"Who lived in this house before I moved in?“ This question I pursued in my series "When the Blackbird died twice“. Focusing on the time of the First and Second World War, I traced the stories that are inherent in the house using staged photography. The dead blackbird, the European songbird, serves as a metaphor for the two world wars initiated by Germany. On the one hand, it symbolizes the son who fell in World War I, on the other hand Europe in the stranglehold of the National Socialists. During the Third Reich, the house served as a home for young girls whose childhood ended abruptly when they were recruited as air force helpers. After the war, it became a new home for a Jewish family who survived the Holocaust. For me, the process of staged photography, especially self-staging, can enable a careful approach to the life of others and an intensive investigation. Since fewer and fewer contemporary witnesses can report on these world wars and more and more people want to banish the meaning and impact of this epoch of European history from collective memory, it is now more important than ever to keep these memories alive.