About Us
The Stumbling Stones Initiative in Lübeck is made up of people, who are drawn to and willing to engage in the work of placing Stumbling Stones in and around Lübeck.
Before The Stumbling Stones Initiative in Lübeck began very few studies were made of the victims of the National Socialism regime leaving many gaps in the history of that period of time. Through its work the Initiative is closing those gaps.
Those gaps in history are being closed because before the sculptor Gunter Demnig can emboss the data on a particular Stumbling Stone there must be painstaking and extensive research done concerning the victimized individual. This research is carried out by historians Dr. Peter Guttkuhn, Dr. Ingaburgh Klatt, Dr. Wolfgang Muth, Manfred Bannow-Lindtke and Christian Rathmer as well as by amateur historians Heidemarie Kugler-Weiemann and Susanne Schledt. This research consists of examining published materials, archival material and other such sources. The Initiative also contacts any living relatives of the victim for additional information, as well as to inform them of what is being planned and to obtain their permission to lay a Stumbling Stone in memory of their family member.
The work of our researchers is supported by the Archive of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, members of the Working Group for Research on National Socialism in Schleswig-Holstein (AKENS) and other researchers. Here we wish to particularly recognize the journalist Albert Schreiber, Erich Koch and Dr. Bettina Goldberg for their work.
The amount of material available on this website increases according to the headway the researchers make in unearthing information about the victims of the National Socialist regime. And you too can help increase the information on this website. Please contact us if you can provide us with any memorabilia, photographs and other information, which can help us in our task.
You can contact us using the website’s Contact page.
Before a Stumbling Srone is laid in the sidewalk in front of a victim’s last dwelling place or where the victim worked, the residents of the building are informed. We are also in communication and work with the City’s Building Department as required in order to lay a Stumbling Stone.
Once a Stumbling Stone is laid it is donated to the city of Lübeck and thereby becomes city property.
Several sponsors of the Initiative as well as the Jewish Congregation of Lübeck contribute support to and participate in the actual public laying of the Stumbling Blocks.
Another two aspects of the Initiative’s work are keeping the public informed through press releases and other means and maintaining the Stumbling Stones.
With the laying of each additional Stumbling Stone the number of people memorialized is increased. The Initiative has also begun guided tours in order to make better known the fate of the victims and to continually keep their names in the eye of the public.
Haus der Kulturen in Lübeck is to be thanked for opening its meeting rooms for the use of The Stumbling Stones Initiative Lübeck.
Translation: Glenn Sellick and Martin Harnisch, 2009