A place of remembrance for the victims of the concentration camp sub-camp Echterdingen-Bernhausen (near the airport Stuttgart)
2009/2010
Photo: Rolf Sturm
Paths of Remembrance
[5] "... the acoustic installation of voices is the artistic centre of the object. The reading of the 600 names creates a moving realisation of the past. These voices turn the wall into a memorial-wall. As with her memorial for the Nazi victims in Ingolstadt, Dagmar Pachtner believes that the size of the catastrophe can only be comprehended by the remembrance of the single victims. Through research some of the victims lives could be more precisely recorded and are documented. The reading of all the names which can be heard along the wall, both night and day, make plain the dimension of the victims suffering in this space today. Generalisation and individualisation therefore, are intertwined. The artist, together with the towns archives, the historical workshop, the Filderstadt Art School, with the staff of the town council and enthusiastic helpers, has motivated 200 citizens of both towns and the surrounding area to read the names and therefore, to also increase their awareness of this theme of concentration sub-camps. The 'Path of Remembrance' joins the few projects that have successfully achieved the status of a 'participation-project' in the history of memorial art. We hear how young and old with differing accents and voices have mastered these often alien sounding names from 17 countries in Europe. The reading becomes not only a documentation but a homage to the Victims."
Stefanie Endlich. Quoted from the opening and dedication speech on June 8th 2010.