Experiences in Oral History: Contemporary Witness Interviews in Archive Organizations and Historical Research
Berlin: Heinrich Böll Stiftung (2018), 64 pp.
"The overall aim of the workshop was to promote discussion among the archives on their respective practices, to reflect on the practice of interviewing with the involved historians and, last but not least, to find ways to make better use of the interviews available in the archives [...] The first part of this reader contains the self-portrayals of the archives involved in the network and presentations of their contemporary witness projects, while the second part features reports from the historians on their practice, including reflections on their approaches. The appendix contains detailed overviews of the archived interviews of contemporary witnesses. Together with the texts, they are intended to give an impression of the interesting interviews that can already be found in the Ecology Archives and to arouse curiosity about their scientific use." (Editorial, page 4)
1 CONTEMPORARY WITNESS INTER VIEWS IN ARCHIVE ORGANIZATIONS, 6
Introduction 6
The oral archives at the Etopia Private Archive Centre / Szymon Zareba, 8
The interviewing project at the German Green Memory Archive / Anne Vechtel, 12
The oral history holdings in the Bolzano Women's Historical Archive / Martha Verdorfer, 15
Austria: The Green Archive, 17
Belgium: The Etopia Private Archive Centre, 19
Germany: The Green Memory Archive, 20
Italy: Bolzano Women's Historical Archive – Archivio delle donne Bolzano, 22
Italy: The legacy of Alexander Langer in the Alexander Langer Archive, 24
2 INTERVIEWS IN HISTORICAL RESEARCH, 26
Conceptual remarks on oral history / Christoph Becker-Schaum, 27
Oral history: stories – history – memory / Martha Verdorfer, 30
Traces of August Haußleiter's past in oral history / Annette Lensing, 34
Oral history and the founding story of the Greens / Silke Mende, 40
Emotional recollection: The role of witnesses for writing a contemporary history of an emotional debate / Birgit Metzger, 44
Tapping into hidden layers of misunderstanding: oral history and the East-West dialogue / Christie Miedema, 49
Oral archives in the French historiography of new social movements / Anna Trespeuch-Berthelot, 53
APPENDIX: LIST OF INTERVIEW PROJECTS AND HOLDINGS 57
Introduction 6
The oral archives at the Etopia Private Archive Centre / Szymon Zareba, 8
The interviewing project at the German Green Memory Archive / Anne Vechtel, 12
The oral history holdings in the Bolzano Women's Historical Archive / Martha Verdorfer, 15
Austria: The Green Archive, 17
Belgium: The Etopia Private Archive Centre, 19
Germany: The Green Memory Archive, 20
Italy: Bolzano Women's Historical Archive – Archivio delle donne Bolzano, 22
Italy: The legacy of Alexander Langer in the Alexander Langer Archive, 24
2 INTERVIEWS IN HISTORICAL RESEARCH, 26
Conceptual remarks on oral history / Christoph Becker-Schaum, 27
Oral history: stories – history – memory / Martha Verdorfer, 30
Traces of August Haußleiter's past in oral history / Annette Lensing, 34
Oral history and the founding story of the Greens / Silke Mende, 40
Emotional recollection: The role of witnesses for writing a contemporary history of an emotional debate / Birgit Metzger, 44
Tapping into hidden layers of misunderstanding: oral history and the East-West dialogue / Christie Miedema, 49
Oral archives in the French historiography of new social movements / Anna Trespeuch-Berthelot, 53
APPENDIX: LIST OF INTERVIEW PROJECTS AND HOLDINGS 57
