Multimedia city tour "OSNABRÜCKERLEBEN" expanded with new routes: MIK presents exciting digital tours for Osnabrück's "Schinkel" and "Wüste" districts

Osnabrück, October 2022

Since May last year, Osnabrückers* and visitors to the city center have already been able to explore hidden and exciting sides of the city's history via smartphone with the "OSNABRÜCKERLEBEN" tour developed by the MIK. Now the museum has developed two new tours for the districts "Schinkel" and "Wüste". Like the city center route, the two new tours were made possible by funding from the Friedel & Gisela Bohnenkamp Foundation.

How did the people of Osnabrück spend their free time 50 or 100 years ago, where did they shop, what was their everyday working life like? Which houses stood in the place of modern buildings of today, how has the city changed? With the free digital city tour OSNABRÜCKERLEBEN, users walk in the footsteps of the past and experience Osnabrück in a whole new way. All you need is a smartphone. Simply scan the QR codes on the signs of the respective stations and off you go.

At what are now 35 designated stations, anyone interested can learn more about the city's social and economic transformation - through scientifically compiled, entertaining texts and eyewitness accounts from people who lived and worked in the city's districts. Lively sound collages (implemented by the Lupe music theater) combined with historical objects and photographs from the MIK collection tell exciting stories about crafts, traffic, health, leisure and pub culture of yesteryear and bring everyday life of that time to life.

"Our collections contain numerous exciting testimonies of Osnabrück's economic and everyday history that many have never seen before. With the OSNABRÜCKERLEBEN app, we link these in a lively way with original locations. In this way, we bring our museum into the city - to the people," explains Dr. Vera Hierholzer, director of the MIK.The "OSNABRÜCKERLEBEN" tours now also take visitors to the Schinkel and Wüste districts, which are close to the city center - two very different neighborhoods whose history was shaped by industrialization.The development of "Schinkel" is of particular importance to Osnabrück*s residents; given its history, the district can rightly be called an industrial and working-class neighborhood. As early as the 19th century, numerous industrial companies, such as the steelworks or the Ortmann iron foundry, settled here as a result of the good rail connections and the proximity to Osnabrück's main train station. The industry also attracted many workers from the city, the countryside and abroad to the district. The tour reflects this development and transports the users back to the working and living environment of the district at that time.

The "Wüste" district has a history of development that is no less significant for Osnabrück. Here lie the beginnings of the famous Kromschröder gas clock factory. The popular leisure pool "Moscow" still arouses the curiosity of visitors today, especially with regard to its name. With the "Deutsche Scholle" (German allotment) there is a typical German allotment garden association here, whose origin is connected with the house colony of the paper mill Quirll. The digital tour gives a new perspective on this particularly sprawling district. This route is wonderfully suited for a bicycle tour along the stations.

Through the lively participation of various people and institutions, the multifaceted history of the two districts comes to life anew in the digital tours. In Schinkel, for example, the MIK worked closely with students from the Stüveschule. Together with Ralf Siebenand from the Lupe music theater, they developed their own contribution to the history of their own school. The citizens' association "Schinkel von 1912 e. V." with Christoph Rickling also actively supported the production of the new tour with visual material from the association's extensive archive. The individual tours last between 90 and 120 minutes and can be discovered from home at www.digiwalk.de/auch from the sofa with tablet or notebook!

Direct link to the new tours: https://www.digiwalk.de/walks/wueste

https://www.digiwalk.de/walks/schinkel