Identity and transnationalization in German school textbooks

Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars

Volumn 30, Issue 2, 1998, Pages 53-61

  Soysal, Yasemin Nuhoglu ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

GEOPOLITICS; NATION STATE; NATIONAL IDENTITY; NATIONALISM; TEXTBOOK;

GERMANY;

EID: 0031782585     PISSN: 00074810     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/14672715.1998.10411044     Document Type: Article

References (52)

1. The paper draws upon my current project, which explores the emerging forms of claims-making and mobilization by minority and regional groups on national education, and investigates the changes in nation-state identities through a comparative analysis of history and civic textbooks in postwar Europe. The data for the project come from national textbooks and public school curricula for lower secondary schools in four European countries (Germany, France, Britain, and the Netherlands). I sample the history and civic textbooks and curricula in these countries at three time points, the 1950s, 1970s, and 1990s, when major educational reforms took place. I also examine public debates, conflicting claims, and court cases that surround national education systems and national curricula, as well as the incorporation of minority cultural/religious provisions into public education systems. I make use of interviews I conducted with officials from state educational boards and ministries, school authorities, teachers' and parents' associations, the representatives of European and national level associations and networks on textbook and curricular study, and with the leaders of immigrant organizations and regional movements.
2. Interview with Roman Herzog, Focus, 9 May 1994, pp. 20-25.
3. See the interviews with Johannes Rau, the presidential candidate for the Social Democrats (die Zeit, 6 May 1994); Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, the candidate for the Liberal Democratic Party (die Zeit, 13 May 1994); and Hans Otto Bräutigam, the Justice Minister of the State of Brandenburg (Frankfurter Rundschau, 10 May 1994).
4. See the interviews with Johannes Rau, the presidential candidate for the Social Democrats (die Zeit, 6 May 1994); Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, the candidate for the Liberal Democratic Party (die Zeit, 13 May 1994); and Hans Otto Bräutigam, the Justice Minister of the State of Brandenburg (Frankfurter Rundschau, 10 May 1994).
5. See the interviews with Johannes Rau, the presidential candidate for the Social Democrats (die Zeit, 6 May 1994); Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, the candidate for the Liberal Democratic Party (die Zeit, 13 May 1994); and Hans Otto Bräutigam, the Justice Minister of the State of Brandenburg (Frankfurter Rundschau, 10 May 1994).
6. Also see the statements by Rita Süssmuth, the president of the Parliament from the Christian Democratic Party, and Richard von Weiszäcker, the outgoing president (der Tagesspiegel, 2 July 1994).
7. After being elected, Herzog paid a symbolic visit to the Turkish community, and presented a medal of honor to the mother of Turkish children who were burned to death when Neonazis set a fire to their house in Sollingen.
8. For the portrayal of these controversies in the German press, see Keine Ruhe vor der Geschichte (der Tagesspiegel, 20 July 1994); Das Band der Sippenhaft: 50 Jahre nach dem Hitler-Attentat vom 20. Juli 1944, Der Streit um den richtigen Widerstand (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2 August 1994); "Es lebe das freie Polen! Gedenken an den Aufstand" (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 2 August 1994); and "Herzog bittet um Vergebung für Deutsche Verbrechen und bietet den Polen Deutschlands Freundschaft an" (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2 August 1994).
9. For the portrayal of these controversies in the German press, see Keine Ruhe vor der Geschichte (der Tagesspiegel, 20 July 1994); Das Band der Sippenhaft: 50 Jahre nach dem Hitler-Attentat vom 20. Juli 1944, Der Streit um den richtigen Widerstand (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2 August 1994); "Es lebe das freie Polen! Gedenken an den Aufstand" (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 2 August 1994); and "Herzog bittet um Vergebung für Deutsche Verbrechen und bietet den Polen Deutschlands Freundschaft an" (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2 August 1994).
10. For the portrayal of these controversies in the German press, see Keine Ruhe vor der Geschichte (der Tagesspiegel, 20 July 1994); Das Band der Sippenhaft: 50 Jahre nach dem Hitler-Attentat vom 20. Juli 1944, Der Streit um den richtigen Widerstand (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2 August 1994); "Es lebe das freie Polen! Gedenken an den Aufstand" (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 2 August 1994); and "Herzog bittet um Vergebung für Deutsche Verbrechen und bietet den Polen Deutschlands Freundschaft an" (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2 August 1994).
