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About me and the cul­tu­ral walks

Inte­rests and inten­tion
  • Through the world with open eyes
  • Sci­en­ti­fi­cally sound and inter­di­sci­pli­nary
  • Clear and under­stan­da­ble
Get to know me per­so­nally
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About me and the cul­tu­ral walks

Inte­rests and inten­tion

  • Through the world with open eyes
  • Sci­en­ti­fi­cally sound and inter­di­sci­pli­nary
  • Clear and under­stan­da­ble

Nicole Rie­skamp

Nicole Rieskamp

I am from the Berg­straße region – from Als­bach – and live here with my family.
Having grown up in a multi-​generational house­hold, I used to lis­ten to sto­ries from the past: life before and after the war, dis­pla­ce­ment, flight, sett­ling in and life in Als­bach. This sparked my keen inte­rest in local history and per­so­nal sto­ries.

I com­ple­ted my Master’s degree in Cul­tu­ral Anthropology/​Ethnology, Gene­ral Edu­ca­tion and Psy­cho­logy at the Uni­ver­sity of Pas­sau. My year abroad in the Roma­nian region of Buko­vina, working as an ifa cul­tu­ral mana­ger, had a par­ti­cu­larly pro­found influence on me. Through my cul­tu­ral pro­jects invol­ving and cent­red on the Ger­man mino­rity, I got to know the coun­try and its peo­ple. From this, I deve­lo­ped inde­pen­dent pro­jects: a gui­ded tour of the his­to­ric Suceava–Itzkany rail­way line, and a (pho­to­gra­phic) docu­men­ta­tion of Ger­man inscrip­ti­ons in the Buchen­land region, using ceme­ter­ies as a case study. 

Other sta­ti­ons:  Signi­fi­cantly co-​curated spe­cial exhi­bi­tion „400 Years of the Jewish Ceme­tery Als­bach - BEWAHREN - ERINNERN - GEDENKEN“ of the local museum asso­cia­tion. I keep my fin­ger on the pulse of the times through con­stant fur­ther trai­ning on the topics of my gui­ded tours, e.g. „Jewish life in the cities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz“ (Unesco SchUM sites). Museum edu­ca­tion for children/​young peo­ple and published essays for museum spe­cial exhi­bi­ti­ons on burial cul­ture, Christ­mas cus­toms & women’s eman­ci­pa­tion broa­den one’s hori­zons.

In order not to com­ple­tely lose sight of inter­cul­tu­ral work, I am also a vol­un­teer „god­mo­ther“ to an Afghan refu­gee family.

My other areas of inte­rest: Genea­logy, mino­rity rese­arch, trans­port history, art history.

Führungen zu Sehenswürdigkeiten an der nördlichen Bergstraße

Cul­tu­ral walks Berg­strasse

Redis­co­ve­ring the unknown and the almost for­got­ten, loo­king at ever­y­day life in a new light, adop­ting dif­fe­rent per­spec­ti­ves, con­duc­ting aca­de­mic rese­arch into these topics, and sha­ring the results with others whilst exchan­ging ideas. This is what dri­ves me.

My gui­ded tours aim to encou­rage you to pay atten­tion to details that can some­ti­mes fade into the back­ground in ever­y­day life. The Berg­straße is a rich cul­tu­ral land­scape with many local and regio­nal fea­tures, which I will help you to (re)discover.

Peo­ple also once lived here, coming to relax whilst buil­ding net­works and going about their work – inclu­ding some inter­na­tio­nally renow­ned wri­ters, artists, entre­pre­neurs, … .  These figu­res are also worth dis­co­ve­ring on the cul­tu­ral walks.

Cultural and city tours to sights along the northern Bergstrasse
Nicole Rieskamp - Guided tours and sightseeing

For those who do not know the Berg­strasse: 

Sceni­cally char­ming and quietly situa­ted, the old Roman army and trade route lei­su­rely winds its way along the Oden­wald slope. Medieval towns, tran­quil com­mu­ni­ties and also the two uni­ver­sity cities - Hei­del­berg and Darm­stadt - cha­rac­te­rise the region. The hill­tops are dot­ted with cast­les from which you have a magni­fi­cent pan­o­r­amic view of the Rhine plain, among other things. Thanks to the mild cli­mate, almond and fruit trees blos­som early in the year along the Berg­strasse. Hes­sen’s Berg­strasse is also home to Ger­many’s smal­lest wine-​growing region, which boasts num­e­rous grape varie­ties.

Here, in the Bergstrasse-​Odenwald Geo-​Nature Park, peo­ple like to take time out from the bustle of the Rhine-​Main and Rhine-​Neckar regi­ons.