Bringing Moosburg’s WWII history into the city space, barrier-free, for every generation and without an app.
Moosburg was home to Stalag VII-A, one of the largest German prisoner-of-war camps of the Second World War, where tens of thousands of POWs were held. As the last eyewitnesses pass away, that memory is slowly disappearing from the city. The history still survives, across a museum, archives and guided tours, but those offerings are scattered and hard to find, so most residents and visitors walk straight past it without ever knowing it is there.
“How might we bring Moosburg’s history into the city space, barrier-free and without an app, for all generations, as a central access point to the existing historical offerings and a tool that works for guided city tours?” Four obstacles shaped the brief: information is fragmented across institutions; the community resists purely digital solutions; the history runs on a pull model where people have to actively go looking for it (Holschuld) instead of having it brought to them (Bringschuld); and in everyday public space it simply lacks visibility.
An analog-first anchor in the streetscape. A physical board (Tafel) placed at each historic site is the anchor; a QR code on it is the key that opens a bundled digital layer, audio diaries, visuals and archive material, without forcing anyone to install an app. A compartment holds the printed “Echoes” brochure for those who prefer paper, and the same anchor doubles as a working tool for city guides and the museum. Built on participation, it invites residents to add their own memories, keeping the project alive and independent of any single institution.
History is split across the museum, archives and tours, with no single place that ties the offerings together.
The community pushes back on purely digital solutions, so the answer cannot live on a screen alone.
Today people must actively seek out the history (Holschuld); it is never brought to them (Bringschuld).
In everyday public space the history is effectively invisible, easy to walk past without noticing.
The concept is built on field research: interviews with residents and stakeholders, user journeys, “How Might We” framing and analyses of the existing offerings, and more. That work surfaced the four obstacles and shaped every decision that followed.
A physical board placed at each historic site is the anchor of the whole system. It needs no power, no login and no app, it simply stands in public space and makes the history impossible to walk past.
A QR code on the board is the key. One scan opens the bundled digital layer in any phone’s browser, no install and no account, so the threshold to engage stays as low as possible.
Behind the code sit audio diaries and visuals: first-person accounts and archive imagery that let the POW history be heard and seen, not just read off a sign.
Museum, archive and guided tours already exist but live apart. The system bundles them into a single entry point, so finding one means finding all of them.
The same anchor works as a tool for city guides and the museum: a fixed, reliable stop on a tour and a shared reference everyone can point to on the ground.
The “Echoes” brochure is built on participation: residents are invited to add their own memories and stories, so the record keeps growing instead of fading with its last witnesses.
Designed to clear institutional hurdles, the system stays independent of any single organisation, analog at its core, so it keeps working regardless of who maintains the digital layer.
Figma
Illustrator