Detail

The opening of the Oberhausen Memorial Hall on 2 September 1962 marked the beginning of the work of today’s memorial. From the outset, the memorial was conceived as a meeting place, especially for young people. In the six decades since then, it has offered three permanent exhibitions and an educational programme that has constantly adapted to the times, as well as regular temporary exhibitions and publications on the city's history. This makes it the oldest functioning memorial for Nazi history in West Germany.

Its location in the city shows how important the work of the Memorial Hall is to the city's self-image; it is situated in the centrally located Oberhausen Palace, still the most representative place in the city. However, it is not a historic site with a Nazi connection, as the palace itself was not a place associated with victims or perpetrators of the Nazi regime.

The current permanent exhibition documents the history of Oberhausen during the Nazi era. This is supplemented with the topic of Nazi forced labour between 1939 and 1945, which extends beyond the city into the whole region. In the foyer, the history of the Memorial Hall, which also presents the work of the memorial, is separated from the presentation of the Nazi era.

Since 2003, the Memorial Hall has also housed the Bunker Museum, which was founded in 2001. Here, family biographies are prominently displayed to commemorate the perspective of parts of the city’s population based on the Allied air war in the Second World War, juxtaposed with the collective form of remembrance of the millions of victims of the Holocaust and the German war of conquest and annihilation in Europe and beyond.

In this context, the Memorial Hall performs four remembrance ceremonies in the course of the year:

• 27 January – Day of Remembrance for all victims of Nazism (with Oberhausen schools)
• 1 September – Anti-War Day (in cooperation with the German Trade Union Congress)
• 9 November – Commemoration of the November Pogrom of 1938 in Oberhausen (in cooperation with Oberhausen’s two Jewish communities)
• National Day of Mourning / Peace Sunday (remembering victims in nuance)

In addition to this, teenagers and young adults in particular are able to look in depth at the history of Nazism and its lasting impact – enhanced with examples from their own city – in five workshops:

• Jewish life in Oberhausen (up to 1933, during the Nazi regime, after 1945)
• Youth under the Nazis – between conformity and rejection
• Nazi forced labour in Oberhausen and the region 1939 to 1945
• Air War – Home Front. From the Blitzkrieg in Europe to the air war on the Ruhr (in the Bunker Museum)
• Remembrance Culture – Coming to terms with the past in the city and region

There are guided tours of the city and its cemeteries, covering Jewish and German history, life during the Nazi era, historical memorials and contemporary places of remembrance. For details of other offerings, see the current annual programme.