The Digital Network for Collections is supporting the digitization of audiovisual material from the “video strike newspaper” created during the student protests of the 1980s and 1990s. This project is part of the research project “Student History of the Freie Universität Since 1968” being conducted at the Research Unit for University History (Arbeitsstelle Universitätsgeschichte).
The material primarily focuses on the winter semester of 1988/89, when one of West Berlin’s largest student strikes took place. During that time, students produced issues of the audiovisual “video strike newspaper” almost daily, which aimed to disseminate news and plans. It supplemented paper strike bulletins and circulated more quickly across disciplines and universities, including the TU Berlin and the Berlin University of the Arts.
Student materials like these are rarely part of genuine university archive collections. Research by the Research Unit for University History has revealed an extensive collection of videotapes housed in the General Students’ Committee (AStA) archive at the TU Berlin. The approximately 160 U-matic and U-matic-S tapes are assumed to be master copies of the video strike newspaper.
Due to the age and media-specificity of the tapes, they urgently need to be digitized and transferred into archival storage. The physical tapes will therefore be placed under the care of the FU Berlin University Archive. Digitization of the U-matic-S tapes must be carried out by an external service provider. The Digital Network for Collections is taking the necessary steps and covering the expenses.
This project is a collaboration between the FU Berlin’s Research Unit for University History, the University Archive, the Media Archive at the FU Berlin’s Institute for Theater Studies, and the AStA Archive of the TU Berlin.