Subtitle: Die Revision der Geschichtsbücher im Versöhnungsprozess nach 1945
[Textbook discussions aiming towards peace education. The revision of history books in the reconciliation process after 1945]
published in Corine Defrance, Ulrich Pfeil (Hg.): Verständigung und Versöhnung nach dem "Zivilisationsbruch"? Deutschland in Europa nach 1945. Schriftenreihe der Bundezentrale für politische Bildung, Bd. 1731. Bonn: bpb, S. 605-623
Can textbook discussions make an effective contribution to understanding and reconciliation between formerly hostile nations and peoples? The head of the Federal Foreign Office, Albert Spiegel, affirmed they can and in 2000 expressly recognised the contribution of international textbook work to the foreign cultural policy of the Federal Republic of Germany on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research. He particularly emphasised that international textbook work had not only fulfilled the framework for conflict prevention and post-conflict management created by political developments, but had also anticipated, and helped to drive, political developments, such as cooperation with Poland. Spiegel thus outlined, from the perspective of foreign cultural policy, the potential and the limitations of international textbook work in the area of conflict that exists between political peace initiatives and academic or pedagogical textbook revision, which have also been repeatedly emphasised by researchers. [...]Against this background, this paper reconstructs the role of textbook discussions in the field of history education as part of the process of reconciliation and understanding between the Federal Republic of Germany and its European neighbours in the first decades after 1945. It explores the definition and the goals of international textbook work as understood by those involved from the fields of politics, academia and education, and describes the institutions that were engaged in this process of understanding and reconciliation. The author examines the practice of textbook work on the basis of specific thematic focal points from various textbook discussions. He sheds light on criticism received and concludes by asking which factors enabled those involved in international textbook work, at the political, professional and pedagogical level, to draw a successful balance from these talks overall for the process of reconciliation and understanding in the Federal Republic of Germany after 1945.
The Information is taken from the publisher's website.
