FREIHAM/ NEUAUBING

12:02

Until a few years ago the site of the former forced labor camp of German Railways in Neuaubing marked Munich’s city limits. The new development now being built in Freiham will extend the urban area and offer new ideas for future co-existence. This will bring about a new focus on the adjacent historic sites: on the one hand, the forced labor camp of German Railways built in 1942; on the other the “Dornier Siedlung,” a development built in 1938 to house German employees of the Dornier works located in Neuaubing. Together with the manager of the new development in Freiham, the artists Fabian Bechtle and Leon Kahane made a film exploring the relationship between the past and present of the location.

Credits

FREIHAM / NEUAUBUNG
Fabian Bechtle and Leon Kahane
Forum Democratic Culture Contemporary Art

District manager Munich Society for Urban Renewal: Daniel Genée (MGS)
Narrator: Zelda Biller, Nicholas Potter

Production assistant: Shlomo Pozner
Consulting: Juliane Bischoff, Paul-Moritz Rabe
Translation: Melanie Newton, Nicholas Potter
Post production image: Konstantin Sichart
Drone Operator: Joel Heyd
Support map material: Andre Fuchs

Thanks to:
Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism
Münchner Gesellschaft für Stadterneuerung mbH

Mirjam Zadoff, Jana Kreutzer, Anetta Kahane, Tahera Ameer, Lea Zey, Jette Kupke, Mechthild Schmidt, Franka Bechtle, Lilli

www.forum-dcca.eu/tv

Context

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FREIHAM/NEUAUBING

FREIHAM/NEUAUBING

The film “Neuaubing/Freiham” is about the development of the new urban quarter in Freiham and the parallel process of making the historic site of the RAW camp visible. In the postwar years the historic context of the site was increasingly forgotten as ever more time went by and the site was used for various other purposes.

Nationwide social debates about how to confront the issue of forced labor as an aspect of the Nazi past and about possible compensation payments for the former forced laborers took place at a national level in the 1990s, while plans for the 350-hectare new development in Freiham began to take shape in the 2000s. Both of these developments contributed to making the history of the RAW camp more visible again.

The initial planning for the Freiham development included the historic site of the former camp. Plans to build a large supermarket and a furniture store there prompted the users, who had been using the barracks as studios and workshops since the 1970s, and later the City of Munich, to have historical research carried out.

Today, the historic site is subject to a preservation order while in Freiham the first apartments and educational facilities have been completed. Bechtle and Kahane explore the reciprocal effects of these developments from the perspective of the manager of the new quarter, Daniel Genée. This raises questions about what function the future memorial site will have for the diverse local population, what expectations are associated with it, and what its practical implications are.

Forum DCCA

The Forum Democratic Culture and Contemporary Art is a venue for artistic cultural criticism. It engages in research and publications, stages public events, and produces artistic contributions. These include the discussion series “Continuities of Antisemitism,” Volksbühne Berlin (2019-21); the video talks “Antimodernist Continuities,” Weserburg Museum für Moderne Kunst Bremen; “Forum Infoclips” in the context of the exhibition “I will survive” by Hito Steyerl, Kunstsammlung NRW; and the exhibition “Forum TV,” Traklhaus, Salzburg. The Forum was founded in Berlin in 2018 by Fabian Bechtle and Leon Kahane as a project of the Amadeu-Antonio-Stiftung.

www.forum-dcca.eu

Fabian Bechtle

Fabian Bechtle (b. 1980) studied fine arts at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst/Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig (HGB) and at the ENSBA Lyon. From 2014 until the end of 2017 he was on the artistic staff of the Installation and Space class at the HGB. Since 2018 he has been co-director of the Forum Democratic Culture and Contemporary Art. He has exhibited at the following venues: HMKV, Dortmund; Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; Trekhgornaya Manufaktura, Moscow; Museum of Yugoslav History, Belgrade; Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan; nGbK, Berlin; and the Bonner Kunstverein. Fabian Bechtle lives and works in Berlin.

www.fabianbechtle.de

Leon Kahane

Leon Kahane (b. 1985) studied at the University of the Arts Berlin (UDK) with Hito Steyerl and at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem.
In 2016 he won the ars viva prize. Since 2018 he has been co-director of the Forum Democratic Culture and Contemporary Art. His work has been shown at the Jewish Museum Munich; Belvedere 21, Vienna; Kölnischer Kunstverein, Kunsthalle Wien, NBK, Berlin, GFZK Leipzig; Kunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen, Magdeburg; and at the 6th Moscow Biennale, Moscow. In 2019 he participated in the exhibition “Tell me about yesterday tomorrow” at the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism. Leon Kahane lives and works in Berlin.

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