Historical Education

Special website: www.frankfurt1933-1945.de

The website www.frankfurt1933-1945.de, which has been online since September 2003, serves to preserve our ever increasing knowledge of Frankfurt’s history during the Nazi period. It has over 600 articles with about 1,050 images as well as supplementary audio and video material on nearly all subject areas. The site provides open, dynamic search options that are continually updated to the latest state of research, as new articles and bibliographical references are added to it. So far around 700 visitors have used this compendium of knowledge on Frankfurt’s Nazi era.

In 1999 a workgroup of 35 institutions was formed at the invitation of Frankfurt’s Department of Culture. Running under the name “Topography of the Nazi Era in Frankfurt”, it aimed to promote use of the internet for a contemporary approach to teaching history. Today the website is jointly supported by three organisations: the Institute for the History of Frankfurt (lead organisation since 2005), the Jewish Museum and the Fritz Bauer Institute. Users can send questions and suggestions to the editors directly from the site itself.

The website on the Nazi era excels, in particular, with its depth of content and its links to a vast amount of further information. The homepage has a navigation bar with three access points to different topics, an index and a bibliography for further reading. Articles can be called up at the click of a mouse button via “Articles”. “Topography” takes you to street maps of Frankfurt created in 1943, 1946 and 2015. The 1943 and 2015 maps each have markings which, when clicked, display a precise address, a brief description and, if available, a photograph of the locality. The 1946 map shows the varying degrees of destruction that occurred in the city. The “Chronology” section has a timeline, showing a range of selected events. The “Index” can be searched for either keywords or persons, and the “Bibliography” is continually updated. The left-hand edge of the homepage has three buttons: “Articles”, “Topography” or “Chronology”, allowing you can access and explore any of nine permanent subject areas: “Pre-1933”, “Nazi System and Daily Life”, “Jewish Life and Persecution”, “Resistance”, “Economy and Labour”, “War and Destruction”, “Post-1945” and “Memories”.

In November 2015 a tenth section was added to the website, called “Memorial Venues”. This page was originally a website designed for smartphones – www.gedenkorte-frankfurt-main.de, but has now been optimised for use on computers.