Global Erinnern is a project realized within the development education work of glokal e.V. in cooperation with the Initiative of Black People in Germany ISD-Bund e.V. and recherche international e.V. In addition, the project is supported by Tahir Della, One World promoter for diasporic perspectives in development education in Berlin. The initial spark for the project came from our colleague Doğan Akhanlı, who passed away in 2021. Doğan campaigned as a writer and activist for the enforcement of human rights and the creation of a transnational memory space.
History, as it is written, told, remembered, taught, usually stops at national borders. But the history of the German state and the people who inhabit it is much more than that. Germany, on the one hand, has striven for influence far beyond its national borders: For the exploitation of gold, silver and labor on other continents, for colonies, living space and ever new markets for German products. On the other hand, a large part of the residents bring global stories with them: They have international family connections, immigration experiences or stories of flight. They have friends in different corners of the globe or have been active there. Many of these global stories are interwoven with places, events, people, institutions or companies in Germany.
Such a globally interconnected history and present is hardly considered when it comes to history, memory and current globally relevant issues in Germany. That is why we would like to record an archive of such historical and present connections between Global South, North, East and West on the Global Remembering Map and together with different people and in many directions keep on researching and filling the map. Our goal is to contribute to a multidirectional, global memory (Rothberg 2021 [2009]) from a decolonial perspective, creating new, inclusive perspectives on our lives today. In this process, stories of domination, oppression, trauma and resistance do not compete with each other, but meet in solidarity and empathy.
The project is aimed at pupils, adults, educators, museum staff and the general public. Because examples of global connections and stories, e.g. of oppression and resistance, can be found in many places! Only, these story(s) are often not written down, their global connections are not remembered, and they have to be “dug up.”
The main measure of the project in 2020-2022 was the development of digital maps in Berlin, Bremen, Frankfurt, Kassel and Cologne in cooperation with local groups and researchers. These maps show local-global connections in five cities so far through thematic tours, events and biographies, promoting the perception of international connectedness through shared global history. Components of the project are educational measures and the further development and translation of existing global history materials such as the eLearning tool connecting the dots. History(s) of oppression and resistance. The first project run lasted from May 2020 to the end of December 2022. In the second project run from 2023 to 2024, we would like to expand the map to new cities and carry out even more educational work on this basis.
We would like to thank the technical collective StinPriza in Athens/Greece for programming the website, the artist Franky Mindja in Yaundé/Cameroon for creating the illustrations, animation video and comics, and Lore Graf in Kassel/Germany for research, editing and endless detail work.
The project is sponsored by Engagement Global with financial support from the BMZ, as well as from budgetary funds of the State of Berlin – Landesstelle für Entwicklungszusammenarbeit and Brot für die Welt and supported by the One World Promoter Tahir Della.
