Rostock | 20–21 September 2025

What happens when memories that have been separated for decades collide? When Vietnamese songs from the 1990s are played while stories of flight and contract labour are shared? The CPPD-Festival „Memory Matters“ Remembering in Conflict on 20 and 21 September in Rostock impressively demonstrated how a pluralistic memory culture brings together diverse communities and questions how we tell our German and European history. Two intensive days were spent discussing and listening – but also singing karaoke, dancing and eating phở prepared by contract workers during an interactive cooking show.

The highlight of the festival was the opening of the new Dynamic Memory Lab “Nước Đức. Vietnamese-German Migration Hi | Stories” by curators Dan Thy Nguyen and Nina Reiprich. The exhibition highlights memories and experiences of the Vietnamese-German community between flight and contract work, North and South Vietnam, East and West Germany. Stories that tell of racism and violence, but also of self-empowerment, solidarity, and artistic and social creativity. These stories are told by the artists and activists whose works are on display, who were present at the opening, and who combine personal experiences with political issues in their work. “They make it clear that memory is not just a retrospective, but a tool with which we can shape the present and the future”, say the curators. The opening was part of the decentralised heimaten festival organised by the Haus der Kulturen der Welt.

In workshops and panels, new bridges were built between generations and directions; trauma and anger were acknowledged, but spaces for self-empowering narratives were also opened up:

On the panel “Speechless in Nước Đức”, Nhi Le, Dan Thy Nguyen und Vu Thanh Van moderated by Vũ Vân Phạm, discussed the challenges of intergenerational memory and shared their experiences from different perspectives between the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generations of Vietnamese-German migration, between East and West Germany, and between North and South Vietnam: What is shared, what is concealed – and why? The panellists emphasised the need to contradict external attributions, avoid biographical narrowing, and ask ourselves radically and confidently: What defines us? What tools do we have? And how do we overcome trauma and create connections between narratives?

Two workshops highlighted different local commemorative events and topics. The excursion with the documentation centre Lichtenhagen im Gedächtnis (Lichtenhagen in Memory) to memorial sites of the 1992 Rostock-Lichtenhagen pogrom, focusing on Romani perspectives. The exhibition “Lebenswege – vietnamesische Rostockerinnen erzählen” (Life Stories – Vietnamese Women in Rostock Tell Their Stories) with Diên Hông on experiences of racism and solidarity-based community building.

Following stops in Berlin and Halle, the networking meeting for actors involved in memory politics and culture continued to provide opportunities for concrete exchange and joint work. Under the theme of ‘Remembrance as Empowerment,’ participants discussed the formats, spaces, resources, and structures necessary for solidarity-based and sustainable remembrance work. They emphasised the urgent need for power-critical spaces and networks that enable long-term and solidarity-based cooperation.

At the end of the festival, visitors, including many first- and second-generation families from Rostock’s Vietnamese community, gathered at the DML for a very special cooking event and shared meal: How did Rostock’s Vietnamese community cook in the 1980s? The format was dedicated to precisely this question. Chef Thuy Nguyen Thi Bich from the KTV canteen cooked Vietnamese food with ingredients that were available in the GDR and shared memories of a cuisine that was a blend of tradition, improvisation and pragmatic adaptation.

Following the CPPD’s Dynamic Memory Labs on decolonisation and cultures of remembrance in Sinti and Roma communities, this third lab and the entire event emphatically demonstrate that temporary and modular spaces of remembrance are of enormous importance for our democratic society – especially now, when spaces for pluralistic remembrance are being pushed back by society. They create places for exchange, encounter, and understanding – and thus indispensable foundations for democratic coexistence.

The opening of the Dynamic Memory Lab Nước Đức is part of the decentralised heimaten festival. The heimatennetwork is an initiative of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt within the framework of heimaten, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media based on a resolution by the German Bundestag.