Old Tales and New Stories: Working with Oral History at LWL-Industrial Museum Henrichshütte Hattingen

Abstract

From the beginning, oral history was formative for developing the former Henrichshütte Ironworks in Hattingen into a museum. Part of the LWL-Industriemuseum/Westphalian State Museum of Industrial Heritage, the Henrichshütte's museal practice always aimed at people’s life and work experience rather than aspects of pure technology. Taking the example of Henrichshütte, this article describes several aspects of work with oral history within the LWL-Industriemuseum as a whole, from exhibition concepts to volunteer work, and discusses the development towards an archive of work in the industrial age, covering six branches and around 1,600 interviews.