Vanished Villages
A story about open-cast mining in Germany and its victims
Since the beginning of the 20th century, over 300 villages in Germany have been destroyed for lignite mining. In some cases, the villages were rebuilt elsewhere. In many cases, however, the villages disappeared completely from the map.
The project Verschwundene Ortschaften - Eine kurze Geschichte über den Tagebau in Deutschland und seine Opfer brings the villages back to life in an interactive map visualisation. A data story is used to tell the story of resettlement, destruction, climate damage, forced labour, but also of successful resistance in the GDR up to today's protests around Fridays for Future and Ende Gelände. Readers can scroll through the story or explore the map themselves.
Student research project by Tim Hönig
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