Here it is: our first newspaper about and from Suhl-Nord. With 2000 printed copies and an online version. It contains 48 pages with 151 pictures. Behind it are 3 months of intensive workshop time and 4 weekend meetings with the 8 authors. 11 former and current residents who provided us with their old photos and 2 texts.
Why a newspaper about Suhl-Nord? We from the unofficial.pictures association had the impression that there was a lot to tell. Of visions, construction, reality and everyday life in a satellite town. Of densification, deconstruction and demolition. Of moving, moving again and moving away. Of childhood memories of places that no longer exist. Of Nazis who spread fear in the 1990s and 2000s. Of migrants who have arrived here. We think it's important to get all of this out of the back of our minds and look at it again together in order to be able to deal with the current situation and think about the future. That's why we launched an extensive project in the spring to discuss these and other topics. Thanks to funding from the Fonds Soziokultur and the Heidehof Foundation and with the support of many local associations, we were able to organise a street party in July. Since then, we have received countless photos and stories. It was important to us to turn them into something that people could pick up, look at together and put on a bookshelf. And something that would reach a lot of people. That's why we decided that there should be a newspaper about Suhl-Nord.
The newspaper was primarily intended to provide a platform for the perspectives of people from Suhl-Nord. That's why we invited people to a workshop. We found motivated participants who have lived, still live, study or work here. Together, we developed the topics of our newspaper from various ideas. In the end, the most important thing was what was most important to us all. That is why this newspaper does not claim to cover Suhl-Nord in its entirety, from all perspectives. It shows what we wanted to deal with over the four weekends and in between. What we managed to do. What we enjoyed exploring and discovering. You will no doubt miss some aspects or have a different view of some positions. Nevertheless, we would like to invite you on a round trip in text and images.
When we started the project ‘Suhl-Nord - Back in Conversation’, we had no idea that the city council and the city administration would also bring the neighbourhood back into conversation this year. They commissioned the state development company with the further development of an ‘implementation-oriented realisation concept’. This outlines the planned ‘transformation of a residential area into a commercial area of the future’ in the years 2022 to 2040. We do not have enough expertise to assess whether this is the best solution for the future of Suhl-Nord and whether it will be realisable. However, we believe it is vitally important to involve people in the many upheavals that will affect their lives and to create a space for dialogue. Before political decisions can be made, we believe that a common language should first be found and different perspectives heard. In conversations with former and current residents of Suhl-Nord, we got the impression that this has been neglected. On the other hand, there needs to be a way to remember the past - especially because many places are barely recognisable. We hope that this newspaper offers an opportunity for both. And that Suhl-Nord can remain in dialogue, even if it changes. Without bitterness, without a view from above, without fear of the future and also without nostalgic glorification.
If you have any comments after looking through and reading, if you recognise yourself or even feel like writing something yourself, please send us an e-mail or leave a message on our answering machine. As we already have many exciting ideas, photos and stories that we were unable to print due to lack of space, we are not ruling out publishing further issues of this newspaper. Among other things, we would like to provide a platform for even more perspectives from people who have only moved here in recent years and include them in the dialogue.
unofficial.pictures,
November 2022
