Cartorik won a Bronze Lovie Award
in the ‘Mobile Excellence’ category :

Memory is the present. With each new generation, perspectives on historical periods and past events change. With new questionings and new areas of interest, young people always take ownership, in their own way, of the social memories that were shaped and transmitted by their parents' and grandparents' generations. Yet today, in France and in Germany, young people are increasingly unable to ask questions of those who witnessed the Second World War, or of the survivors of the Holocaust. Furthermore, in the future, collective memory will ever-increasingly be influenced by the rapid progression of digitalisation. On the internet, which is to say in young people's daily lives, disinformation and the negation of history are thriving. This poses a risk to democracy and peace in Europe.

This is where Cartorik comes in. Cartorik is a dynamic digital map of Franco-German history. Some of the chosen locations are internationally known, others are not. Most of them are located in Germany and in France, but some are also located in neighbouring European countries, in Africa, or in Asia. Many places of memory tell of the abysmal depths of Franco-German history, marked by wars and violence, while others present Franco-German reconciliation and friendship, which remain unique in the world to this day. Cartorik is aimed at teenagers and young adults, but also at teachers and facilitators of educational and youth projects. We, the Franco-German Youth Office (FGYO), believe that the future of a European memory is dependent upon youth exchanges. Up to 200.000 people take part every year in the projects of the FGYO and of its partners.

At the beginning of Cartorik, there is a question: how do we transmit to the youth of the today – the Instagram generation – the history and memory work that have been developed over decades? Under the scientific direction of a tandem of Franco-German historians, with the expertise of over 60 historians from Germany, France, and Europe, our team attempted to respond to this key question, at a time when war is once again raging in Europe. The more we know about the history of the places we live in and visit in France and in Germany, the better equipped we will be for a shared and peaceful future.

We would like to express our deep gratitude to these Franco-German historians, particularly the scientific coordinators, professors Corine Defrance and Ulrich Pfeil; to our pedagogical team, particularly Anne Jardin and Sandrine Debrosse-Lucht; as well as to the &Why agency for their outstanding collaboration on this exceptional project. Should this digital map of Franco-German places spark discussion of the present and future of memory in youth hostels or classrooms, on buses or on night trains, in cafés or in parks, on the couch or at the kitchen table, Cartorik will have achieved its goal.

Tobias Bütow and Anne Tallineau
General Secretaries

The Franco-German Youth Office (FGYO) has launched Cartorik, a digital map of "63+" places in Franco-German History: 63 because the FGYO was born in 1963, and "+" signifying the open-ended nature of the project. These places are emblematic of our shared history since the Franco-German War of 1870/71. They therefore cover over a century and a half of history.

These places are different in nature. Some are associated with a traumatic history: battles took place, massacres were committed, or the places are linked to the Holocaust, the systematic killing of the Jews in a Europe dominated by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. In other places, natural catastrophes happened which inspired Franco-German acts of solidarity or even of transnational protest, such as the first environmentalist and antinuclear struggles. There is also "joyful" history, with emblematic places of rapprochement, reconciliation, cooperation, and friendship between the peoples, such as twinning programmes or youth meetings. Some places combine different memorial strata, both negative and positive.

The chosen locations are associated with events pertaining to four great historical periods:

1. From 1870 to 1918, from the Franco-German War to the end of the First World War;
2. From 1919 to 1945, from the Treaty of Versailles to the end of the Second World War;
3. From 1945 to 1989, from the occupation of Germany by the victorious powers to the fall of the Wall of Berlin;
4. Since 1990, i.e., since the reunification of Germany and the end of the Cold War.

In certain places, events took place which are relevant to multiple time periods (see the "transperiodical" category). The historical memory that these places bear today – or don't bear – is systematically discussed in the texts.

The vast majority of the places we selected can be found in France or Germany today, but throughout the years and the changing of borders were sometimes "on the other side", as was the case in Alsace and Moselle – regions annexed by the German Reich from 1871 to 1918 and annexed de facto by Nazi Germany from 1940 to 1944/45. During the time of Germany's division between 1945/49 and 1990, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic are naturally taken into consideration. Some places are located exactly on the border and reflect its function which, depending on the time period, was either one of enclosure and control or one of passage, a symbol of circulation and cooperation. Also selected were places of Franco-German history located outside of both countries, in Europe and sometimes even beyond, in Africa or in Asia. The latter two bear witness to colonial history and imperial interactions, to "decolonisation" and to their own memory. The European places, from Spain to Poland, from Norway to Albania, from Luxembourg to Switzerland and Ukraine, evoke moments of solidarity, of more or less successful cooperation and sometimes of confrontation, whether these be bilateral or multilateral, or even transnational.

