and transformation of memory regarding European imperialism, colonialism and decolonization by different agents in the public sphere, especially museums, monuments, art, the media and political agents will be approached systematically. Against the background of postcolonial theories and theories on memory, the seminar aims at deconstructing blind spots in past and present constructions of European and national memories, on their mechanisms of exclusion that foster(ed) and perpetuat(ed) images of the ‘other’, of racism, discrimination and violence. Comparative perspectives on different national contexts and their entanglements are specifically analysed. In a digital classroom and live seminars with the professors, students will collaborate with their international colleagues and exchange ideas, reflect about texts and analyse primary sources in various formats (e.g. short collaboratively elaborated papers, forums, online live presentations etc.). Towards the end of the semester, two live events with the House of European History (Brussels) and the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Brussels) will be organised, followed, if the situation permits, by a voluntary on-site workshop in Brussels in September 2021.

  • English is the main language of communication.
  • Participants are MA students in the study programmes of the six partner Universities.

Modes of teaching and communication are: 

  • group work (collaborative work on chosen topics, short written assignments and oral presentations in live seminars) 
  • group discussions in live seminars and activities in the digital classroom
  • video/audio inputs by the profs.
  • possibility to participate in a two-day workshop in Brussels (trip and accommodation financed) in September

You may find some more information about the seminar here: https://portal.uni-koeln.de/international/uzk-weltweit/eduventure/eduventure-cologne-ivac/public-history

If you would like to learn about the teacher's motivations and expectations on the interdisciplinary exchange, please visit the website of the University of Cologne.


International Blended Learning Seminar "Europe. Practices, Narratives, Spaces of Memory"
14. to 20. December 2019

The MA seminar with participants from Lucerne, Paris, Cologne, Berlin, Nijmegen and Krakow focuses on the analysis of the construction, usage and transformation of practices and narratives of memory of Europe / with regard to Europe by different agents in the public sphere, such as museums, monuments, literature and film, architecture, media and political agents. With regard to European myths the spatial dimension – imagined spaces, transnational entanglements, borders and the construction of ‘external others’ – is of special interest. In a digital classroom, students will collaborate with their international colleagues and exchange ideas, reflect about texts and analyse primary sources in various formats (e.g. short collaboratively elaborated papers, blogs, chats, forums, etc.). In addition to online collaboration, the seminar will bring students together for a two-day workshop in Brussels, which will be organised at the House of European History. This workshop will enable students to apply conceptual and theoretical approaches and explore the dimensions of memory and identity with regard to institutions of public history, especially museums.

  • English is the main language of communication.
  • Participants are MA students in the study programmes of the six partner Universities.
  • Instructional modes:

- weekly group discussion and collaboration on Moodle
- mandatory two-day workshop in Brussels (trip and accommodation financed)
- short written assignments

  • Students will acquire 3 ECTS for participation and activities during the semester. Additional ECTS are possible in relation to additional work done according to the requirements of the respective University.
  • Semester dates: October 14 to December 20, 2019
  • The number of participants is limited. Please contact the respective Professor of your University.

The number of participants is limited. Please contact the respective Professor of your University.

Flyer International Blended Learning Seminar "Europe. Practices, Narratives, Spaces of Memory" (pdf)


Report

INTERNATIONAL AND INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDENT WORKSHOP ON THE MEMORY OF NAZI CRIMES
17. to 26. October 2019 in Gdansk, Riga and Sztutowo

Project management: Kathrin Lemme (Lemgo), Irmgard Zündorf (Berlin / ZZF), Thomas Lewe (Volda)

