(Un)sichtbare Orte. Siegfried Hirschmann – ein vergessener Industriepionier

In the organizer's words:

In the basement of the Dahlem Research Campus, the almost forgotten empire of industrial pioneer Siegfried Hirschmann can be experienced virtually in a project developed by young people.

Siegfried Hirschmann was the founder of Deutsche Kabelwerke, inventor of the "Cyklonette" - one of the first motorized tricycles - and creator of the DEKA tire brand. As a Jewish entrepreneur, he played a decisive role in shaping German industrial history in the early 20th century. And yet: no Wikipedia entry, hardly any public remembrance.

State-of-the-art technology conveys historical engineering skills

The exhibition uses state-of-the-art technology to bring an almost forgotten industrial empire back to life: with the help of holograms, models, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), it provides immersive access to Hirschmann's life and work.

The project was developed by the Kulturerben e. V. association in cooperation with the Museum Fürstenwalde and implemented by young people from schools in Berlin and Brandenburg. Together with a team of artists and experts in VR and AR, a project group of young people was shown how they can use digital technologies to bring history to life and make it accessible.

Curatorial team

Pupils from Ulrich-von-Hutten-Gymnasium Berlin, Katholisches Schulzentrum Fürstenwalde and Europaschule OSZ Oder-Spree, in collaboration with artists Johann Winkelmann and Aron Rauschhardt and the AR/VR expert team from i-mmersive.

Why at the Dahlem research campus?

The exhibition "(In)visible places. Siegfried Hirschmann - a forgotten industrial pioneer" is more than just a memorial - it marks a starting point for a critical examination of suppressed biographies at the Dahlem research campus. Where important researchers such as Lise Meitner or Fritz Haber once worked, the focus is now deliberately on personalities whose contributions disappeared from the collective memory due to political exclusion, anti-Semitism or discrimination.

The exhibition links forgotten biographies with the stories of research objects and thus makes the mechanisms of repression visible. It invites visitors to question their own culture of remembrance and to open up new narrative approaches to science and history. The participatory project on Siegfried Hirschmann is an example of how engagement and digital technologies can bring an almost erased biography back into the collective memory.

The project was supported by the Museum Fürstenwalde and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz. It was funded by the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture, the Brandenburg State Agency for Civic Education, the EWE Foundation, the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the Foundation Großes Waisenhaus zu Potsdam, Bauwert AG and Ethikbank.

A special exhibition of the Dahlem Research Campus of the National Museums in Berlin