Addictive Remembrance Work

Do you remember? Oh, I remember him… It was a little like browsing a family album. There were archive documents from the 1970s, documents of turbulent, highly political years of study that most of those present had experienced and shaped. Laid out on long tables were posters and flyers, ideal breeding ground for different memories and discussions. Yet, in order to forge an overarching historical bridge from the first sighting of the documents, much elaborate detail work and a lot of patience are necessary. Assessing and sorting what is worth preserving as well as categorizing and numbering what will disappear in gray cardboard boxes in huge mobile shelves and yet be easy to find in the online inventory catalogue. There are personnel files and exam papers, which are subject to strict provisions of data protection. This type of documentation is an official mandate, explained archive director Sigrid Dauks in her introduction. However, more important is that the archive is the university’s memory with its eventful history, which will now be prepared as part of a witness project for the university’s 50^th anniversary. ‘Oral History’ – documented in in-depth interviews.