Contemporary Witnesses – Film days
The Austrian Contemporary Witness Archive has designed documentaries for film days.
This began at the turn of the millennium
Life Stories – Contemporary History
was the title of a weekly lecture with practice in the summer semester 2010 at the Institute for Historical Sciences and European Ethnology, subject European Ethnology at the University of Innsbruck.
Ekkehard Schönwiese analyses the progress of the project “Virtual House of History” with 36 students and develops guidelines for its further expansion.
The course catalogue says: ” The borderline between life history and contemporary history is analogous to that between oral and written history. The aim is to get to the bottom of these concepts and illustrate the interrelationships using examples.
Contemporary history – oral
It sounds almost improbable. The oldest chroniclers of the virtual house tell of times that can only be read about in books. In the video on the left: Prof. Vietoris.
Contemporary witnesses report on the past from the perspective of the present. History has left its mark on their faces. They tell us nothing new. Historians strive for the facts, and they have made invaluable contributions over the past decades. But is that all? Doesn’t decocatisation in the representation of contemporary history only come to an end when the full competence is handed over to the witnesses of the time?
Life history memories and comments on contemporary history from below by (Tyrolean) contemporary witnesses of the “heroic years”
Peternader. 1853:
Josef Schlechter, Schützenmajor/Kitzbühel
Josef Schlumpf, Schützenhauptmann von Innsbruck
Josef Hager, Scharfschützenhautmann von Oberndor/Kitz
Rupert Wintersteller, Die drei heldenmütigen
Thomas Reischer, Scharfschützenhauptmann /Kirchdorf
Johann Beno Hörwarter, Landsturm Oberanführer/Kitzbühel/ Stadtschreiber
Johann Schlechter, Schützenhauptmann Ellmau
Christian Blattl, Scharfschützenhauptmann/Pillersee
Josef Sitz, Schützenhauptmann/Kitzbühel
Anton Oppacher, Schützenhauptmann/Jochberg
Blasius Löschenbrand, Schützenkorporal und Glasermeister
Johann Pirchl, Gemeiner Scharfschütz/Uhrmacher
Johann Panzl, Landesschützenhauptmann/Windischmatrei
Christian Blatt, Gutsbesitzer/Pillersee/Scharfschützenhauptmann
Centenary – Austria
Prologue
Everyone makes his own picture of history according to how it is recorded in documents, through writings, books, photos, films. Beyond what we know as facts, however, we are shaped by vivid images. Memories, our own and those we are told. Behind the tales of the elders among us lies the very special magic of immortality.
Chroniclers; in their faces facts merge with feelings, past becomes present, lives collective memory, and transforms into vision.