Dr Oliver von Wrochem succeeds Prof. Dr Detlef Garbe as Director of the Foundation of Hamburg Memorials and Learning Centres Commemorating the Victims of Nazi Crimes (SHGL).

Oliver von Wrochem (*1968) has acquired a wealth of experience in university and non-university research and mediation work, among others at the University of Hamburg, the Hamburg Institute for Social Research, and the Helmut Schmidt University. A historian, he was appointed as Director of the Centre for Historical Studies at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial in 2009 and as Director of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial in June 2019, in which capacity he has had a major influence on its policy orientation. Specifically, he has initiated numerous research, exhibition and educational projects aimed at exploring innovative ways of addressing National Socialism while taking account of the challenges our society faces today.

Besides the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, the Foundation currently comprises three other Hamburg memorials in Poppenbüttel, Fuhlsbüttel and Bullenhuser Damm in Rothenburgsort. Virtually all these memorial sites are to be developed further over the next few years, with the permanent exhibitions renewed. The Foundation will also take over the Stadthaus Historical Site as an inner-city learning centre, and it plans to develop the denk.mal Hannoverscher Bahnhof documentation centre, with completion scheduled for 2026. Research and education work on National Socialism is one of the Foundation’s main focal points.

Dr Carsten Brosda (Senator for Culture and Media): ‘Over the last few years Oliver von Wrochem has been instrumental in shaping the Neuengamme Memorial. His unwavering focus has always been on how to keep the memory of the atrocities perpetrated under National Socialism alive in the future, especially for and together with young people. Oliver von Wrochem has succeeded in launching the ongoing development of the Foundation. And with the plans for the construction of the denk.mal Hannoverscher Bahnhof documentation centre, among others, he has taken commemorative activities in Hamburg to the next level within urban society, also in spatial terms. Thanks to his commitment, we will continue to successfully develop Hamburg’s memorials and places of learning.’

Dr Oliver von Wrochem (Director, SHGL): ‘Addressing the National Socialist era is part of the living historical culture within our diverse urban society here in Hamburg. I am therefore delighted to be able to advance the memorial landscape in Hamburg as well as the offers and sites provided by our Foundation. Our principal concerns include further networking, linking historical and current issues, creating transnational references, and strengthening participatory and dialogue-based forms of mediation in memorial work, thereby prompting forward-looking incentives for our lives together in society.’