Comfortable chair, warm light, camera and tripod: Heiko Lorenzen records a video for TikTok.
Image: Lucas Bäuml
Heiko Lorenzen is 84 years old and a child of war. On TikTok he talks about bunker nights, searches for shrapnel and why he feels the fear of war again. A visit to the Odenwald.
Ein black and white picture of a man in naval uniform hangs on the pine wall. “Dad before World War II”. Heiko Lorenzen, tall, slim, with sparse gray hair, turns away from the picture, bends down and switches on two light boxes. Warm light hits the brown leather chair in which he sits. In the middle of the room a camera on a tripod. In his hand he holds a red folder with notes. It is quiet. The eighty-four-year-old looks into the camera and says in a firm voice: “Moin, Moin. This story is perhaps a small consolation for the mothers who are just holding out in the bunker with their children. I experienced the same as a boy.”
When Heiko Lorenzen shoots a TikTok video in his TV room in the Odenwald, he becomes Grandpa Heiko. The Chinese video platform is best known for dancing teenagers and quick-cut short videos. 15 seconds: That’s how long most videos are. Lorenzen’s clips last about three minutes. Who is watching this? Between dances and sketches, a grandpa rarely appears to talk about the war. Lorenzen is one of the oldest users. Only one percent of them are 60 years and older, a third is between 13 and 17 years old, according to the company. Many of them no longer have grandparents who survived the war. The number of contemporary witnesses is dwindling and it is becoming increasingly important to document wartime experiences for grandchildren. But can you commemorate war on TikTok?