Berlin in WWII with a Historian

Dr. Lauren van Vuuren is a South African-born historian, who has lived in Berlin for a decade. As an AW Mellon Fellow, and then lecturer at the University of Cape Town, she taught and researched a wide range of subjects, from the history and theory of warfare and violence, to representations of the South African and German past on film. In December of 2012, she came to the Free University Berlin as a research fellow in contemporary history and encountered the most compelling world she had ever experienced: Berlin. There, the sheer weirdness of its gloomy winter merged with her understanding of its recent past to convince her of Berlin's uniqueness, both as a place and as an idea. Within a year she had permanently relocated to the city. In 2024 she teaches in the Free University Berlin’s European Studies Programme (Fubest) and their Summer Exchange Programme, Fubis. Her teaching, on Cold War history, Holocaust memory in the two germanys, and the twentieth century cultural and social history of Berlin, reflects her belief that writing and teaching about twentieth century Berlin is an essential task in our contemporary world, so that nothing is forgotten. Sharing the stories of this excoriating place has become an enduring joy for her. She is the recipient of the South African Thomas Pringle award for short story writing in 2013 and is currently finalising the publication of a series of short stories about Berlin.