Walking Through History: Experiencing Frankfurt in Virtual Reality

As a student, you do not often get the chance to experience history not only through texts or slides, but to stand right in the middle of it. This made our excursion to Frankfurt with the 3D Lab team particularly exciting. Our destination was the TIME RIDE GO! Frankfurt Paulskirche VR tour, a virtual city experience that brings Frankfurt’s history to life through immersive digital scenes. The tour lasts around 45 minutes and combines a guided walk through Frankfurt’s city center with several VR stations along the way. As a group, we move through the city, stop at selected locations, and put on the VR headsets to step into different historical moments. This constant alternation between walking through present-day Frankfurt and being immersed in its past shapes the entire experience. One moment you are navigating the contemporary city, the next you are visually transported into another century.

The tour begins on the square in front of the Paulskirche. As soon as we put on the VR headsets, the modern cityscape fades away and the square transforms into a historical marketplace. Merchants are trading goods, people move through the space, and everyday urban life unfolds around us. Physically, we remain in today’s Frankfurt; visually, however, we are surrounded by a lively scene from the past. This overlap of real location and virtual reconstruction creates a strong sense of spatial and temporal simultaneity. After gaining this first impression, we move a short distance from the square and come to stand directly in front of the Paulskirche. In the next VR sequence, we witness the arrival of the delegates to the National Assembly as they enter the building, while people on the marketplace observe their arrival. The political significance of the moment becomes visible even before stepping inside, unfolding in public space and charged with anticipation.

We then physically enter the Paulskirche itself. Today, the building is no longer an active church, but a political memorial and a venue for assemblies, exhibitions, and commemorative events. Inside, we take our seats on the chairs of the present-day assembly hall. Only then do we put on the VR headsets again. Once the virtual scene begins, the contemporary interior disappears, and we find ourselves immersed in the historical proceedings of 1848. Inside the virtual church, the assembly hall is densely filled with delegates. The atmosphere feels tense and expectant, shaped by debate and uncertainty. We listen to a speech from the early days of the National Assembly and gain an impression of how contested and fragile this political moment was. Democracy appears here not as a finished or stable concept, but as a process unfolding through discussion, disagreement, and negotiation. Rather than offering a complete explanation, the VR scene conveys the experience of being present at a decisive historical moment.

The tour concludes at the Römerberg with a rapid journey through key moments of German history. Over the course of this sequence, around 150 years of German history unfold: the First World War, the Nazi seizure of power, destroyed cities after the Second World War, the oppressive atmosphere at the Berlin Wall, and finally its fall. The scenes are deliberately condensed and emotionally charged, less an analytical overview than an evocative sequence of historical memories.

From a Digital Humanities perspective, this is precisely where critical reflection becomes essential. The VR experience relies on strong imagery, clear dramaturgy, and carefully selected key moments. This makes history accessible and emotionally engaging, but it also inevitably involves a reduction of complexity. Historical processes appear as a sequence of iconic scenes, while ambiguities, long-term developments, and alternative perspectives fade into the background. The strong sense of presence created by VR can easily suggest immediacy or even authenticity, although every virtual reconstruction is the result of selection, interpretation, and design decisions. The tour demonstrates the great potential of immersive media for historical mediation, while at the same time making clear that VR is never a neutral window into the past. Questions of source material, visualization choices, narrative framing, and omission remain central. Experiencing history in VR always means encountering a curated version of history.

For me, this is exactly what made the excursion so valuable. The TIME RIDE GO! tour was not only an impressive and immersive experience, but also a reminder of how strongly digital media shape our encounters with history. Walking through Frankfurt, physically entering historical spaces, and repeatedly stepping in and out of virtual pasts made it clear that historical knowledge is never simply “shown,” but always constructed, framed, and mediated. Experiencing this process first-hand, emotionally as well as critically, turned the day in Frankfurt into more than just a field trip. It became a moment of reflection on how we perceive the past and how digital technologies increasingly influence the ways in which history is remembered and understood.

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