Jüdische Notenspuren – Jewish Music Trails
Together in Leipzig
Leipzig's rich musical heritage includes the culture of its Jewish inhabitants, whose contribution is only slightly present in the memory of the citizens, especially due to the National Socialist expulsion. The aim of the Leipziger Notenspur (Leipzig Music Trail) is to give this lost heritage a "home" again in our city by "localising" it and thus bringing it back into the memory of our city. The project "Jüdische Notenspuren" (Jewish Music Trails) of Notenspur Leipzig e.V. focuses in this sense on communicating regional Jewish musical heritage to children, citizens and visitors of the city of Leipzig – as interactively as possible, sensibly and closely linked to former sites and buildings in Leipzig that tell German-Jewish cultural history.
Living Culture of Remembrance
The memory of injustice against Jewish citizens and the confrontation with our behavioural patterns of adaptation and exclusion that made the injustice possible should not die along with the last contemporary witnesses. The Notenspur initiative promotes forms of remembrance in which the participants are not spectators of remembrance but, as in Jewish culture, participants, and thus become a living part of remembrance. The connection with the music of the persecuted deepens the impression. The restrictive view of reducing Jewish people to their role as victims under National Socialism is insufficient. The history of persecution is also a testimony to the power of solidarity, sympathy and cultural and human values.
Teaching Material and Experience-Oriented Communication
The implementation of our concerns regarding Jewish musical culture in Leipzig is made possible by two complementary teaching materials for Leipzig primary schools, secondary schools, grammar schools, children and adults: the “Notenbogen-Entdeckerpass. Jüdischen Musikern in Leipzig auf der Spur” (Music Arc Discovery Passport. Tracing Jewish Musicians in Leipzig) and “Jüdischen Musikern in Leipzig auf der Spur. Didaktische Materialien” (Tracing Jewish Musicians in Leipzig. Didactic Brochure). (German only)