The Arson Archive is a record of arson attacks against refugee and immigrant accommodations in Germany between 1990 and 2018.
German Memory Culture constitutes a crucial cornerstone for the country's rehabilitation after WW2. Germans pride themselves of having confronted the horrors of the Third Reich but they fail to recognise the development of a thriving right-wing extremist culture in recent decades.
The Arson Archive was created at the Design Academy Eindhoven by the German student Thomas Stratmann. It was first shown at the Dutch Design Week 2018 where one of the first visitors has been the Germany's ambassador to the Netherlands Dirk Brengelmann.
It is not possible to grasp the true extent of this archive with your hands only.
Dirk Brengelmann, German ambassador to the Netherlands
2015-2017 Arson Attacks in Germany
Xenophobic attitudes are long grown and latently present in all groups of age, education and income. The density of arson attacks across Germany reveals a pattern of hatred reaching back to the 1990s.
1996 - Lübeck
1993 - Solingen
1992 - Mölln
A dangerous gap between the commemoration of National Socialism and the confrontation of the extremist spectrum today has become apparent. Nationalist sentiments grow as historical revisionism spreads among the population.
1992 - Pogrom in Rostock Lichtenhagen
German memory culture is in need of a reformation. Testing times require an expansion which closes the gap between the Third Reich and the right-wing extremism of today.
1938
2015
The Arson Archive interprets more recent events, than those of the Third Reich. It gives a physical presence to a heritage of blind hatred that is spreading in society and the parliamentary system.
