"Was hat das mit mir zu tun?" / "What does that have to do with me?"
Marchivum — Mannheim, Germany
Concept Development and Creative Direction by Stacey Spiegel/PWLabs
Video trailer for the exhibition, “Was hat das mit mir zu tun?” / “What does that have to do with me?” Courtesy of Marchivum, Germany.
"Was hat das mit mir zu tun?" / "What does that have to do with me?" Is a new permanent multimedia exhibition at the Marchivum in Mannheim, Germany.
A collaboration between Parallel World Labs, the Marchivum, and Tatwerk/finke media, this poignant exhibition takes a deep dive into Mannheim's Nazi era and asks the following key questions: What changes when a democracy is destroyed by a dictatorship? And how does democracy succeed again afterwards?
This highly interactive digital exhibition tells the history of Mannheim during the Nazi dictatorship. At the same time, it broadens the perspective of what came before and after and takes a look at the fate of victims and perpetrators alike.
"What does that have to do with me?" asks how and why questions about our own history in order to develop an understanding that our free, democratic order is not self-evident and must always be defended by all of us against anti-democratic tendencies.
The beginning of the exhibition is dedicated to the Weimar Republic; this first German democracy guaranteed the citizens comprehensive freedom and equal rights, but at the same time was heavily burdened and formed the breeding ground for the rise of the NSDAP.
The "seizure of power" in 1933 and the speed with which the Nazi dictatorship was established are presented using different, immersively staged biographies. The focus is on the exclusion and persecution of the Jewish population and other political, ideological opponents and what happened on the "home front" in Mannheim during World War II.
Exhibition Views of "Was hat das mit mir zu tun?" at the Marchivum, Mannheim, Germany, 2022. Photographs by Ingrid Forster for Parallel World Labs.
Exhibition View of "Was hat das mit mir zu tun?" at the Marchivum, Mannheim, Germany, 2022. Photograph by Ingrid Forster for Parallel World Labs.
Exhibition View of "Was hat das mit mir zu tun?" at the Marchivum, Mannheim, Germany, 2022. Photograph by Ingrid Forster for Parallel World Labs.
Exhibition View of "Was hat das mit mir zu tun?" at the Marchivum, Mannheim, Germany, 2022. Photograph by Ingrid Forster for Parallel World Labs.
Exhibition View of "Was hat das mit mir zu tun?" at the Marchivum, Mannheim, Germany, 2022. Photograph by Ingrid Forster for Parallel World Labs.
Impressive media installations address, for example, social conformity or the fate of individual emigrants. The victims of the Shoah who died are commemorated in a separate room. Digital timelines and in-depth learning stations in all exhibition chapters help to classify and situate the historical events.
The end of the exhibition shows how the Nazi past was dealt with. An interactive collection wall negotiates Mannheim’s post-war decades up to the present and an interactive quiz game “Democrady” invites you to enter into a dialogue about democratic values.
The use of the original bunker room for this exhibition forms the thematic link between the exhibitions on the history of the city and the Nazi era. It is dedicated to the MARCHIVUM building and tells its story and that of the other bunkers in Mannheim from the beginnings to the present using complex projection mapping.
Exhibition View of "Was hat das mit mir zu tun?" at the Marchivum, Mannheim, Germany, 2022. Photograph by Katrin Schwab courtesy of Marchivum, Mannheim.
Exhibition Team
Project management: Prof. Dr. Ulrich Niess with the support of Silvia Koehler
Curators: Karen Strobel, Sebastian Steinert, Stacey Spiegel, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Niess, Dr. Christian Groh, Dr. Marco Brenneisen
Exhibition Design: Working group Tatwerk | finke.media and Stacey Spiegel/Parallel World Labs
Creative Direction and Concept Development: Stacey Spiegel/Parallel World Labs