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The German Resistance Memorial Center
The “Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand” (GDW: The German Resistance Memorial Center) is using software by LuraTech to digitalize its comprehensive collection of photography and documents
Berlin, June 2003
Berlin-based LuraTech Inc. is one of the leading developers of compression technology (reducing data volume) for images, data and documents, as well as JPEG2000 implementations. In January 2001, JPEG2000 was certified by the ISO task force as a new international standard. Through a specialized wavelet procedure (a precise mathematical calculation and transformation of image data), JPEG2000 allows a higher level of data compression for digital images. Significantly, despite the reduction of data size, a marked increase in image quality can be obtained over conventional formats such as GIF or JPEG.
At LuraTech, ten years of research and development in the area of wavelet-based data compression with applied engineering competence served as a basis in developing the LuraWave and LuraDocument compression software. With the highperformance LuraDocument software, even scanned color documents containing text and image elements can be compressed. These product innovations are the result of a close collaboration with universities and research facilities and are constantly being optimized through further development.
In cooperation with the Berlin-based minuskel screen partner Inc., a multimedia information system has been developed over the past few years for the Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand (GDW - The German Resistance Memorial Center). This innovative system will one day encompass GDW’s complete range of stored data. LuraDocument has been successfully integrated into the digital archiving and knowledge management system developed by minuskel, known as DARWIM. With its optimal compression results, the system is a key factor in the successful realization of this ambitious project.
Founded in March 1995 as a pre-print services provider, minuskel screen partner has longstanding experience in the digital processing of a wide range of data and media for multimedia, internet and content management systems, as well as complex database solutions in the field of knowledge management. The cooperation between LuraTech and minsukel screen partner will be characterized by an even closer collaboration between the two companies in the future.
“LuraDocument enables excellent image quality to be retained for very small data volumes. This results in lower storage space requirements and faster data transmission. Consequently, LuraDocument is particularly suited for use in modern, Internet-based applications for databases and graphics as well as for complex digital archive solutions, such as those developed for GDW,” comments Carsten Heiermann, Managing Director of LuraTech Inc.
Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand (GDW)
The GDW (The German Resistance Memorial Center) is a memorial to resistance against National Socialism. During the night of the 20th to 21st of July 1944, in the courtyard of the former General Army Office, four officers under Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg involved in an attempted coup were executed by firing squad. Stauffenberg, then Chief of Staff of the Reserve Army, had masterminded the failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler’s life at his headquarters in Rastenburg, East Prussia.
Illustration 1: Honorary courtyard of the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin © Nikolaus Koliusis/GDW
In 1953, upon the initiative of the surviving members of families, the foundation stone was laid for a memorial in the inner courtyard of the building. But it was only three decades later that the memorial center could be officially opened with the exhibition “Resistance Against National Socialism”. Since then, the central task of the institution has been to promote critical discussion of this segment in German history through exhibitions, publications, educational events and research projects.
This also includes the collection of relevant data and images connected to this time period. As recent as two years ago, no professional digital solution had been utilized for the more than 50,000 documents and photographs in the collection. The employees who kept up the inventory only maintained an overview through the sheer power of memory. This resulted in outside queries first having to undergo a lengthy research process.
The search for a comprehensive information system
The GDW required a database solution in which all images and documents could be systematically entered and registered while being linked to a wide range of other media. This was a special requirement of the project, as the GDW staff was faced with the seemingly insurmountable task of preserving their collection for posterity. As is well known, the quality of paper and photos reduces greatly over time. At the same time, one of the main tasks of the GDW is to use existing documents and reproductions as an historical source for their work. This made unimpaired and lagfree access to information, images and documents vitally important for both researchers and visitors to the exhibition.
DARWIM, the digital archival and knowledge management system designed by minuskel screen partner, was extensively enhanced in collaboration with LuraTech and the GDW into a multimedia information system to meet these requirements. The employees of GDW have already entered over 18,000 data records into the “Informationssystem Widerstand“ (ISW: Resistance Information System) for storage. This time-consuming data entry process will span several years. In an initial step, the documents and images are conventionally scanned, systematically registered and controlled. Via an automated process, the ISW system then merges the documents with existing data and stores them in compressed LuraDocument format. Only the uncompressed “digital original” is saved on CD – already 1 Tbyte of data as been saved on CD and there is not yet an end in sight. If this volume of data had been saved in the system, the enormous loading times alone would prevent effective research. The early decision for the image data compression software
LuraDocument has already proved itself a success.
