Aktuell

• von Astrid Bergmeister
• 31.07.2026

Oral history opens up new avenues: to history as personally experienced, embedded within the political, social and economic currents of the time. For 26 Bachelor’s students at the Department of History at the University of Duisburg-Essen, oral history serves as a gateway to understanding the perspectives of the ‘children sent away’. As part of a teaching and learning project, the students conducted interviews and analysed them academically.

Ten million children and young people were sent on sanatorium stays in the Federal Republic of Germany between 1945 and 1990. Many of them were subjected to violence whilst there. Since 2019, the issue has been very much in the media spotlight thanks to the involvement of those affected, and is attracting increasing attention in the political arena. Whilst academic research initially focused on securing and analysing documents from children’s homes, public authorities, health insurance providers and social welfare agencies, the perspective of those affected is now gaining increasing importance.

At the University of Duisburg-Essen, 26 undergraduate students – including those training to become teachers – took part in a seminar at the Institute of History, using life-story oral history interviews to investigate how experiences of violence shaped the children’s sanatorium stays and their lives ‘afterwards’. This resulted in twelve moving interviews. Using carefully selected quotations, audio clips and historical documents such as postcards and photographs, the students traced the subjective experiences of the former children sent away. The academic analysis of this participatory research revealed how these experiences were embedded within the broader context of social developments and contemporary notions of authority within the state, institutions and the family. The negative sanatorium reports reflect a specific understanding of childhood and upbringing that was geared towards conformity, discipline and obedience.

The interviews reveal multifaceted experiences of violence and suffering, as well as the life-altering dimension of individual trauma: ‘…as a child, you’re cut off from everything. You think “Mum” and you have no explanation. You’re in a terrible emotional maelstrom, out of fear – fear of abuse, of violence. I was also afraid of violence. Why was I afraid of the dining hall? Why was I afraid of that soup?’” reports Regina Basic. She continues: “I don’t think I’ve ever fully recovered. Not even today. As gruesome as that sounds.’ Seminar leader Dr Helge-Fabien Hertz puts it into context: ‘Particularly in the first post-war decades, children’s needs were often given less priority than ensuring the smooth running of the sanatoriums.’ At the same time, he emphasises that contextualising the eyewitness accounts is crucial: “The interviews provide authentic insight into the subjective experiences of those affected. The task of research is to place the events and processes described in their historical context and to link them with other sources in order to gain as comprehensive a picture as possible.”

For the students, Hertz sees the added value primarily in the opportunity to gain an early insight into research practice and the professional field of historians: “This project has been an outstanding success in terms of developing subject-specific, methodological, teamwork and social skills.” The best-practice project for research- and output-oriented teaching with societal relevance also offers a wide range of opportunities for further study: “Overall, the research is still in its early stages.”

The students view the project very positively: “Being part of this important project and being able to conduct an interview myself with a displaced person has permanently changed my perspective on studying history. The opportunity to play an active role in documenting and researching history was a completely new experience: from theory to practice!”, says student Mira Saly Mohtar.

Further information:

Publication of the project results
The publication of the academic project results is planned for autumn 2026 on the website of the NRW Victims’ Association.

A report on WDR’s ‘Lokalzeit’ programme is expected on 31 July 2026.

What is oral history?
A research approach based on methodologically sound interview techniques with varying degrees of structure, which focuses on the perspectives of eyewitnesses. The eyewitnesses’ life stories emerge through interaction with the interviewing historians. This approach is based on the understanding that even historians have no direct access to the past. The focus is on exploring the subjective significance of the experiences and placing them within the relevant political, social, cultural and economic context. This adds an extra layer to the historical interpretation alongside archival sources and provides important insights for further research approaches: an exciting way of exploring and communicating historical complexity.

Current political reappraisal in North Rhine-Westphalia
The topic has been included in the German federal government’s coalition agreement: https://www.koalitionsvertrag2025.de/sites/www.koalitionsvertrag2025.de/files/koav_2025.pdf.
NRW Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann has initiated a round-table discussion on coming to terms with the past: https://www.mags.nrw/pressemitteilung/minister-laumann-nordrhein-westfalen-haelt-wort-und-treibt-die-aufarbeitung-des.
Resolution of the NRW State Parliament: State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia, Printed Paper 17/15632, https://www.landtag.nrw.de/portal/WWW/dokumentenarchiv/Dokument/MMD17-15632.pdf.

Cooperation partners
Victims’ association ‘Aufarbeitung Kinderverschickungen NRW’, www.kinderverschickungen-nrw.de.
Co-lecturer Carmen Behrendt, a PhD student, has previously provided academic support to the support group in her capacity as a freelance historian.

Academic contact
Seminar leader Dr Helge-Fabien Hertz, email: helgefabien.hertz@uni-due.de, tel. +49 201-1833589

Editor
Astrid Bergmeister, Press Officer at the University of Duisburg-Essen,
Email: astrid.bergmeister@uni-due.de, Tel. +49 203-3792430

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