11. For the portrayal of these controversies in the German press, see Keine Ruhe vor der Geschichte (der Tagesspiegel, 20 July 1994); Das Band der Sippenhaft: 50 Jahre nach dem Hitler-Attentat vom 20. Juli 1944, Der Streit um den richtigen Widerstand (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2 August 1994); "Es lebe das freie Polen! Gedenken an den Aufstand" (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 2 August 1994); and "Herzog bittet um Vergebung für Deutsche Verbrechen und bietet den Polen Deutschlands Freundschaft an" (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2 August 1994).
12. Daniel Levy, "The Future of the Past Comparing Historians' Disputes in Germany and Israel." Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Social Science History Association, New Orleans, November 1996.
13. The Constitutional Court, deciding on a freedom of speech case brought by the extreme-right National Democratic Party (NDP), argued that "to deny that Jews died in Nazi camps was to deny a fact, and that the severity of the insult to the Jewish Community meant the right of freedom speech did not apply." The court-case regarded the banning of a talk by David Irving (British revisionist historian) at an NDP congress (International Herald Tribune, 27 April 1994).
14. See M. Young, ed., Knowledge and Control (London: Collier MacMillan, 1971); Ivor Goodson, The Making of Curriculum: Essays in the Social History of Schooling (London: Falmer Press, 1987); Ivor Goodson, ed., International Perspectives in Curriculum History (London: Falmer Press, 1987);
15. See M. Young, ed., Knowledge and Control (London: Collier MacMillan, 1971); Ivor Goodson, The Making of Curriculum: Essays in the Social History of Schooling (London: Falmer Press, 1987); Ivor Goodson, ed., International Perspectives in Curriculum History (London: Falmer Press, 1987);
16. See M. Young, ed., Knowledge and Control (London: Collier MacMillan, 1971); Ivor Goodson, The Making of Curriculum: Essays in the Social History of Schooling (London: Falmer Press, 1987); Ivor Goodson, ed., International Perspectives in Curriculum History (London: Falmer Press, 1987);
17. John W. Meyer et al., School Knowledge for the Masses: World Models and National Primary Curricular Categories in the Twentieth Century (Washington, D.C.: Falmer Press, 1992).
18. Charles Maier, The Unmasterable Past: History, Holocaust, and German National Identity (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); Levy, "The Future of the Past."
19. Charles Maier, The Unmasterable Past: History, Holocaust, and German National Identity (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988); Levy, "The Future of the Past."
20. A 1991 circular from the Ministry of Education in Bavaria states that "the European dimension should be introduced into all subjects" and "pupils should become aware of Europe's intellectual and cultural heritage and of common European values such as democracy and human rights" (Council of Europe, Education Newsletter, no. 4, Strasbourg, 1991).
21. Interview with the official responsible for curriculum in the Ministry of Education in Lower Saxony (23 November 1995).
22. Interview with the head of the German History Teachers' Association, Jacobson-Gymnasium, Seelen (30 November 1995).
23. Falk Pingel, ed., Macht Europa Schule? Die Darstellung Europas in Schulbüchern der Europäischen Gemeinschaft [Power of European schools? Representation of Europe in textbooks in the European Union countries], Schriftenreiche des Georg-Eckert-Instituts, Vol. 84 (Frankfurt: Verlag Moritz Diesterweg, 1995).
24. See, for example, Welt- und Umweltkunde 5/6 [World and environment science 5/6], Niedersachsen (Braunschweig: Westermann, 1993), pp. 138-153.
25. and Menschen Zeiten Räume 5/6 [People, times, places], Arbeitsbuch fur Welt- und Umwelkunde in der Orientierungsstufe [Work book for world and environment science for junior high 5/6] (Berlin: Comelsen Verlay, 1993), pp. 188-231. Following the chapter on Romans and Germans, both books present the "culture" and the "village life" of Turkish migrants and Native Americans, expressively equating all three peoples across time and space.
26. Karl-Ernst Jeismann and Bernd Schönemann, Geschichte amtlich: Lehrpläne und Richtlinien der Bundesländer [Institutional history: Curricula and instruction guides in federal states]. Schriftenreiche des Georg-Eckert-Instituts, Vol. 65 (Frankfurt: Verlag Moritz Diesterweg, 1989), p. 75.
27. The European Bureau for the Lesser-used Languages is directly financed by the European Union and has the goal of protecting fifty minority languages in the member states of the Union.
28. Welt-und Umweltkunde 5/6, pp. 226-229; Menschen, Zeiten, Räume 5/6, pp. 272-75.
29. Welt-und Umweltkunde 5/6, pp. 226-229; Menschen, Zeiten, Räume 5/6, pp. 272-75.
30. Menschen, Zeiten, Räume, pp. 160, 272.
31. Welt- und Umweltkunde, p. 226.
32. Menschen, Zeiten, Räume, pp. 266, 274.
33. Ibid.
34. John W. Meyer, "The World Polity and the Authority of the Nation-State," in Studies of the Modern World-System, ed. A. Bergesen (New York: Academic Press, 1980); Peter J. Katzenstein, ed., The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996).
35. John W. Meyer, "The World Polity and the Authority of the Nation- State," in Studies of the Modern World-System, ed. A. Bergesen (New York: Academic Press, 1980); Peter J. Katzenstein, ed., The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996).
