In a split second, you’ll go back 100 years – right into the bustling Berlin of the legendary Roaring Twenties: to Pariser Platz at the Brandenburg Gate. Thanks to VR technology, you’re right in the middle of things instead of just being there: in the ‘real’ Berlin of the 1920s.
As soon as you put on your VR goggles, paperboy ‘Tiger’ welcomes you on the virtual Pariser Platz. Because here is his territory! As a true ‘Berlin Snout’ he not only has the latest headlines at the ready – he also knows everybody on site, guides you around and serves the latest gossip. Only if you like, though, because 20s.BERLIN is freely accessible. You can also explore the area around the Brandenburg Gate on your own – thanks to state-of-the-art virtual reality technology this is possible!
Get ready for a turbulent journey through time, because on the Pariser Platz of the twenties there is quite something going on: cars, buses and carriages are passing the Brandenburg Gate. Traffic is roaring past the Hotel Adlon along the world-famous boulevard Unter den Linden towards Alexanderplatz. Whether directly on the virtual Pariser Platz or on the spacious sidewalks: Here is, where life’s pulsating – and you are right in!
You’ll marvel at the gigantic Graf Zeppelin and learn all about the spectacular Opel rocket car RAK 2. Throughout your virtual reality timetravel, you’ll witness historical events, immerse yourself in countless everyday scenes and also meet famous personalities who truely lived in Berlin in the 1920s. So don’t be surprised if you run into the “Iron Gustav” and mabybe even Albert Einstein. Or if an ostrich-drawn carriage with a scantily clad, dark-skinned beauty whizzes past you. Your observations are spot on! That’s exactly what actually happened, and the lady is the legendary Josephine Baker. Just about everything you experience in the 20s.BERLIN VR is right on the original: the architectures, the cars, the celebrities, the fashion and many of the micro-scenes. Even details like poster motifs or headlines are based on historical sources.
Europe’s secret capital was a veritable powder keg – socially, politically and culturally. Energetic, fast-paced and tense to the breaking point, dazzling and seedy, breathtakingly exciting and “highly explosive” in every respect.
In the 1920s, Berlin was characterized by extreme contrasts: wealth and misery were often only a stone’s throw apart. Swank, pomp and splendid architecture on the grand boulevards. And one street over? Shabby backyards without sunlight. War invalids begging for alms in front of dazzling vaudeville and movie theaters. Furiously demonstrating communists and up-and-coming National Socialists. Unconditional modernism, high culture with international appeal, an avant-garde intoxicated with cocaine and a distinct milieu…
The time travel experience 20s.BERLIN not only depicts all this virtually, but also makes it possible to experience it again!
Of course, 20s.BERLIN is first and foremost an engaging, entertaining virtual reality experience. But the interactive city simulation also makes a scientifically sound contribution to Berlin’s urban history. How that?
Let’s start with the virtual architectures: None of the buildings visualized for 20s.BERLIN is a mere look-alike! Every single one corresponds to the historically documented original.
And not only that: Even details, for example “current” headlines, movie posters, and all scenes and incidents that go beyond mere everyday events, are closely oriented to the attested history.
Thanks to virtual reality, historical events, social trends and tendencies, as well as the attitude to life and everyday events of past eras, can be explored in a playful way. Technically state-of-the-art, intuitive, and both factually and historically well-founded.
In the future, augmented and virtual reality will play a role that can hardly be overestimated when it comes to conveying knowledge in a contemporary way. Although gamification has been around for some time in the context of teaching and research, the discussion about digitization in teaching only really gained momentum when educator’s interest in innovative tools increased rapidly as a result of the global Corona pandemic.
Especially in the didactic context, participatory technologies such as VR and AR have an almost inexhaustible potential. A potential that we definitely want to contribute to exploring and unfolding! For teachers who would like to virtually explore the 1920s with their students, we will soon provide additional documents for preparing, following up, and deepening the VR experience!
You are planning to visit 20s.BERLIN with your class and would like to find out more about the possibilities of deepening the virtual experience through further documents in advance? Feel free to contact us! We’re looking forward to get in touch!
In exactly one week, on October 1, 2021, Berlin will be enriched by another digital attraction: Then we will celebrate the “official opening” of 20s.BERLIN at Berlin EAST SIDE MALL. As befits a real world premiere, for a brief moment exclusively with the participants, supporters and sponsors. Only one day later 20s.BERLIN will be open…
We feel honored, thrilled and extremely grateful! Arne Krasting and Else Edelstahl (photo), aka the great ‘Goldstaub – Der Zwanziger Jahre Podcast’, have dedicated an episode to us and our VR time travel project. A very special episode, in fact! You can listen to Arne and Else talking to TTB founders Peter Langer and Benedikt…
