June 23, 2021 will probably go down in history in Tübingen because of the hailstorm. But for the members of I and Ö it brought another memorable event. An event that none of us really wanted to do, even though we agreed on the snappy name „Read-and-Delete-Tag“.
In the early evening, before the first hailstones fell, we pushed open the door to the office. Behind drinks crates and garbage cans waited a shelf with filled folders and behind the desk the shredder waited. We opened the first files on the floor, table or boxes. A touch of Fichtehaus hit us. Handwritten, ticked off, typed on the computer, with or without a picture, in German or English, applications sent from Stuttgart or Iceland. Lots and lots of applications, farewells, rental contracts, move-out minutes. And what did we do? Removed the staples so the machine could eat the papers with no problem.
Occasionally we would draw each other’s attention to a phrase or image that caught the eye, otherwise we would pile up a bit of history sheet after sheet for destruction.
After a while we got distracted by the weather and the project was briefly put on hold.
When the hail turned to rain we walked back from all corners of the house and the stacks slowly into the maw of the monotonously whirring shredder. Handwritten, moved in, typed with heart and soul, with pictures, the selection of which must have been pondered for a minute or two, from the west, south, east, north, you moved in, you soon became a spruce…
And now it feels like they moved a second time out, the people from the yellow house, part of their memory disappeared between the sharp wheels, became strips that descended the stairs one last time and disappeared into a big black bin.
And what did we do? Pulling out staples, feeding the wolf, stuffing the memories in bags…
But not only. Not only. We laughed and talked.Let faces from the past smile at us fleetingly. And we didn’t give all the food to the wolf. A few maps and texts, we saved. Gave them a place in the bib, a folder that previously contained so much more (anonymously, of course). Placed a few cards in the alumni book with some of their own kind.
A tiny rebellion. In the name of memory.
Mareike, 07/21
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