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Me — We — Potsdam-Bornstedt: Biography of a District
In the spirit of the question formulated in the seminar title about the "biography of a district", Potsdam-Bornstedt was to be researched by means of an interdisciplinary and intergenerational approach in order to work out the urban and socio-spatial development of the district and ultimately make it presentable.
In an Interflex seminar in the winter semester 2022/2023, the topic of "identity" has already been explored as a central aspect of the vision. In the summer semester 2023, this idea was to be expanded to include the urban construction history and urban development dimension in order to approach the overarching goal of the "history trail" in a more concrete way. Thus, the seminar asked how the histories of the origin and development of the Potsdam-Bornstedt district can be traced back, what people of different generations themselves know or want to know about their living environment and how closely their own family history, for example, is linked to the district.
As part of the Interflex seminar, the students developed the prototype for a time window dedicated to the history of the FHP campus and introduced it as part of the presentation. By conducting surveys, interviews with contemporary witnesses and historical research, the idea for an approach to Bornstedt's history had emerged. The time window points to a military background of the campus, because, what many people don't know, the barracks area, originally built during the Third Reich, was a restricted area for the Soviet army for a long time.
The Bornstedt Time Windows are to be anchored as permanent objects in the urban space and, through the insight they offer into another historical level, encourage people to engage with the changing history of the district. Each time window will contain additional information on a specific location and could become part of the envisaged Bornstedt History Trail.
On 30/06/2023, the Interflex course "I – We – Potsdam-Bornstedt" invited history enthusiasts from Bornstedt and cooperation partners to the end-of-semester event at the new home of the Bornstedt district shop.