Present Past: How Descendants Explore Their Families’ Nazi History

Book Presentation with Dr. Johannes Spohr

A grandfather who worked as a camp doctor at a concentration camp. Mountains of files in federal and state archives. Conversations with relatives who would rather remain silent. *Present Past* brings together ten very different accounts from descendants who have set out to trace their families’ histories during the Nazi era—and shows just how varied the processes of research, discovery, and coming to terms with the past can be.

The volume was edited by Dr. Johannes Spohr in collaboration with Claudia Krieg. In Berlin, Spohr not only conducts his own research into Nazi family histories but also, through his service “Present Past,” provides professional archival research for private individuals—a field that is becoming increasingly professionalized. He will present the volume at the Mitte Museum’s branch and then discuss with the audience what this growing trend of private remembrance work might mean for society’s engagement with the Nazi era.



Dr. Johannes Spohr is a historian in Berlin and runs the archival research service “Present Past,” which focuses on Nazi history in families and society. In 2020, he earned his Ph.D. in Hamburg with a dissertation on the late German occupation of Central Ukraine; in 2022, his book *Phantastische Gesellschaft* was published, exploring false and imagined Nazi family histories. He is a board member of Kontakte-Kontakty e.V.

Claudia Krieg, born in Magdeburg in 1977, works as an editor, researcher, and author.



Moderator: Luise Haubenreiser

The event will take place at the Mitte Museum’s branch on Mathilde-Jacob-Platz.

Admission is free; please register at .Translated with DeepL

Meeting point: The event will take place at the Mitte Museum's branch on Mathilde-Jacob-Platz.

Booking: Please register at .

Next date:

• Date Thursday, 03/September/2026 17:00 bis 20:00
• Venue Mitte Museum
• Address Pankstraße 47, 13357 Berlin-Wedding