The Institut für Stadtgeschichte und Erinnerungskultur

The Institut für Stadtgeschichte und Erinnerungskultur (Institute for Urban History and Remembrance Culture), part of the City of Munich’s Cultural Department, promotes and shapes Munich’s civil society’s active discussion on urban history and contemporary remembrance work. The aim is to make recent urban history and contemporary history transparent and as well as to assess it critically and in the context of our own time. Resulting in interdisciplinary, multi-perspective and dialogue-based history and cultural programmes being developed with the broad participation of third parties, in which historical retrospection is combined with present day social issues.

The institute also follows this approach in organising key commemorative events for the state capital, such as the annual commemoration of the Sinti and Roma ethnic minorities deported from Munich, the commemoration of the right-wing terrorist Oktoberfest bombing or the racially motivated shooting at the Olympia shopping centre. The institute’s staff also advises local and national initiatives as well as social protagonists on their urban history and remembrance culture projects.

The Erinnerungszeichen für die Todesopfer des Nationalsozialismus in München (Commemorative Markers for the Victims of National Socialism in Munich) commemoration project is also being continued under the auspices of the institute. In addition, independent research work on issues and topics relevant to urban history is initiated, conceptually and professionally supported and made accessible to the public. Examples in this context are “Die Münchner Stadtverwaltung im Nationalsozialismus” (The Munich City Administration under National Socialism) project and the cultural heritage trails that have been successfully established for many years.

In close cooperation with the Public Art department at Munich’s Department of Culture, the Institut für Stadtgeschichte und Erinnerungskultur develops programmes for memorial art in public spaces, creates new places of remembrance and oversees the Dokumentation Oktoberfest-Attentat (Oktoberfest bombing documentation). Another important area of activity is the provision of expert advice to the city council and administration, for example on how to deal with historically burdened street names and other urban commemorative projects. The institute began its work at the beginning of 2022 and is provisionally headed by the historians Dr Sabine Schalm and Dr Andreas Heusler.

• The objects of the "Institut für Stadtgeschichte und Erinnerungskultur" available on bavarikon

Exhibitions under the participation of the "Institut für Stadtgeschichte und Erinnerungskultur" available on bavarikon

• Oktoberfest – History, Background, Highlights