Stolperstein campaign 

Living memorials in the midst of our everyday lives

The idea for the Stolperstein campaign came from the Cologne artist Gunter Demnig. These are 10x10 cm stones cast from concrete with a brass plaque for an inscription. These stones are set flush into public footpaths and thus commemorate the victims of Nazi crimes in the immediate vicinity. The memory of the arrest, deportation and murder of dissidents is thus not banished to some distant memorial, but takes place today in the middle of the city - an effective initiative! People “stumble” over the engraved text as they pass by - they pause for a moment and think about the text and the associated impulse to remember: “Here lived...” The victims are brought back to life. History can be documented most impressively by means of personal fates.

Other important and highly recommended places to remember the crimes of the Nazis in Stuttgart are the memorial at the Inner North Station. From here, more than 2,500 people of Jewish origin were deported from Württemberg between 1941 and 1945. During the Nazi era, the "Hotel Silber” in Stuttgart was the headquarters of the Secret State Police. This building was used by the police for more than half a century and was the headquarters of the Gestapo for Württemberg and Hohenzollern. This former site of Nazi terror has been turned into a place of historical and political learning and encounter as a citizen participation project. Exhibitions and events deal with perpetrators and their victims, with the police and their role in dictatorship and democracy.