TdJW publishes mobile gaming app: On the trail of Nazi forced labor in urban Leipzig ⋆ News from Leipzig

Young users of the app, presented by Theater der Junge Welt on Friday 30 September, will have to judge whether the idea is really smart. Because it’s actually about getting to know the places of forced labor in Leipzig. But in order to do that, you first have to become an employee of a fictional company called Vibezig. Without pay, of course. It’s the brave new world of work.

Who encounters the ugly old world of work here. “’Tracing Remenbrance’ is a game where you work for the fictional start-up Vibezig. The game pretends to be a business app, but neither the company nor the recruitment is real.” The Theater of the Young World (TdJW) describes access to this appwhich can keep its users busy for several days.

“However, the game does take on a serious topic: In ‘Tracing Remenbrance’, you encounter documents from the history of forced labor during the National Socialist era.”

You can then walk around the city of Leipzig using your smartphone to identify real places of forced labor that are no longer so recognizable in the city without appropriate information.

“The game runs in real times of the day, sometimes it doesn’t last until the evening or the next day. In general, the game usually takes at least three to four days: of course, you don’t play all the time, but the game works along with your daily life. TDJW explains.

“Of course you can also give yourself more time than three or four days, and the game only lasts in as many places when you are ready to continue playing. Our recommendation for the best gaming experience is three to four days.”

The “Mirror/Mirror” project on Nazi forced labor in Leipzig and current forms of right-wing extremism began in the spring of 2022 in collaboration with the Forced Labor Memorial in Leipzig. The mobile gaming app “Tracing Remembrance”, developed specifically for the der Junge Welt theater and released on September 30, comes after the second part of “On the Other Side”. The second part of the three-part project.

The project is funded by the Foundation for Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ) and the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF).

“Finding perfect places to work and live in the future by surveying telepathy – this is the concept of a new startup,” which also presents itself in a YouTube clip in the same way that so-called smart companies today usually do. professionally.

This might work for young people who really want to work at a startup. “But how do we deal with memories that arise in places previously thought to be historically unburdened?”

For Der Jung Welt Theater (TDJW), game designer and curator Sebastian Kwak created this highly specific approach to the history of forced labor in Leipzig under National Socialism and to the debate on the culture of remembrance.

Similar to Pokémon GO, players navigate through the city with their smartphones. As startup scouts, they accept requests via the app, check the mood of the places (“the ambiance of the locations”) and gravitate deeper and deeper into the question of how to deal with the memories associated with these places:

Who has an interest in preserving it? What options do they offer? And who just wants to delete it?

Welcome to the TRACING REMBRANCE mobile game!

Together with representatives of the Foundation for Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ) and the Forced Labor Memorial Leipzig and the technical team, the mobile game application “Tracing Remenbrance” was presented on Friday, September 30 at the der Junge Welt der theater which was presented to the public.

The app is available on all major app stores.

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