24.10.2024

Concentration camp memorials are now represented on TikTok

Building design

Serious debates on socio-political issues are also increasingly taking place on TikTok. For Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, 2021, the young social media platform has therefore also dedicated itself to remembering the Shoah: Several concentration camp memorials now want to reach “Generation Z”, for whom Instagram and Facebook are oldschool, with short video clips. The Central Council of Jews praises the use of the app to […]

Serious debates on socio-political issues are also increasingly taking place on TikTok. For Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, 2021, the young social media platform has therefore also dedicated itself to remembering the Shoah: Several concentration camp memorials now want to reach“Generation Z” , for whom Instagram and Facebook are oldschool, with short video clips . The Central Council of Jews praises the use of the app to target the 16 to 24 age group

Every month, more than one billion people worldwide use the short video service TikTok; in Europe, the figure is around 100 million. It is above all “Generation Z”, the 16 to 24-year-old age group, that feels addressed by the content there. More than two thirds of all TikTok posts are posted by users from this demographic or are aimed at them. Initially, it was mainly entertaining content that found its way onto the platform, but increasingly serious debates on socio-political issues are also taking place on TikTok. To mark Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, TikTok has now also turned its attention to the memory of the Shoah.

The 98-year-old British Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert has been a star on TikTok since she started posting videos there a few months ago together with her great-grandson Dov Forman. 1.6 million people now follow Ebert and Forman on the platform. Recently, several concentration camp memorials have even joined TikTok, posting short, informative video clips – mainly in English.

The pioneer in Germany is the Neuengamme concentration camp memorial in Hamburg

The pioneer in Germany is the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial in Hamburg. There are already 38 clips on its TikTok page, 9600 users follow the memorial and as many as 92,300 people have already “liked“ the page. The videos briefly and concisely explain what happened in Neuengamme during the Nazi regime, what individual fates there were and how the approximately 50,000 people who were murdered there are remembered today. A short video of Neuengamme, which explains the markings on the prisoners’ uniforms, has already been viewed by over 400,000 TikTok users. The Mauthausen Concentration Camp Memorial in Austria has also recently started producing explanatory videos especially for TikTok. Marlene Wöckinger is one of two people appearing in front of the camera. “It is important to us at the Mauthausen Memorial to enter into a dialog with people, both on site and in the digital space, and this is also possible with thought-provoking videos that are only one minute or 30 seconds long,“ she says. TikTok in particular is geared towards intensive personal dialog – “and that fits in well with our educational goal,” Wöckinger believes.

Information and education for a younger target group

During the presentation of the pilot project “TikTok – Shoah Education and Commemoration Initiative“, TikTok Germany Managing Director Tobias Henning emphasizedthat his platform wants to make its contribution to actively raising awareness and education about the Holocaust. Daniel Botmann, Managing Director of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, praised the platform’s initiative at the press conference as an “important sign“. It will enable a younger target group in particular to get to know survivors of the Shoah or to exchange ideas with them.

High expectations of social network operators

The Jewish community in Germany has high expectations of the operators of social networks. The latter have a great responsibility, emphasized Botmann. “It is not the case that the platforms are merely a reflection of society. They are also places where, in apparent anonymity, people dare to say things and commit crimes that they would not commit in real life,” he said. Hate and hate speech must therefore not only be consistently deleted and stopped from spreading. It is also necessary to educate people – Tiktok is setting a good example here.

Preparing the content of concentration camp memorials for specific target groups

Remko Leemhuis agreed with him. The managing director of the Berlin office of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) wants content to be prepared in a way that is appropriate for the target group, but at the same time does justice to the seriousness of the topic. Due to the rapidly decreasing number of contemporary witnesses and the increasing relativization of the Shoah, which reaches far into the middle of society, the culture of remembrance is facing great challenges, emphasized Leemhuis. Together with TikTok and other partners, the AJC also carried out a multi-part series of seminars, a pilot project in which memorial sites and museums were encouraged to provide information about their work on TikTok.

