Flight, nights spent in air-raid shelters, or the return from captivity as a prisoner of war: In artistically staged scenes, Heike von Schlebrügge brings formative memories of her parents to life, using their experiences to reflect those of an entire generation of German children who grew up during and after the war.

For this project, she searched for a medium that could bring together “memory” and “childhood”. In historic dollhouses, some of which she inherited, she was able to recreate key scenes using old dollhouse furniture, porcelain objects, and fragile, timeworn fabrics, carefully capturing the atmosphere of the stories she had been told.

The exhibition is closely connected to her own family history:

“The war and post-war years were always present throughout my childhood in the 1970s and 1980s. The stories and, in some cases, unresolved memories accumulated into a heavy burden in my own life. I was particularly aware of my mother’s inner conflict: her tender love for her father, who had been missing for many years and who had been a National Socialist from the very beginning.”