Together, we are building a memory culture of the Czech-German past!

Reviving Czech-German Coexistence in the Border Region of the Bohemian and Bavarian Forest

Hindle means “a place between here and there” in the Chod dialect from the area of the Czech-Bavarian border region between Domažlice and Regensburg. And now, it is also the name of a new cultural and educational centre where Czech and German neighbours can meet, get to know one another, and collaborate on joint projects.

Thanks to our three years of support, they have created a new platform for cross-border cooperation — not only on the ground, but also in the online space. They organise Czech-German debates, inspiring exhibitions, and exploratory excursions, and have been successful in establishing direct contacts with partner organisations. Hindle thus proves that with perseverance and determination, even a peripheral area can become the heart of a vibrant Czech-German region.

The History of “Our Germans”

The non-profit organisation Collegium Bohemicum joined our programme with the aim of introducing both the general public and younger generations to a permanent exhibition titled Our Germans, which explores the history of German-speaking inhabitants of the Czech lands. Located in the museum in Ústí nad Labem, the exhibition spans 1,600 square meters across 22 halls and presents their history from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Hundreds of students have visited the exhibition, and a special programme has also been developed for Czech and German history teachers.

During the three years of our support, Collegium Bohemicum has become a centre for education on the shared Czech-German history. It has organised hundreds of guided tours for Czech and German students, brought historical events to life through theatrical sketches, and contributed to the development of didactic materials. Collegium Bohemicum makes the complex past vividly accessible to a broad audience, reviving the memory of the German history in the Czech lands and thereby strengthening Czech-German understanding.

Along German Footsteps in the Ore Mountains

For over a decade, the civic association DoKrajin has been striving to revive the abandoned settlement of Königsmühle in the Ore Mountains. It has been passionately tracing the footprints left by the former German population in the border landscape — with one goal in mind: to reconnect people on both sides of the border and preserve the valuable heritage of the Ore Mountains before it fades into oblivion.

Thanks to three years of our financial support, they have established a centre for Czech-German encounters in the village of Kovářská, organised the Landart Festival Königsmühle, and led hiking tours through the vanished villages under the name Great Walks. They have also launched an innovative app, Fates of the Ore Mountains, featuring photographs and interviews, and created a memorial portal zkrusnohori.cz which hosts thousands of historical photos and audio testimonies. DoKrajin stands as a beacon for those searching for lost destinies and rediscovering our shared roots.

Forced Labour in Frankfurt am Main 

The modern city of Frankfurt am Main still bears the scars of its past. During the Second World War, thousands of Czechoslovaks performed forced labour there. Their stories are now being brought to life thanks to the work of the Studienkreis Deutscher Widerstand 1933–1945. For more than half a century, this organisation has been documenting German resistance to the Nazi dictatorship, maintaining a documentary archive and organising educational events for the public.

Our three-year programme enabled them to research biographical data and create a database of more than 7,500 labourers who were forced to work not only in large factories, but also in smaller companies and in agriculture. Together with students, they curated the exhibition The Main Thing Is We Survived: Czechoslovak Forced Labourers in Frankfurt am Main. The exhibition is also part of the permanent display at the educational centre Historical Memorial Site Adlerwerke  — a former factory and concentration camp for forced labourers. In this way, future generations will learn about their fate.

Cross-Border Cooperation in the Tripoint

Hillersche Villa in Zittau, in the Czech-German-Polish Tripoint, proves that history does not divide the local inhabitants, but brings them together! For three years, the project Time / Stories of the Tripoint has offered historical and political education about the history of both nations and on the lives of Czechs and Germans whose fates became intertwined in the borderland. Hillersche Villa is a cultural, social, and intergenerational centre. Thanks to our support, it has expanded across the border into the North Bohemian region and has incorporated a Czech perspective into its educational programmes. 

Within three years, Hillersche Villa has become a lively hub for cross-border cooperation. It hosts a variety of encounters, from student exchanges to multiplier training, actively connecting people from both countries. This intensive cooperation creates a regional network and contributes to the formation of many new partnerships. Its events attract strong interest from the general public. Hillersche Villa is a key centre for local Czech-German civic memory culture and civil society, a place where the past becomes a bridge to a common future.

From Numbers to Stories of Holocaust Victims in Central Bohemia

The Terezín Initiative Institute has been dedicated to preserving the memory of Holocaust victims for many years. At the core of its activities is the Holocaust Victims Database on the holocaust.cz website, which has been continuously updated since 2006 — not only with names and dates, but above all with photographs and documents. The project From Numbers to Stories enabled a systematic search of regional archives in the Central Bohemian Region, which resulted in the acquisition and publication of new testimonies. The Institute aims to educate the public, organises lectures for schools, and regularly publishes new findings on its portal.

