Students chat with Bremerhaven residents for magazine

Diverse insights into life stories

How do people live in Bremerhaven and what stories can they tell? This is what students on the Digital Media Production programme at the university asked themselves. In their "Editorial Design" seminar, they spoke to 17 people from Bremerhaven. They tell their biographies in the student magazine "Schnack". The students were accompanied by their lecturer Dipl.-Des. Axel Stiehler.  

Bremerhaven is a city of contrasts. The student editorial team wanted to show this diversity in their magazine. "Bremerhaven unfortunately has a bad reputation. It's nice that we can show a different side in our magazine," says student Veronika Wisniewski. She and her fellow students were particularly impressed by how different the living environments of the interviewees are. "In Bremerhaven, people share so much, but often know nothing about each other. The city offers many interesting people a home," says Anne Güpner.

The students were allowed to decide for themselves who they wanted to talk to. Some were accompanied by friends and acquaintances, others spontaneously entered a shop they walk past every day. Veronika Wisniewski met her interview partner in her piercing studio. "I had an appointment with my piercer Louis Silverstone and he told me so much about himself and his life. I found his background interesting, so I asked him if I could write about him." Englishman Louis Silverstone has lived in Bremerhaven since 1977 and initially worked on building sites. After a serious accident, friends persuaded him to set up his own tattoo studio. His studio is now one of the oldest in the city. "Louis told me a lot about how Bremerhaven has developed. I found that very exciting," says Veronika Wisniewski.

Anne Güpner met her dialogue partner in a restaurant. He came to her table with a rose. "Probably everyone in Bremerhaven knows Sunny, the rose seller. There are always rumours about him and his private life. I wanted to find out what was really behind him," says the student. Together with her fellow student Jan Bonkamp, she visited Sunny at home and got to know his family. Sunny studied medicine in his home country, but then had to flee. He trained as a chef in Bremen and opened his own restaurant. When this had to close in 2007, he came to Bremerhaven. He has been selling flowers in restaurants there ever since. "I was impressed by his great hospitality. Sunny wanted to cook for us straight away and gave me frozen samosas. And he is very proud of his children," says Anne Güpner.

The tailor's shop on the way home - it was a place that aroused Jan Bonkamp's curiosity. He went inside for the first time for his article. There he met tailor and fashion designer Wanda Worms, who fulfilled her dream of running her own business after graduating in 2021. "Wanda has built up her own little world with her shop. I found it very interesting to get an insight into her life," says the student. 
A further 14 biographies, for example of artists, craftspeople and the cinema ticket inspector, can be found in the "Schnack" magazine.  It is supplemented by a booklet entitled "Snack", which is all about the favourite dishes of the Bremerhaven residents interviewed. "We came up with the idea through a play on words with the term 'snack'. We wanted to incorporate this into our work," says Veronika Wisniewski. The entire magazine - from the initial concept to the editorial texts and layout - was designed by the students. They were supported by Dipl.-Des. Axel Stiehler, who also came up with the idea for this year's theme. "Schnack is already the magical seventh issue in our series of university magazines and once again the students have succeeded in presenting an exciting and relevant topic in a wonderful way." 

The application phase for the winter semester 2024/25 is currently underway at Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences. Prospective students have until 15 August to apply for the open-admission degree programmes via the university's own application portal ecampus.hs-bremerhaven.de.