Since 2 November 2026, the Stolpersteine laid in Rhineland-Palatinate have been added to the nationwide app Stolpersteine Digital According to the participating state centres and the project office leading the initiative in Schleswig-Holstein around 4,600 Stolpersteine from some 160 towns and municipalities in the state are now available in the app. Users can scan a Stolperstein with their mobile phone camera, read the biography of the person commemorated and place a virtual candle with a personal dedication at the entry.
The Rhineland-Palatinate entry is part of an ongoing expansion of the service. The app was launched by the Schleswig-Holstein State Agency for Civic Education, with the integration of data carried out in cooperation with local Stolperstein initiatives and other state agencies. The Federal Agency for Civic Education provided financial support for the expansion. According to the project, the app now includes entries from several federal states and lists more than 9,000 stones nationwide; the total continues to grow as regional lists are added.
The app aims to combine the initiatives’ documentary work with easy digital access. It gives schools, memorial sites and civil society groups immediate access to biographies, photographs and additional information on site, without the need for printed materials. At the same time, those responsible for the project stress that legal and editorial responsibility for the content remains local: the biographical texts are mostly written by the relevant initiatives, are not edited centrally and are subject to their own review processes. This is particularly important for sensitive information about victims of Nazi persecution.
On the technical side, the project website and user guidance point to the scan function’s remaining limitations. Recognition and matching rates may vary depending on the stone’s shape, level of dirt, lighting conditions and device model. Improving recognition and maintaining the datasets are identified as ongoing tasks. In the longer term, the collection is expected to grow as more local authorities and initiatives prepare and release their lists for the app.
With the addition of Rhineland-Palatinate, another major state collection can now be found centrally. This gives remembrance and educational work greater visibility in public spaces, while the quality of the content remains dependent on the care taken by local sources. Further development of the app and transparent labelling of the origin of entries are considered essential for reliable use in lessons and on local walking tours. The availability in the Stolpersteine Digital app of 4,600 Stolpersteine from Rhineland-Palatinate marks a well-documented step forward, which other regions are expected to build on.
Editor: Celestina Fuentes (Article created with AI assistance).