University of Erfurt appoints Annegret Schüle as honorary professor

Annegret Schüle studied history and social sciences in Heidelberg and Cologne and received her doctorate from the Institute of History at the University of Jena. From 1994 to 1999 she was a scholarship holder of the Hans Böckler Foundation. Since 2002, she has been researching the history of the Erfurt company J. A. Topf & Sons and has published the monograph "Industrie und Holocaust. Topf & Sons – The Oven Builders of Auschwitz", for which she completed her habilitation at the University of Erfurt in 2012.

As a historian, Dr Annegret Schüle has focused since the beginning of her research and publication activities on communicating scientifically sound findings to a large audience and thus promoting a reflective historical awareness in society. From 2002, as a research associate at the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, she investigated the complicity of the Erfurt-based company J. A. Topf & Sons in the Shoah. She thus created the scientific foundation for the international travelling exhibition "Technicians of the 'Final Solution'. Topf & Sons – The Oven Builders of Auschwitz", which she was involved in creating, as well as for the establishment of the Topf & Söhne – The Oven Builders of Auschwitz memorial site in Erfurt, which she conceived, set up and has managed since its opening in 2011.

With the topic of industrial participation in the National Socialist mass crimes, she has shed light on a dimension of the culture of remembrance of National Socialism in Thuringia and far beyond that had previously received little attention and created a historical and political place of learning of great social relevance. The Topf & Sons Place of Remembrance is the only museum facility in Europe that shows the close links between the private sector and the places of terror and mass murder, the concentration and extermination camps as well as the killing centres of "Aktion T4", on the former premises of a company that was once involved. With its curatorial and educational practice of using examples to show the responsibility of the individual and the options for action available to them under the conditions of the National Socialist dictatorship, the Topf & Sons Place of Remembrance, under the direction of Dr Annegret Schüle, has gained national and international renown and a growing demand for its educational programme. This is evidenced by the museum prize awarded to the place of remembrance by the “Sparkassenkulturstiftung Hessen-Thüringen” in 2014.

With a large number of publications, lectures, exhibitions, projects and jury memberships, Dr Annegret Schüle has a considerable oeuvre of activities in the academic environment. Her work sets standards in academic research on National Socialist social crimes and Jewish history – for a discursive culture of remembrance and innovative educational and mediation work. She has communicated her findings in numerous exhibitions, books and essays, which have met with a broad response – almost all of the exhibitions she has curated for the memorial site have also become successful travelling exhibitions due to the great public interest.

"The collaboration with Dr Annegret Schüle, both as an adjunct lecturer and as director of the Topf & Sons Place of Remembrance, is a great asset for the University of Erfurt," reads the Faculty of Philosophy's justification for her application for the honorary professorship. "Her achievements in both academic and academic-related fields are characterised on the one hand by her intensive and meticulous study of sources and outstanding contextual knowledge, and on the other by her ability to communicate her findings in such a way that a broad audience can be addressed and sensitised. And last but not least, thanks to Dr Annegret Schüle, the university's connections to urban society have been expanded and deepened. The fruits of her close collaboration with the university can be seen, for example, in the cooperation project on the virtual reconstruction of the big synagogue of University of Erfurt, which was destroyed by the National Socialists in November 1938."