Report by Jan Casper, Sara Elkmann, Linda Graul, Malte Grünkorn, Lily Prollius

On October 17th 2019, about 30 students and six teachers from universities in Germany, Norway, Poland and Latvia met in Gdansk to start a ten-day interdiscplinary workshop on memories and representations of World War II history in general and the history of the Hamburg deportations of Jews, Sinti and Roma in particular. Under the auspices of the workshop title “Memory Dialogues”, students from ten different countries and diverse disciplinary backgrounds in journalism, design, media production and public history came together to discuss different approaches and strategies to commemorate Nazi crimes. The workshop has been a cooperation between the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Ostwestfalen-Lippe and the project „Documentation Center Hanover Station Memorial“, which, as a part of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, is developing a new permanent exhibition in Hamburg’s HafenCity to be opened in 2022. The Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam (ZZF) together with Volda University College, University of Bergen, University Lodz, the Latvian Academy of Culture in Riga, the Stutthof Concentration Camp Memorial, the Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Lodz and the Žanis-Lipke-Museum in Riga joined the project as partners. For the Public History Master programme at Free University Berlin, five students travelled to Gdansk and contributed to the workshop under supervision of ZZF’s Irmgard Zündorf, who is in charge of the Centre’s Public History programme.

The Hanover Station Memorial and its future Documentation Center commemorate over 8000 Jews, Sinti and Roma from Hamburg and Northern Germany who were deported to Ghettos and Concentration Camps in Eastern Europe. The deportation of over 750 Jews from Hamburg to Riga on December 6th  1941 served as the workshop’s historical framework. This is why the participants travelled from Gdansk to the Latvian capital and finished their workshop in Sztutowo/Stutthof Museum, since most of the Hamburg Jews who survived the Ghetto and Camps in Latvia were eventually send to Stutthof Concentration Camp.

In the following text the Berlin students report on the workshop and its outcomes, namely the five different concepts for the entrance hall in the soon-to-come Documentation Center Hanover Station Memorial the workshop was ought to produce.

Workshop description

Presentation of results
(Five Concepts for the entrance wall in the Documentationcenter Hanover Station Memorial)

A short report of the workshop in German can also be found on the Neuengamme Memorial site:
https://www.kz-gedenkstaette-neuengamme.de/nachrichten/news/wie-stellen-sich-studierende-eine-gelungene-ausstellung-vor/

Flyer INTERNATIONAL AND INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDENT WORKSHOP ON THE MEMORY OF NAZI CRIMES (pdf)


International Workshop "Rethinking Memory Culture", 30 September to 10 October 2018 in Łódź, Poland

Organisation: Volda University College (Norwegen), Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe, Universität Łódź (Polen), Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam (ZZF) and Centrum Dialogu Marek Edelmann in Łódź.

Report by Anna Linnéa Herrmann, Michaela Hofmann, Mariane Pöschel, Anna Schattschneider, Charlotte Wittenius, Irmgard Zündorf

Twenty students of graphic design and journalism from Norway, art students from Poland and film studies and public history students from Germany met for ten days in Łódź (Poland) in early October to develop concepts to commemorate and remember the Litzmannstadt (Łódź) ghetto.
As well as exploring the history of the ghetto that existed in German-occupied Poland from 1939 to 1944, the focus was on working at an interdisciplinary and international level. The students of public history began with a brief introduction to the history of the city, of German occupation policy, of the ghetto and of the Polish culture of remembrance. This was followed by guided historical tours looking at the geography of the city, the remaining traces of the ghetto and the existing memorial sites, signs and inscriptions. These include the "Radegast train station" memorial commemorating the deportations, a monument to the Polish citizens who saved Jews, and various inscriptions on the ground marking the former ghetto boundaries. Holocaust survivor Joanna Berens-Tomczyńska, who lived through the Second World War in Poland as a Polish Jewish child, provided a very personal perspective. More (pdf)


Publications

The new publication series Public History – Geschichte in der Praxis (Public History – History in Practice) was launched in 2016 in cooperation with UTB publishing house to support the department’s teaching mission. The series presents increasingly relevant topic areas and fields of activity that address history outside of an educational context. Its focus is on the current state of research, the development of specific methods, practical applications and occupational uses. The series is edited by Irmgard Zündorf and Stefanie Samida.

Public History