During the three years of our support, the Terezín Initiative Institute has digitized and published key documents from the State District Archive in Mladá Boleslav and established collaborations with archives in Lysá nad Labem and Kolín. The research also inspired the curation of exhibitions at the Museum of the Mladá Boleslav Region, titled (non)Returns and Lost Neighbours. For the younger generation, a script for a fourteen-part audio series The Diary of Anne Frank has been developed. All of these activities by the Terezín Initiative Institute help to spread the memory and stories of Holocaust victims, ensuring they are never forgotten.

Czech-German Memory of a Village in the Broumov Area

The Time Machine Czech Association has embarked on an important endeavour: to map the past of the small village of Křinice (Weckersdorf) in the Broumov region. Until the end of the war, it was inhabited predominantly by Germans; after their expulsion, it was repopulated by people from across the former Czechoslovakia. The aim of the project was to bring the 20th-century history of Křinice closer to both the current inhabitants and the descendants of the original population — and to connect these two groups through mutual dialogue.

Thanks to our support, the association was able to carry out extensive research in Czech and German archives and record interviews with survivors. Their memories and testimonies are reflected in two exhibitions, available in both Czech and German. A book on the history of Křinice has also been published, and a digital archive — Topotéka — has been created, featuring photographs and documents from eyewitnesses. The Time Machine Czech Association is helping to weave together the broken ties of the past, preserving the memory and shared identity of the people of the Broumov area.

Mapping Jewish History in Moravia

Mehrin, the old Hebrew name for Moravia, is now associated with a new vision: the creation of a modern museum dedicated to thousands of years of Jewish history in Moravia. It will bring to life the Jewish communities of various towns and the stories of individual families — personal destinies experienced through all the senses via original artefacts, digital technologies, and audiovisual elements. The museum, conceived as a kind of living room of the city of Brno, will be built according to the winning design from an architectural competition by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. In the meantime, before this vision becomes reality, an experimental space has been created: Little Mehrin.

Thanks to our support, this interim museum has been established in a building on Vídeňská Street, offering an interactive 3D display, lectures and talks, exhibitions, and community gatherings. In addition, several books have been published. Little Mehrin has become a kind of laboratory, where a team of dedicated enthusiasts and the project initiator Martin Reiner are testing how their vision will work in practice. Mehrin is becoming a symbol of Jewish heritage preservation and a place where history is transformed into inspiration.

A Probe Into the Czech-German-Jewish History of Prague

The Multicultural Center Prague and its project Prague Shared and Divided offer an innovative approach to exploring history. Rather than explaining the so-called great histories, the project emphasises public history — remembering historical events in the very places where they occurred. It reveals the multicultural character of Prague, where Czech, German, and Jewish communities coexisted and intermingled for centuries.

Our support has made it possible to modernise and expand the interactive website, allowing everyone to experience different periods of our shared history through touch and sight. In addition, educational programmes for schools have been developed.

The Roma Holocaust in the Virtual Reality of the Concentration Camp at Lety u Písku

The civic association ROMEA has been preserving Romani history and culture for more than two decades. We have supported its educational project aimed at introducing the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti to younger generations in an innovative way – through a virtual reality reconstruction of the concentration camp at Lety u Písku.

Thanks to our three years of support, an educational programme was developed, and the association established a new partnership with the German organisation RomaTrial. Together, they have organised dozens of workshops in Czech and German schools. They went on to improve the visual design of the camp model and its soundscapes, and also integrate interviews with survivors. Thanks to this comprehensive approach, ROMEA has succeeded in creating not only a technologically modern, but also a deeply human educational tool – one that powerfully conveys the memory of Porajmos, the Roma and Sinti Holocaust, to future generations.

Holocaust Survivors’ Experiences for the 21st Century Generation

Schola Fidentiae conveys the memory of the Holocaust through the personal stories and experiences of survivors. The authentic testimony of one of them, Evelina Merová — along with her book Delayed Memories and 90 publications from her private archive — forms the basis of an educational programme, seminars for Czech and German teachers, and workshops for students.

Thanks to our three years of support, Schola Fidentiae has built a stable team of experts in modern history and civic education. It has facilitated meetings between Czech and German students in cooperation with the European Youth Education and Meeting Centre in Weimar and the Andreasstraße Centre in Erfurt. It has organised public discussions on the Holocaust, exhibitions, and a student conference. Schola Fidentiae contributes to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and to building a society that draws courage from the past to stand up against injustice.