The "Erzählsalon", or storytelling salon, is a method to recapture experiences and memories of significant events and facts in a lively way. It captures lasting memories. In storytelling salons any giving groups of people come together and tell their experiences under the gentle guidance of a salonnière. Rohnstock Biografien developed this form of collective storytelling over years and uses it for creating corporate biographies, community histories, collective narratives, or as memory training for the elderly. It fosters trust, empowerment and identity building as well as promoting civic commitment. In storytelling salons, people sit together in a protected, semi-public space, and tell each other stories about a previously selected topic. With no hierarchal order, every narrator is treated as equal and each prospective is considered valid. The cultural method of shared storytelling creates collective identities. Through the process of writing down the stories and giving them back to the storyteller as written texts in publications, these narratives gain permanence as a reference point for identity-based empowerment. In addition, the storytelling salon is suitable for building confidence in groups. Through the experience of respectful interaction with each other, by sharing good or bad personal experiences, motives, preferences and fears trust can be strengthened. The salonnière ensures that the participants follow the rules and do not interrupt each other or discuss and judge the stories. The salonnière is the ideal listener and will offer support to the sometimes excited storyteller. One purpose of the storytelling salons is to capture collectively significant experiences. The preservation of shared memories is an important part of the storytelling salon. For this purpose, the stories are recorded, transcribed, brought into a readable form, authorised and finally published as brochures or books.