“The maiden voyage of the Titanic 100 years ago inspires us to a new form of travel journalism,” says Patrick Daubitz. The Berlin journalist and colleague Kerstin Wellner-Schulz have sliped into the role of prospective Titanic’s passengers since a week. He as an engineer in the automotive industry, she as a lady of high society with a penchant for botanical rarities and plant hunting. Via Twitter followers learn why both book a passage on the Titanic and what happened prior to this trip. The tweets have multimedia elements. In addition to their own numerous photographs, there are historical images and video clips from the period around 1912. Daubitz and Wellner-Schulz gathered Material for this project on a research

trip to Ireland. They went to the original scene where the Titanic was built, and in different regions of the island made themselves familiar with the places of their future protagonists.

“The classic travel report does not seem up to date, when considering that the Internet today offers very different possibilities,” says Kerstin Wellner-Schulz. “Our storytelling is seasoned, for example, with links that are based on unusual and sometimes spectacular sources for each topic.” The deciding factor for the current project is the upcoming 100th Anniversary of the maiden voyage of the Titanic. This technical feat represents the thread for the irish story of the Berlin journalists. The short message service Twitter is the ideal medium to accommodate the wealth of material and texts. “140 characters only are demanding for a travel journalist and a challenge as well,” says Patrick Daubitz. He slips into the role of Wilhelm Friedel, a German engineer in the thriving automotive industry, who wants to study the assembly-line production in America in 1912. On the way there, he makes a stop-over in Ireland http://twitter.com/titanicwilhelm. Colleague Kerstin Wellner-Schulz is the well-off German Nora Adele de Sombre. She has lived for several years in Ireland, maintains contacts to the aristocratic society and goes as a plant hunter on numerous trips abroad http://twitter.com/titanicpassage.

“We find it exciting to draw the facets of these two very different characters,” says Wellner-Schulz. Historical facts should make the story authentic, but not at any price. Some tweets come with an accompanying wink. The Wilhelm Friedel of 1912 for example stays in a hostel of 2012. “The new media has got this potential for us,” says Daubitz. It is now important to provide the reader not only with the history and stories, but the ability to experience these things in the present. He twitters in English and she in German. In this way the Berlin travel writers reach a wide audience. The followers have already experienced their first climax of the story. In Belfast, the birthplace of the Titanic, the paths of the two protagonists crossed quite surprisingly. What Wilhelm Friedel has experienced so far, is shown in the following link http://twitter.com/#!/TitanicWilhelm/media/grid.