The threads of memory: Stories of the Aktienspinnerei

As the name “Alte Aktienspinnerei” suggests, the university library building was originally erected as an industrial building in the middle of the 19th century, but was only used by the spinning mill itself until the beginning of the 20th century. After that, it served a variety of purposes: rented out to other industrial companies and used as a forced labour camp during the Second World War. In the period that followed, it housed the municipal library, the Wismut department stores' “Glück auf” and the municipal puppet theatre, as well as the Neue Sächsische Galerie after reunification, before it became very “quiet” around the building until it was finally converted into the university library. The project aims to process this history - but not in the conventional way of studying files, but in the form of interviews with contemporary witnesses, whose personal memories and stories will be recorded in multimedia, professionally edited and finally made available to the public on a university library website in order to make the history of the building tangible and tangible for future generations.