Exhibition on the History of the Department of Social Sciences

The project

One-hundred years of Universität Hamburg, 100 years full of political and societal upheaval. As a group of students, we saw the University’s 100th anniversary as an occasion to reflect upon the history of our academic subjects. How were the social sciences established in Hamburg? Why did students strike, and what were they protesting? How have curricula changed? When was the first female professor appointed in the department? And why does the building housing the department still bear the name “Pferdestall” (“horse stable” in English)? The exhibition Politik und Gesellschaft im Pferdestall illuminates the findings of our research and gives a glimpse into many facets of our department’s historical development. Special emphasis is placed on critically remembering the role the social sciences played in Nazism as well as in past student protests and degree programs. The exhibition is not exhaustive. Instead, we want to highlight individual aspects to contribute to the historical awareness of the social sciences in society and the University. The exhibition was developed as part of a self-organized student seminar in Winter Semester 2018/19 and Summer Semester 2019. We have 2 goals in this project: First, we want to critically reflect upon the history of our own discipline and the institution in which we, as students, live and work on a daily basis. Second, we want to point out the possibilities for realizing your own ideas within a university environment and for changing and shaping a university.

Exhibition setup

The exhibition covers several floors around the stairwell. It can be viewed in its entirety or just in passing. The building’s history is explained in the lobby (on the right). The first-floor stairwell is devoted to the organization of studies and seminar topics after 1945. The right-hand hallway of the first floor focuses on the early years of sociology in Hamburg and the history of the social sciences in Nazism. On the second floor, we follow the biographies and scientific pursuits of 2 professors. In front of the entrance to the departmental library on the third floor, we take a look at student initiatives and strikes as well as the struggles over the gender and queer studies degree program.

Acknowledgments

This exhibition would not have been possible without the support of many people. We especially thank everyone who helped us throughout this 2-semester project. For their support with the development and research, we would especially like to thank Gunnar B. Zimmermann, Eckart Krause, Rainer Nicolaysen, and Johanna Blautzik from the Center for the History of Universität Hamburg and Fridrun Freise from the Universitätkolleg Writing Center. Furthermore, we would like to thank the staff at the University Archives, the Workshop of Memory, and the Social Sciences Academic Office. We are also thankful to Olaf Asbach for his guidance and our student seminar for its support. Also, many thanks to Thorsten Logge (Public History) for providing inspiration as we planned the project, and to Marianne Pieper, Urs Stäheli, Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem, Gerhard Riemann, and Luise Heinz for their comments and critiques. The exhibition was funded from the student fund, for which we thank the University Anniversary Unit. We also thank the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences and the departmental student representative committee for the social sciences for additional financial support. Our heartfelt thanks, as well, to Isabel Kiefaber for the visual design of the exhibition.

History of the Social Sciences research group

Legal notice:

History of the Social Sciences research group (geschichte-der-sowi.wiso@uni-hamburg.de)

Design and layout: Isabel Kiefaber (isabelkiefaber@gmail.com)