On 1 March 2008, the German-French research project, funded for a three-year period by the DFG and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche, began under the direction of Prof. Simone Lässig, Prof. Eckhardt Fuchs (GEI) and Prof. Christian Amalvi (Université Paul-Valéry/Montpellier III).
Subject
The project examined general representations of Europe in twentieth century textbooks and looked at the specific thematic references in which the concept of Europe was addressed in historical and contemporary textbooks. Texts, maps, and images from French and German history and geography textbooks from the past century were examined to determine how, and to what extent, specific constructs and interpretations of Europe, Europeanness, and ‘the European’ were presented in the respective national contexts. Germany and France were selected as case studies as they are two neighbouring states that were ‘hereditary enemies’ for long periods of history but later drove the European unification process and have since even compiled a joint history book.
- Aims
The project aimed to identify, record and analytically compare images of Europe. Its objective was a historical and systematic recording of all the events, ideas, value attributions and expectations that have been associated with the concept of Europe in France and Germany. Using textbook analysis as its foundation, the project generated a collection of source material that can be used as a resource by many research disciplines. Documents, illustrations and maps central to the project’s objectives were collected, annotated, and translated into either German or French, or in some cases English.
- Methods
Previous research had indicated that the subject of the nation was central to both countries’ textbooks, at least until 1945, and that differentiating oneself from the neighbouring country was integral to the process of finding one’s identity as a German or French citizen. The project examined the extent to which these national constructions also applied when the subject of ‘Europe’ was addressed. As recourse to significant European values simultaneously allows an insight into how a nation cultivates its own image, the question arises as to the extent to which ‘the European’ can be explained by the bilateral history of relations with the neighbouring country, to what extent Europe is ‘invoked’ in order to legitimise the respective national historiography and to what extent Europe is described as a community of values, religion and memory, a model for social practice, a space of action and perception, a geographical entity, welfare state and linguistic space or as a political code.
The data was obtained through an analysis of geography and history textbooks designed for grammar schools (Gymnasium, lycée). In order to explore both synchronous and diachronic comparisons, a broad period of time was deliberately selected. The development of the image of Europe was reconstructed through seven temporal cross sections based around central turning points in twentieth century history. The selected images were systematically compared and examined historically and procedurally in terms of cross-border communication processes, rapprochement, convergences and conflicts. The various theoretical concepts on which the analysis was based, were translated into an original research design that was innovative in its use of textbooks as a previously under-used source for reconstructing identity formation processes in transnational spaces. At the same time the project extended beyond classic textbook analysis by utilising methods from historical image analysis.
- Results
´The wild tribes of birds are thrown into the top of the machine and after two minutes appear completely civilized as educated Europeans! From: Kladderadatsch (1851), [ill. incomplete], in: Bernlochner, L. (ed.), Geschichte und Geschehen, vol. 2, Stuttgart: Klett 1997. Which representations of Europe are reflected in textbooks during which periods? Which similarities or differences are there in forms of evidence and representation and in the plausibility of references to Europe used by French and German textbook authors and why? The Franco-German team explored these questions, for example during the final conference, which took place on 2 March 2011 at the offices of the Lower Saxony State Representatives in Brussels. The project team presented the results of their country studies on France and Germany. They agreed in their conclusions that Europe is a centuries-long attribution of self and other. If we look for representations of Europe in textbooks, we simultaneously look for regional, social and epochal boundaries of this construction.
In terms of the German-French comparison, the findings showed that national references in German textbooks were replaced by references to Europe after 1945 as the new democratic Germany could only be legitimised within the European context. This new construction of an Allemagne européenne competed at this time with the Europe française, which was already manifest in French textbooks in the pre-war period. The universalisation of French values had been adopted by textbook authors since the early twentieth century. The constructions of Europe in historical and even current history books were largely determined by the Christian and imperial or colonial heritage, in both France and Germany.
Presentations
- In the framework of the first working meeting of the projects funded by the ANR and the DFG, Arc-et-Senans, 12-15 May 2009.
- In the framework of the colloquium 'Manuels en Méditerranée': 'L'Europe et la Méditerranée dans les manuels d'histoire français et allemands', Université Paul-Valéry/Montpellier III, Montpellier, 12-14 November 2009
- In the framework of the conference 'Les représentations de l'Européen dans les manuels français et allemands : Les Européens dans le monde du XIXème siècle', Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Montpellier, 10 June 2010.
- In the framework of the conference 'The construction of the historical space of Europe. European unification in the textbook', Maison de l'Europe, Montpellier, 13 October 2010.
- In the framework of the conference 'Jeux de miroir. Europe in the Mirror of Educational Media', Representation of the State of Lower Saxony, Brussels, 2 March 2011
Publications
- Nouvel, Maguelone, L'Europe en images : les représentations de l'Union Européenne dans les manuels d'histoire d'aujourd'hui, in: Bourgeois, G.; Hyech, H. (eds.), Signes, couleurs et images de l'Europe. Actes du colloque de Poitiers, janvier 2009, Rennes 2011, pp. 239-256.
- Website Europabilder/Images de l'Europe - duration: 2011-2024 - a collection of textbook sources from Germany and France.
- Anklam, Ewa; Nouvel-Kirschleger, Maguelone, Un exemple de recherche binationale : 'Images de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée dans les manuels scolaires français et allemands', in: Boutan, Pierre et al. (Coord.), La Méditerranée des Méditerranéens à travers leurs manuels scolaires (Manuels scolaire et sociétés. Collection dirigée par Michèle Verdelhan-Bourgade), Paris 2011, pp. 45-70.
- Sammler, Steffen, Jeux de miroir. Europe in the Mirror of Educational Media, in Eckert. The Bulletin 9 (2011), pp. 24-25.
- Anklam, Ewa; Grindel, Susanne, Europa im Bild - Bilder von Europa: Europarepräsentationen in deutschen, französischen und polnischen Geschichtsschulbüchern in historischer Perspektive, in: Carsten Heinze and Eva Matthes (eds.), Das Bild im Schulbuch (Beiträge zur historischen und systematischen Schulbuchforschung), Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt 2010, pp. 93-108.
- Lässig, Simone; Fuchs, Eckhardt, Europa im Schulbuch, in: History for Today. Zeitschrift für historisch-politische Bildung 1 (2009), pp. 60-66.
