Mission 1929 – Freedom under Pressure (Serious Game)

How did the Weimar Republic become the Third Reich? For the Weimar Republic e. V., Pfeffermind and the serious game ‘Mission 1929 – Freedom under Pressure’, I designed characters and background illustrations for journalist Eva Neumann, who observes dramatic changes around her from 1929 onwards, and their effects on friends and people who are close to hers. With the help of her printing press, she tries to bring the truth to light. You can now follow Eva’s efforts (+ print leaflets) and see how easily one can be lead astray by false facts, and that the truth is never easy to find! The link to the game, which can be played online and for free, can be found here (German only).

I was booked to do illustrations for character screens (i.e. backgrounds in which the characters are embedded) and do research for that to ensure historical accuracy, which I particularly enjoyed. I was able to recreate the ‘Frankfurt kitchen’ by M. Schütte-Lihotzky for the character of Martha Kleist, illustrate a Berlin bus workshop from the 1920s completely with a workbench, time clock and radio and design a bank interior from the era – everything as it would have looked like at the turn of the 1920s and 30s. The Alexanderplatz with department stores, advertising pillars and trams with commercial signs also where to reenact. I too designed the characters in the game, including a retired colonel (Jasper von Hagenow) in civilian clothes and in his World War I uniform, the main character of journalist Eva Neumann, worker Adolph Niessen, and more. In addition, many small and large everyday objects and contemporary witness items had to be illustrated for the game and created on extra levels so they could be animated by appmotion from Hamburg.

In 2023 the game won the Pädagogische Medienpreis (a prize honoring educational quality in the www) of the City of Munich, Bavaria.

Many thanks to the Weimar Republic e.V. as well as to Pfeffermind and their entire team for this beautiful task. I had a lot of fun (despite the serious topic – which concerns us all) to immerse myself in Berlin at the turn of the 1920s and 30s.