“Your Story”
Exhibition and education project on immigration
How is the history of immigration reflected in the cityscape? Where is the history of immigrants’ countries of origin included in the historical narrative? Who tells the history of migration?
The exhibition and education project “Your Story” addresses these and other questions in four participatory special and travelling exhibitions on the history of immigration and Germany as a society shaped by immigration. In doing so, it explores new ways of presenting migration and the history of migration, and of showcasing migration as part of German history.
Exhibition IV
“You do not have to go far to cross the border”
Polish-German stories – 1871 to the present
On view from 29/10/2025 to 04/12/2025 in the foyer of the Bremen Trade Union Building (Bahnhofsplatz 22–28 in Bremen). Free admission at the following times: Monday to Thursday from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Fridays from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM.
The final, fourth exhibition of the “Your Story” project brings together earlier questions and reflections: What role do (national) borders play in the experience of the migration process? When do we perceive one another as “foreign”? And what does this mean for our understanding of our society shaped by immigration?
The exhibition explores these questions through the neighbouring countries of Germany and Poland. Their relationship has historically moved, burdened and shaped both countries; identities, languages and convictions have connected and divided their inhabitants across the border. From the German Empire, through the occupation of Poland during the Second World War, to the anniversary of Poland’s accession to the EU: the exhibition gives a voice to those who actively shape German-Polish relations today or preserve their historical traces.
The exhibition was shown at the DAH Bremerhaven from 12 October 2024 to 5 January 2025.
Exhibition III
Starting over, but how?
Espelkamp and other “refugee towns” in the 1950s
14 March – 18 April 2024, Alte Gießerei Espelkamp
//
26 April – 9 June 2024, DAH Bremerhaven
The third special exhibition focuses on new beginnings: to mark the 75th anniversary of the Federal Republic of Germany, the exhibition examines its early history. It looks, for example, at urban development projects intended to accommodate millions of refugees and expellees from the East in a country devastated by war. Alongside Hanover and Bremen, a particular focus is on the North Rhine-Westphalian town of Espelkamp, which in those years grew largely on the site of a former munitions factory.
But how did these refugees and expellees live in the 1950s? Interviews with different generations from Espelkamp and objects from across the Federal Republic that tell of the period become personal documents of individual and collective new beginnings. The exhibition opening will take place at the Alte Gießerei in Espelkamp and will later move to Bremerhaven in the summer.
Exhibition II
“What do you see that I don’t?”
Workshop exhibition with cross-border stories
30 June – 20 August 2023, DAH Bremerhaven
//
1 November – 9 December 2023, Weather and Climate Workshop Offenbach
The second special exhibition was conceived as an interactive workshop exhibition and tells cross-border stories of immigration: migration stories do not simply begin there, in the country of origin, and end here, in Germany. They leave more or less visible traces in different places—here, there and in between.
In World Cafés at the DAH Bremerhaven and at the House of City History Offenbach, staff from the Deutsches Auswandererhaus exchanged views with people with migration stories about the cross-border process of migration. The results of the discussions were presented in the exhibitions, and visitors were invited to contribute to the ongoing collection of ideas, thoughts and associations.
Exhibition I
“… a bit different, but the same.”
Cuban-German history in the GDR and the FRG – 1964 to the present
20 November 2022 – 28 February 2023, DAH Bremerhaven
//
15 March – 21 May 2023, Museum in der Kulturbrauerei Berlin
Under this title, the first special exhibition tells the story of Cuban-German history in the GDR and the FRG from 1964 to the present. From the 1960s until the fall of the Berlin Wall, around 30,000 people travelled from Cuba to the GDR to work, study or complete vocational training. Some of them still live in the Federal Republic today. They themselves, as well as their partners, friends and descendants born in the GDR, were witnesses and are narrators of more than 50 years of eventful German history.
At the ceremonial opening of the special exhibition on 19 November 2022, Reem Alabali-Radovan, Minister of State to the Federal Chancellor and the Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration, delivered a digital greeting.