“In Germany, we possess a unique collection on the subject of resistance against National Socialism which includes innumerable images and documents. In order to save these for posterity while maintaining an overview of our collection for modern archiving purposes, we decided to digitalize it. Then we can enter it into our digital information system. In this way, the collection is not only available to us internally, but can be viewed by visitors to the memorial center in presentational form. For this reason, it is particularly important that the photos and texts are reproduced in topnotch quality; at the same time, the data transfer and system loading times must function quickly. Eventually, from the digital documents in the database, high-grade reproductions will be produced. While searching for a modern, digital solution, LuraTech had already been recommended to us by minuskel screen partner in 1999. Their innovative compression software LuraDocument represents a highly professional approach for archiving ccolored scanned documents containing both text and image elements,” says Dr. Johannes Tuchel, Director of the GDW. Professional digitalization– but how?
Via the multi-layer compression technique, text, image and background components are segmented and compressed separately, each with the optimal algorithms (precise arithmetic calculations). In this process, the total data volume is decisively reduced for high-definition scanning, guaranteeing first class reproduction quality of the documents and images in up to DIN A3 format.
Illustration 2: Multi-layer technique, © LuraTech GmbH
A further major advantage is that with LuraDocument, as compared to other compression procedures, hardly any artifacts (errors in the compressed image) are generated. Moreover, this LuraTech software solution allows the division of bitonal elements. In this way, for example, a completely faded case file, hardly decipherable in original, can be compressed with LuraDocument in such a way that the background is masked. Just the black and white elements remain, making the document fully legible.
“Through this separation effect – the segmentation of background, text and image information – the documents are actually more legible than the originals,” comments Dr. Johannes Tuchel.
Illustration 3: Resistance Information System; faded original document on Claus von Stauffenberg following compression with LuraDocument, GDW Berlin
Illustration 4: Resistance Information System; original document on Claus von Stauffenberg with masked background following compression with LuraDocument; GDW Berlin
Finally, with the help of the LuraDoc Viewer zoom function, individual images and document sections which are difficult to read in the originals can be enlarged significantly.
Illustration 5: Resistance Information System; Illustrierter Beobachter 1939, Series 48, Page 1707; Bottom: Sectional zoom with LuraDoc Viewer, GDW Berlin
Knowledge management vs. data maintenance
The archiving of documents alone does not deliver scientific information. Knowledge about people and historical events is only gained when an interrelationship can be established between data – a feature which a simple database simply can’t offer. With the “Resistance Information System”, minuskel screen partner Inc. and the GDW have developed a perfect solution for collecting and locating information on individuals, documents, subjects and events in contemporary history. “DARWIM and the Resistance Information System enable data and single items of information to be recorded and archived in such a way that essential information can be transmitted to visitors through intelligent cross-links. In this way, individual pieces of information become contextual knowledge. Regardless of whether this encompasses texts, catalogued objects, scientific literature, personal data or photos, audio tapes, image files and videos – this multimedia database solution opens vast new possibilities for the research field,” explains Dr. Karsten Trint, Senior IT Consultant at minuskel.
The Resistance Information System’s user-friendly interface offers two different approaches for the acquisition of information. Illustration 6: Resistance Information System; Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg subject window (start page), GDW Berlin
The menu bar on the upper edge of the screen enables access to the various categories (individuals, documents, subjects, case files, literature, exhibitions and media). If the user is interested in a particular individual, he or she will immediately find an overview of the most important information in a clearly-structured “index card”. This includes biographical data (short biography, career history, nationality, affiliations, etc.), as well as political activities and milestones from the person’s resume.
In the folder “Documents/Photos”, all images and documents connected to the individual can be viewed. By clicking on “Media”, the visitor will find all linked video and audio files. In the “Texts” area, a wide range of written material on the subject at hand is made available by the system to both staff and visitors. A second navigation along the context block on the right-hand side of the screen enables the user to call up further information. This is also contextually linked to the search topic and assigned to the same categories as in the menu bar. In addition, a “Subject” folder has been integrated. Here the user will find publications or memos
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