Neustadt plans digital circular route: in the footsteps of Robert Schuman!

Neustadt plans digital circular route: in the footsteps of Robert Schuman!

Neustadt, Deutschland - The city of Neustadt plans an innovative digital circular route to keep the memories of Robert Schuman alive as part of the 75th anniversary of the "Schuman Plan". This was presented as part of a local inspection on the Hetzelplatz by representatives of the city and the "Kuladig RLP Team". The initiative aims to put not only buildings, but also the personal history of Schumans, who lived in the custody in Neustadt from 1941 to 1942. This approach is to be made accessible to both locals and tourists.

The digital platform "Kuladig" (Culture Digital) plays a central role here by providing information about cultural monuments. These can be called up via an app or website and are already comprehensively documented in Neustadt. Representatives of the city administration, including Martin Lange, Petra Schanze from the ceilings and Constantin Beck-Burak, as well as members of the Kuladig team such as Michael Klemm and Florian Weber took part.

planned circular route and learning places

The planned circular route begins at Hetzelplatz and should be of great importance for both residents and school classes. The first station will be the Gestapo cellar, which is designed as a "historical place of learning". Other important stations are the Kurhaus Kohler, which is connected to Schuman's house arrest, and the Villa Böhm, which Schuman was made accessible by Gauleiter Bürckel.

Multimedia elements are planned at each station, including audio and film sequences that complement the written information. In addition, the possibility of creating podcasts is considered to make the story even more alive. In order to further enrich the project, the city asks the citizens for help: everyone who can come up with contemporary photos or documents for Robert Schuman and at the Nazi era in Neustadt are encouraged to submit them by email.

Kuladig: A broader digital project

The project "Kuladig RLP-Digital Covering and Presentation of Cultural Landscapes in Rhineland-Palatinate" pursues the goal of systematically capturing and digitally preparing the cultural heritage of the region. This research project, which runs until December 2026, will be implemented by the Institute for Cultural Studies at the University of Koblenz-Landau in cooperation with the Structural and Approval Directorate South (SGD Süd). The project has been funded by the Ministry of the Interior and for Sport Rhineland-Palatinate since 2019.

Neustadt has been called up as the sixth model community for the funding year, with the aim of focusing on biographies in particular. This is done in the context of a partial realignment of the project, which will be under the topic of "life paths of history - biographical search for traces" from 2025. The support for digital preparation includes start-up financing of around 1,000 euros per pilot community, in addition to financing professional media productions such as video productions and 360-degree photography.

The platform is not only used for the representation of historical objects, but also for intangible cultural assets, whereby multimedia content is put to the fore. The results are accessible to all interested parties via the Kuladig.de website and a free app.

Thus, the digital circular route in Neustadt not only seems to be a learning and experience space, but also an important contribution to receiving the memory of Robert Schuman and the history of the city itself.