International Fellowship »Zwangsarbeit/en – Work Force/d« Awarded for the First Time

For the first time, Akademie Schloss Solitude is collaborating with the Coordination Office for the Culture of Remembrance at the Cultural Affairs Office of the City of Stuttgart as part of the international fellowship »Zwangsarbeit/en – Work Force/d.«

The fellowship aims to explore the history of Nazi forced labor in Stuttgart from contemporary artistic perspectives and bring it to greater public attention. It takes as its starting point specific sites of former Nazi forced labor within the present-day city, which will be made newly legible through artistic interventions.

Between 1939 and 1945, these sites were places of violence, disenfranchisement, and exploitation. Today, at most of these locations, nothing remains to indicate this part of their history. This is precisely where the fellowship project begins: The artistic works will investigate the traces that forced labor has left to this day in the urban landscape, in biographies and family histories, and in social structures. At the same time, they will open a dialogue about contemporary forms of exploitation, dependency, and precarious working conditions by critically reflecting on continuities, ruptures, and transformations.

The international open call received more than 160 applications from numerous countries. A five-member expert jury – comprising Mirjam Zadoff, director of the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism; Ülkü Süngün, artist; Andreas Langen, photographer and member of the Forced Labor in Stuttgart Working Group; and representatives of the two collaborating institutions – selected two international artistic positions.

Artist Nadya Sayapina recently began the first of her several-month residencies in Stuttgart. As the fellowship progresses, Jean-François Daisy Krebs will also come to Stuttgart for two working periods. During their stays, the artists will conduct research in archives, engage in conversations with experts and local initiatives, and develop site-specific artistic projects to be realized together with Stuttgart’s urban community. The artistic projects will be accompanied by a public program of educational and outreach activities.

Alongside the Coordination Office for the Culture of Remembrance at the Cultural Affairs Office and Akademie Schloss Solitude, key partners include the Forced Labor in Stuttgart Working Group, the Baden-Württemberg State Agency for Civic Education, and the House of History Baden-Württemberg.

Historical Context

Between 1939 and 1945, forced labor was a central component of the Nazi war economy. Millions of people from European countries occupied by Germany were forced to work in the German Reich. In Stuttgart alone, more than 40,000 men, women, and young people were subjected to forced labor.

Although forced labor was a fundamental pillar of the Nazi war economy, its history remained a largely suppressed chapter of European remembrance for many years after 1945. It was not until the late 1980s – and increasingly in the context of the debates over compensation during the 1990s – that the experiences and fates of forced laborers began to receive greater public attention.

Since 2022, the »Forced Labor in Stuttgart« Working Group has been documenting former camp and work sites throughout the city.

An important recent contribution to research is historian Kevin Schmidt’s dissertation, Kriegswirtschaft und Zwangsarbeit in Stuttgart 1939–1945 (War Economy and Forced Labor in Stuttgart, 1939–1945), published by the Stuttgart City Archives. It provides new insights into the scale, organization, and significance of forced labor in Stuttgart and serves as an important foundation for further work on the city’s culture of remembrance.

Until the end of September, photographs of sites associated with forced labor during the Second World War can be seen in the display windows of the former Galeria Kaufhof building on Eberhardstraße. The photographs are by Andreas Langen and Kai Loges (arge lola). The exhibition is a collaboration between the Coordination Office for the Culture of Remembrance and the »Forced Labor in Stuttgart« Working Group.