Tip: You can find the TikTok account of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial here.

You can find out more about digitization and cultural heritage in issue 2/2022.

Since the end of July 2021, the SchUM sites in Speyer, Worms and Mainz have been UNESCO World Heritage Sites – and at the end of last year, the app was completed: it invites you on a virtual journey to the Jewish medieval monuments and old cemeteries. Read more here.

31.12.2024

Society

Tilling open space

Building design

As the population increases, so does the density stress in Swiss cities and conurbations. At the same time, outdoor recreation and sport are becoming more important. A 2014 publication on the greater Zurich area provides examples of how existing green spaces can be made more accessible. Pieter Poldervaart analyzes the results in the December issue of G+L. The study Freiraumnetz Zürich can be […]

8.42 million people lived in Switzerland in 2017, compared to 7.08 million or 19 percent fewer twenty years ago. In the past, this annual growth of one percent and the increasing demand for living space per capita was accompanied by a partly unchecked urban sprawl. Greater Zurich is particularly affected by the rapid growth in the resident population. Three million people live in the perimeter defined as the Zurich metropolitan area, which includes not only the canton of Zurich but also numerous municipalities in neighboring cantons and even in neighboring southern Germany.

Forecasts suggest that 30,000 people per year will continue to move to Switzerland’s economic center. In addition to housing and jobs, these people also need recreational space. In 2014, the Zurich Metropolitan Area Association therefore published an outline that shows the way to a “settlement-related open space network” – as the title suggests. In addition to describing the problem, the guide aims to show how existing recreational areas can be upgraded and new ones created and how planning is possible across municipal and cantonal boundaries. You can download the study here.

You can read the full article in G+L 12/18.

06.01.2025

Event

One brick prize, many awards

Building design

Main prizewinner of the German Brick Award 2019 — City library

German Brick Award 2019 presented – one prize, many awards for exemplary energy projects

The results of the German Brick Award 2019 were announced on February 1: 120 submissions of exemplary energy-efficient brick projects from all over Germany made the decision difficult for the jury, chaired by Piero Bruno from the Berlin office of Bruno Fioretti Marquez. The high design quality ultimately led to a large number of awards – two main prizes, six special prizes in various categories and eight commendations.

The main prize for monolithic construction was deservedly awarded to Harris + Kurrle Architekten from Stuttgart for the municipal library in Rottenburg am Neckar. The jury praised “the sensitive positioning of the remarkable new building as a communicative and contemplative place in the fabric of the city”. It also praised the public building for its skillful, creative use of monolithic exterior wall constructions made of highly insulating bricks.

An extension

The main prize for multi-shell construction went to the remarkable extension to the Philosophy Department of the University of Münster by Peter Böhm Architekten from Cologne. “The building, modestly described as a ‘shelf wall’, cleverly incorporates the existing listed building and forms an attractive façade opposite the historic Fürstenberghaus,” said the jury. “In this case, the haptic brick becomes synonymous with sensual appeal and a cleverly reduced, ornamental appearance.”

A special prize for energy efficiency

Several special prizes were also awarded, including one for “Cost-effective, energy-efficient multi-storey residential construction”. This was won by the Ulm-based firm Braunger Wörtz Architekten with their project at Vorwerkstrasse 23/1 in Neu-Ulm. The new building for the Neu-Ulm housing association (NUWOG) comprises 31 publicly subsidized, barrier-free rental apartments in a six-storey building and is designed as a KfW Efficiency House 70. The jury: “The uncomplicated design with monolithic brick exterior walls, which are finished with a white cement scratch coat that does not require painting, guarantees this residential building a low-maintenance, long life.”

Awarded by: Ziegelzentrum Süd e.V. in cooperation with the
Federal Ministry of the Interior
www.ziegel.com

The exhibition can be seen until February 15, 2019 at the Haus der Architektur, Waisenhausstraße 4 in Munich. It will then travel to various universities.

Photos: Roland Halbe; Lukas Roth; Erich Spahn