berlinHistory - Berlin history by location

Winner of the DigAMus Award 2020!
The best digital projects of the museums:
Berlin 1945 in the category: Apps and Games

The Stadtmuseum Berlin and berlinHistory present:
A participatory project with pictures of the destroyed Berlin

With the new camera module, everyone can easily create and publish before and after pictures of the historic original photos of destroyed Berlin.

Thanks to our partners, such as the Stadtmuseum Berlin, the German-Russian Museum Berlin-Karlshorst, the BVG-Archiv and the Landesarchiv Berlin, hundreds of photographs of destroyed Berlin could be located in the urban space within the berlinHistory app. The pictures from all Berlin districts come from well-known photographers such as:

- Cecil Newman (Stadtmuseum Berlin Collection)
- Timofej Melnik (German-Russian Museum Karlshorst)
- Iwan Schagin (German-Russian Museum Karlshorst)
- Walter Franck (BVG archive)

To walk through Berlin is to walk on historical ground – few other places in the world hide so many distinct layers of history beneath the surface. Many traces of the past have faded over the years, however, to such a degree that even the historically inclined pass them by completely oblivious.

The berlinHistory app pins the city’s historic sites, buildings, and events to their exact locations, allowing the hidden past to be seen and experienced.

There are many meticulously designed websites and apps on the history of Berlin, but most of these are difficult to find, rarely updated, and only reach a limited audience. With the berlinHistory app, we hope to create THE definitive historical platform for Berlin, where all of the city’s establishments are present.

In cooperation with all of Berlin’s historical and cultural institutions, the berlinHistory app has developed a “digital museum” that preserves all sorts of historical content, establishes meaningful thematic connections and ensures easy access for users. The meta- app, created as a continuously growing platform for Berliners and visitors young and old alike, is free and without advertisements.

Besides texts on historical sites, themes, and epochs available in multiple languages and accompanied by before-and-after photos, the numerous POIs (Point of Interest) also provide historical video footage and audio recordings of first-hand accounts.

Furthermore, the app offers audio-guided, thematic walking tours of historically significant locations, even outside of the major tourist areas.

Different display options (thematic view, list view, and epoch view) offer users the ability to filter content to suit their individual interests and optimize their experience.

Functions:
- Location-based texts in German and English
- Image galleries
- Before-and-after pictures
- Timelines: pictures of a place from different epochs
- Additional epoch and event texts as well as biographies
- Digital audio tours with media (photos, audios, videos, music)
- Breakdown by epoch
- Accurate historical maps and aerial photos
- Topic-based tab view with search function
- Contemporary witness interviews and other videos