36. Peter J. Katzenstein and Nobuo Okawara, "Japan's National Security: Structures, Norms, and Policies," International Security 17 (1993):84-118.
37. Peter J. Katzenstein, ed., Tamed Power: Germany in Europe (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997), p. 116.
38. Peter J. Katzenstein, Cultural Norms and National Security: Police and Military in Postwar Japan (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996).
39. Reiner Drifte, "Is the Mombusho Running One of Japan's Most Sensitive Bilateral Relationships?" Article distributed through SSJ-Forum, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo (ssjmod@shaken. iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp), 15 August 1997.
40. Peter J. Katzenstein, Policy and Politics in the West Germany: The Growth of a Semi-sovereign State (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1987);
41. Yasemin Nuhoglu Soysal, Limits of Citizenship: Migrants and Postnational Membership in Europe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).
42. Interview with the official responsible for curriculum in the Ministry of Education in Lower Saxony (23 November 1995).
43. Each ministry publishes a list of, generally, four or five textbooks that conform with the established curricular norms and requirements. The schools have the option of selecting books from this list.
44. In Japan, the government authorizes textbooks to be used and has a right to censor "undesirable" content, as exemplified in the recent controversy over the treatment of Japanese war crimes in history textbooks (New York Times, 30 August 1997). In South Korea, the textbooks are issued by the state itself.
45. For the controversy over "values and ethics" instruction in the state of Brandenburg, see Achim Leschinsky, Vorleben oder Nachdenken? Bericht der wissenschaftlichen Begleitung über den Modellversuch zum Lernbereich "Lebensgestaltung-Ethik-Religion" [Anticipation or retrospect? Report on the scholarly debates accompanying the search for models in teaching the "lifestyle, ethic, and religion" course] (Frankfurt: Verlag Moritz Diesterweg, 1996).
46. Interview with Professor Ingrid Haller, University of Kassel. Professor Haller was a key figure in the conceptualization and implementation of Hessen reforms.
47. Like many German institutions, the Institute has a public standing and is sponsored by the local states. The Governing Board includes representatives from the states, the Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Education and Science, the German Commission for UNESCO, as well as independent scholars. The Foundation Act of the Institute aims to submit recommendations for making "more objective" the historical, political, and geographic representations of Germany and other countries in textbooks; to organize international meetings of experts for examining and revising textbooks; and to advise authors and publishers of textbooks.
48. The recommendations include: the "German-French Agreement on Controversial Problems of European History" (1951), the "Recommendations for Textbooks of History and Geography of the Federal Republic of Germany and People's Republic of Poland" (a product of the German-Polish Commission on textbooks, which has been in place since 1972), and the "German-Israeli Textbook Recommendations" (1985). Also, since 1981, the French-German Commission has been working on recommendations for the treatment of the Weimar Republic, National Socialism, and the Vichy regime. The recommendations of the joint-commissions have been substantially incorporated into the curricula and textbooks in the respective countries (interviews with experts and researchers at the Georg-Eckert-Institut, Braunschweig, November 1995).
49. The Maastricht treaty was signed in 1991, creating the European Union (EU) out of the European Community. The treaty was a comprehensive agreement designed to regulate the transition of Europe into a union with a common currency and without internal borders. The treaty dealt primarily with economic issues, but it also emphasized the commitments of EU member states to "humanitarian traditions" of Europe and created the status of the citizen of the Union, leading the way beyond nation-state citizenship to European citizenship.
50. EUROCLIO Bulletin, no. 5 (1996): 15.
51. Many of the participants of EUROCLIO conferences are practicing teachers, active in their national associations. In 1994, about ninety history teachers were involved in a year-long project to discuss the "theoretical and practical aspects of encouraging democratic values through history education." In 1995, working with the Council of Europe, EUROCLIO organized a conference on "Philip II and His Times," a prominent and controversial personality in European history, with the goal of comparing varied interpretations and methods of teaching. Similar conferences have been held with the ex-Soviet republics (Latvia, Lithuania, and Russia) to reform history teaching, and dealing with the question of representing women, ethnic minorities, and human rights in textbooks.
52. The European Academy, for instance, is the publisher of two of the most widely used examples of gray literature on Europe: Vom Binnenmarkt zur Europäischen Union and Euro and Cent: Europäische Integration und Währungsunion (by Günter Renner and Peter Czada).