Johnny Cash in Bavaria (Audiowalk)

FOKUS: Workshop with the P-Seminar History of the Iganz-Kögler-Gymnasium 2023/2024
LOCATION: Landsberg am Lech
LANGUAGE: German, English
PROJECT MANAGEMENT: Wolfgang Hauck
CONCEPTION: Wolfgang Hauck, Dr. Edith Raim, Edmund Epple
FLYER: Audiowalk Johnny Cash in Bavaria [PDF]

THE 2023-2024 PROJECT

Audio walk about Johnny Cash at the IKG: Pupils from the Ignaz-Kögler-Gymnasium present a contemporary history project in the BayernHistoryApp. The young people follow in the footsteps of the legendary musician in Landsberg and bring history to life. A look behind the scenes shows how the young people work together with experts and present historical backgrounds in an innovative way. Discover the world of Johnny Cash and the story on your smartphone. The BayernHistoryApp is available to download free of charge – a must for history buffs and music lovers.

After a year of intensive work, the audio walk is finally finished! The students of the P-Seminar History of the Ignaz-Kögler-Gymnasium Landsberg present the result together with their teacher Susanne Futterknecht. Adrian Hoffmann (student in class 11a) admits: “I had imagined it would all be easier. I thought we would be finished with the project by Christmas. I was surprised at how many things you have to think about to realize a project like this.”

The idea for the project came from Wolfgang Hauck, the initiator of the BayernHistoryApp, which was launched in the district of Landsberg in 2023. The app is now used throughout Bavaria, and Bayerischer Rundfunk has its own “Hörpfade” section in the app. The inspiration for the audio walk came about when Hauck spoke to Edith Raim and Edmund Epple about a contribution to Johnny Cash’s Landsberg period. Both are experts on Johnny Cash, both musically and historically, and have been working on a book about Johnny Cash in Landsberg. Hauck suggested developing this story with young people and incorporating it into the association’s history app dieKunstBauStelle. The support of Susanne Futterknecht from the IKG was crucial for such an extensive project. She had heard about the BayernHistoryApp from the district’s culture committee, which had sponsored the app, and made contact.

The P-Seminar was already in the process of planning a tour for Landsberg and was enthusiastic about the idea of creating an audio tour about Johnny Cash. However, they themselves knew very little about Johnny Cash, who was stationed in Penzing as an American soldier from 1951-1954. “He began his musical career here and wrote countless letters to his girlfriend in the USA. That’s how he came to write,” Edmund Epple noted, “and this is where the inspiration for some of his worldwide hits came from, such as I Walk The Line, Don’t Take Your Guns To Town or Folsom Prison Blues,” Edith Raim added.

In September 2023, the students at the IKG began collecting ideas, exploring historical places in Landsberg and writing the text. They researched in archives, spoke to contemporary witnesses and created a diverse collection of background information and audio stations. The texts deal with the complex background of the post-war period, and the young people had decided to choose their parents’ generation as the target group. Topics such as the situation of Americans in post-war Germany, displaced persons and the everyday life of a GI in Landsberg are highlighted. The texts were set to music, websites linked for further information and supplemented with images.

The students were introduced to historical source research and history by Raim, trained in editing, dramaturgy and editing by Hauck and instructed in the use of audio technology. Epple conveyed the musical meaning. Susanne Futterknecht emphasizes: “Through practical work under real-life conditions, the students learn what they will need later in the professional world. That is the aim of the project seminar, because it is designed to prepare them for the demands of university and the world of work.” History can now be experienced on the smartphone, the medium that young people use every day.

At the end there was a public interrogation on the main square about Johnny Cash. Here the young people experienced the significance of their project, as tourists from the Netherlands and Texas were thrilled to learn from them where Johnny Cash bought his guitar and what history connects him to Landsberg. These moving snapshots can also be heard in the app.

The articles on Johnny Cash are the first part of a contemporary history project by the dieKunstBauStelle association, as the National Socialist era and the pre- and post-war period in Landsberg are still being covered in detail in the BayernHistoryApp. The “BayernHistory” app is available free of charge in the app stores. Discover the traces of Johnny Cash in Landsberg!

ARTICLES ABOUT THE PROJECT AND THE BLOG

In preparation.

STATUS

As of July 20, 2024. The project is currently being implemented.