Even as an open project that will be expanded with new places, Cartorik neither aims to be exhaustive, nor can it be. A balance was sought between the represented regions and time periods, as well as between different perspectives: thus locations were chosen because they were emblematic of history that was political or cultural, economic, military, or societal. Those who are interested in sports, education, conflicts between dictatorships and democracies, and population movements either chosen or forced will find locations in Cartorik that bear their trace and their memory. The place and the role of children and young people in the events described are systematically highlighted.

Thematic routes are offered for those who wish to journey through Franco-German History differently: youth, agreements and treaties, camps, twinning programmes, sports and music. Choosing, of course, always means giving up to some extent, but one principle has guided us: that of balance between locations that are well-known and often hyper-publicised, where official commemorations regularly take place, and locations that are unknown to the public at large and are not (yet) places of memory or have been forgotten, places bearing the memorial trace of history (ruins, buildings, landscapes, etc.) but which have not been memorially invested – they bear no memorial plaques or informational panels, and there are no private or public initiatives to remind us of what happened there, let alone any commemoration. In a certain number of cases, the process is ongoing and reflects our societies' interest in this common and shared history. Recognising, going deeper, and discovering: such is the premise of Cartorik.

To our navigators – Cartorik can be used in three ways:

1. a spatial approach, by navigating on the map;
2. a historical approach, by choosing a given time period;
3. finally, a thematic approach, using keywords.

The texts are accompanied by photos, audiovisual materials, reproductions of archival documents, and a few suggestions for going further. Happy exploring!

Corine Defrance and Ulrich Pfeil
Scientific coordinators of the project

1870-1918 :

France :
Courrières (Alexandre Bibert), Fleury-devant-Douaumont (Nicolas Beaupré), Gravelotte (Nicolas Bourguinat), Metz (Alexandre Kostka), Paris - German neighbourhoods (Mareike Koenig), Roubaix (James Connolly), Thélus (Maude Williams).

Germany :
Leipzig (Bettina Severin-Barboutie)

Outside France/Germany :
Togo and Bénin (Isabell Scheele)

1919-1945 :

France :
Colombes (Franz Kuhn), Gurs (Hélène Leclerc), Hôtel Excelsior (Dominique Trimbur), La Cambe (Marie-Annick Wieder), Oradour-sur-Glane (Stéphanie Boutaud), Paris - Hôtel Lutetia (Henning Fauser), Paris - Vel d’Hiv (Dominique Trimbur), Sanary-sur-Mer (Magali Nieradka-Steiner), Vercors (Ulrich Pfeil), Vichy (Audrey Mallet).

Germany :
Berlin - The French bookstore on Passauer Straße (Corine Defrance), Buchenwald (Philipp Neumann-Thein), Duisburg (Andreas Pilger), Hohenlychen (Jérémie Dubois), München (Alexandre Bibert), Sigmaringen (Clemens Klünemann).

Alsace-Moselle annexée de fait :
Ban Saint-Jean (Chrystalle Zebdi-Bartz), Schirmeck (Catherine Maurer), Straßburg - The Reichsuniversität Straßburg (Christian Bonah).

Outside France/Germany :
Colpach - Luxembourg (Gaby Sonnabend), Oslo - Norway (Marion Aballéa).

1945-1989 :

France :
Chartres (Fabien Théofilakis), Fessenheim (Olivier Hanse), Gunsbach (Jenny Litzelmann), Limours (Dorothea Bohnekamp), Paris - Élysée Palace (Ansbert Baumann), Paris - Commemorative plaques (Céline Largier Vié), Paris - Latin Quarter (Silja Behre).

Germany :
Berlin - Tegel airport (Uta Birkemeyer), Berlin - The French Cultural Centre on Unter den Linden (Ulrich Pfeil), Cottbus (Constanze Knitter), Freudenstadt (Anne-Laure Briatte), Göttingen (Corine Defrance), Ludwigsburg (Jacqueline Boysen), Loreley (Jacqueline Plum), Nordrach (Yves Dénéchère), Ratstatt (Matthias Gemählich), Saarbrücken (Franziska Flucke), Sankt Germanshof (Pia Nordblom).

Outside France/Germany :
Dien Bien Phu - Vietnam (Eckart Michels), Mont Pèlerin - Switzerland (Corine Defrance), Sevilla - Spain (Albrecht Sonntag).

1990 to present :

France :
Saint-Denis (Sophie Hegemann), Toulouse (Jürgen Finger).

Germany :
Müllheim (Benjamin Pfannes), Weimar (Frédéric Weber).

Cross-border :
Strasbourg/Kehl - France/Germany (Birte Wassenberg).

Outside France/Germany :
Kiev - Ukraine (Christoph von Marschall), Tirana - Albania (Nicolas Moll).

Transperiodic :

France :
Reims (Andreas Linsenmann), Versailles (Ulrich Pfeil).

Germany :
Aachen (Harald Müller), Basdorf (Nina Bärschneider), Mainz (Michael Kißener).

Outside France/Germany :
Gdansk - Poland (Paul Gradvohl)