Do you know what it feels like to listen to an old musical piece you haven’t heard in a long time? To smell freshly baked cake, like the one your grandmother used to bake when you were a child? Or to revisit a place you have so many fond memories of?
Nostalgia has many faces, many sounds and many smells; it occurs in the most varied situations. Some of them, many people can relate to, others are quite specific and hold a special place in one’s heart. Nostalgia can be a place, where you warm yourself up with a cozy memory, but it is also resembles an old photograph, losing its colour when touched too often?
This book provides a journey through different understandings and perspectives on nostalgia and the people, places and moments in life that are connected to it. The people portrayed in this book shared with us their stories and thoughts on the universal feeling of nostalgia.
Marie is originally from Erfurt, studied Architecture at Bauhaus University in Weimar and lives in Weimar for 12 years now. She always had a passion for antiques, changed her job and opened her antique shop in Brauhausgasse in May 2022.
Marie feels nostalgic about the antiques she’s surrounded with. There are many objects that remind her on her mum or her grandmother or being a child, like the little angel figures. There are also objects that have a special history, for instance, the painting her grandfather got as a birthday present. For Marie it’s also a slowdown from a stressful everyday life and she feels much connected to the objects and their stories.
MARIE, 30
CHRISTINE, 67
“Everything used to be better back thenA sentence that I love to joke with, because I think it is just so stupid.”
,,Ich hab hier in Weimar in einem vollig verranzten Haus gewohnt.
Das sogenannte ,,Katzenhaus”, das war so'n bisschen legendar, so mit Plumpsklo auf der halben Treppe und es hat alles gestunken und so.
Jedenfalls, wir haben da gewohnt, weil wir nichts anderes hatten. Ich hab da mit meiner Tochter gewohnt, die war damals 3 Jahre alt, also das waren auch nicht so tolle Verhaltnisse fur sie. Sie hatte so'n kleines Zimmerchen, das war mit Schragen, da passte geradeso ein Gitterbett rein. Und irgendwann passte sie nicht mehr in das Gitterbett. Und ich hatte noch ein anderes Zimmer, aber das war nicht benutzbar, weil's da durch's Dach geregnet hat. Wir haben da alle schwarz gewohnt und das hat auch keiner repariert. Und da hab' ich immer gesagt: Oh, ich musste mal dieses Zimmer reparieren, ich musste mal mit'm Dach was machen, ich musste mal streichen. Hab' das immer so gesagt und das Kind wuchs und wuchs und dann hab ich gesagt, ich muss das wirklich mal machen. Jedenfalls bin ich mit meinem Kind weggefahren uber's Wochenende. Und wir kamen wieder und ich machte die Tur auf und wollte da meine Schuhe rein schmeißen und dann ist das Zimmer gemacht. Da ist das Zimmer saniert, irgendjemand hat das Dach gedeckt, da steht ein Ofen in der Mitte und ein Blumenstrauß drauf und da steht: Wir sind bei Maria. Schone Gruße, Detlef.”
I lived here in Weimar in a completely wizened house. The so-called “cat house” was a bit legendary, with an outhouse halfway up the stairs and everything stinking and so on. Anyway, we lived there because we had nothing else. I lived there with my daughter, who was 3 years old at the time, so those weren't great conditions for her either. She had a small room with sloping ceilings that just about fit a crib. And at some point she didn't fit in the crib anymore. And I had another room, but it wasn't usable because it rained through the roof. We all lived there in black and no one repaired it. And I always said: Oh, I should repair this room, I should do something with the roof, I should paint it. I always said that and the child grew and grew and then I said, I really have to do that.
Anyway, I went away with my child for the weekend. And we came back and I opened the door and wanted to throw my shoes in there and then the room is done. The room has been renovated, someone has tiled the roof, there's a stove in the middle and a bouquet of flowers on it and it says: We are with Maria. Best regards, Detlef.
COLLIN, 31
The interview was conducted with Collin. He grew up in the Ruhr area, spent his late youth in the USA and came to Weimar in his early 20s to study product design. Today, he has lived in Weimar for 12 years and looked back on his childhood, youth and student days with us in March 2023. For him, nostalgia always has to do with different periods of life and people who were connected with them.
