Ms Dagmar Hovestädt

Ms Dagmar Hovestädt

Dagmar Hovestädt, M.A. Communication FU Berlin, Germany; Fulbright scholar CU Boulder, USA; Micro Masters International Law, Universite de Louvain (online).

Dagmar Hovestädt was the spokesperson for the Federal Commissioner for Stasi Records in Germany from 2011 to 2021. In this role the former journalist began to examine the role of archives and records in the process of dealing with a repressive past. Starting with the German process addressing the communist regime in the East from 1949 to 1990, she soon expanded her interest to a global roster of archives at the intersection of human rights and transitional justice.

In her role as spokesperson, she traveled to Tunisia, Colombia, Albania, Slovak Republic, Russia, The Hague, Mexico, Argentina, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ireland and also toured numerous groups through the Stasi Records Archive to share that experience and compare the role of documents in a variety of conflict scenarios from Taiwan, Cambodia, South Korea, to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, Ukraine and Ireland to Tunisia, South Africa, Colombia or Argentina. In 2018 she was co-organizer of a workshop on “Atrocities Archives” at Oxford University, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, with Julia Viebach and Ulrike Lühe, leading to more intense research and scientific articles. In 2024, at Queens University in Belfast, an ESRC Impact grant enabled the same team to bring together archivists and representatives of the digital documentation organizations of ongoing conflicts in Syria, Palestine, and Ukraine to discuss their methods and explore the power of recording in the context of ongoing conflicts. 

Convinced that the free flow of information is at the core of powering strong democracies, she sees dealing with the past as an enlightening and necessary bridge to understanding contemporary issues. She is actively supporting journalism in the public interest as a trustee and member of the advisory board of Correctiv, a German non-profit media house. Among other projects she currently works in support of the ISIS Prisons Museum (isisprisons.museum) launch and development, an effort to support justice and accountability for the victims of ISIS based on documentation and a substantial digital archive.