University of Kassel opens Way of Remembrance

An essential part of the "Path of Remembrance" are information boards on buildings of the former locomotive and weapons manufacturer Henschel, which are now used by the university. Other plaques are located at sites of Henschel buildings that no longer exist and have been replaced by new university buildings. The plaques elaborate on the history of the buildings.

"The Henschel company was initially associated with entrepreneurial and social achievements, but later also with its deep involvement in the unjust regime of the Third Reich," said University Vice President Prof. Dr. Claudia Brinker-von der Heyde at the dedication ceremony on Monday (Sept. 29). "Our university has thus taken over land and buildings with ambivalent histories. With the 'Way of Remembrance,' Kassel University is also helping to keep alive the memory of the consequences and victims of tyranny."

The Holländischer Platz site, which adjoins Kassel's city center to the north, was the headquarters of the Henschel company from the mid-19th century. It achieved world fame with the construction of locomotives. During the Nazi dictatorship, however, Henschel also produced tanks and other armaments. Thousands of forced laborers from occupied states had to work for the company under inhumane conditions during the war.

Some of the buildings of the Henschel factory on Holländischer Platz survived the war and reconstruction and are now used by the University of Kassel, which maintains its largest campus there. These include K36, which originally served as Henschel's administrative building and now houses the university's central administration and presidium, or K10, which was also built for Henschel offices and is currently home mainly to departments of architecture, urban planning and landscape planning.

Seven of the planned ten information boards are already up. Three more will be erected when construction of the campus extension to the north is completed. In addition, two circles set into the pavement point to former turntables that were used to shunt manufactured locomotives on the company's premises; another circle will also follow after construction is completed, as will a work of art that will commemorate the political and moral responsibility of science. On the web, the "Path of Remembrance" can be walked virtually at www.uni-kassel.de/go/weg-der-erinnerung.

The opening was followed by a guided tour along the "Path of Remembrance." In the future there will be regular guided tours, the dates will be announced. Group tours can also be arranged at weg-der-erinnerung[at]uni-kassel[dot]de.

The idea for the "Path of Remembrance" came about in the course of the 200th Henschel company anniversary in 2010. "At that time, the desire to make the Henschel heritage visible, including its critical aspects, came from among the students," said Sebastian Lotto-Kusche, then a student senate member and today the coordinator of an honorary senate commission that developed the project together with the Asta in recent years. The cost was about 35,000 euros, financed by the university's presidium.

Note to editors: Photos will be available shortly at uni-kassel.de.

Contact:
Sebastian Lotto-Kusche
Coordinator Senate Commission "Way of Remembrance"
Email: weg-der-erinnerung[at]uni-kassel[dot]de

Sebastian Mense
University of Kassel
Communication, Press and Public Relations
Tel: +49 561 804-1961

Email: presse[at]uni-kassel[dot]de