Life Stories are History

JKU historian Ernst Langthaler was featured as an expert speaker as part of the BBC documentary "A House Through Time".

Sophie von der Tann interviewing Ernst Langthaler on a farm near Berlin; photo credit: BBC

The BBC documentary, "A House Through Time" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09l64y9, opens an external URL in a new window) tells the story of Europe in crisis and the wars starting in 1918 to 1945 from the perspective of the residents living in two apartment buildings, one in London and one in Berlin. The BBC 2 has just aired four episodes from Season 5 of the successful TV series.

Erika Gaertig, one of the residents in the Berlin home, works for Reichsnährstand, an agricultural organization under the Third Reich. She served as an advisor to new farmers and an agricultural educator to "Germanize" East German and former Polish agricultural regions by settling German farming families.

Ernst Langthaler (JKU Institute for Economic, Social and Environmental History) was involved in the BBC documentary as an expert speaker. Based on archive documents, he puts Erika Gaertig's life story with the agrarian and racial policies of the Nazi regime into context, bringing history from textbooks to life and encouraging people to reflect on what they learn.