1913 and 2013 – Student Life in Braunschweig
The project “1913 and 2013 – student life in Braunschweig“ was a joint venture between the Braunschweig city archive, the Braunschweig municipal library and the Leibniz Institute for Educational Media. Two history A-level classes at the IGS Querum (Querum Comprehensive School) were participating in the project, which ran from the beginning of April to the end of June 2013 and primarily explored the circumstances in which pupils lived and studied in the years immediately preceding the First World War and how pupils in 2013 relate to them. The project differentiated between social situation and living conditions, for example whether the pupils came from working or middle-class families or where they lived, how they spent their leisure time and where they went to school.
Methodology
The pupils who took part in the project also had the opportunity to examine school textbooks, whose contents lead them to consider the diverse interpretations of the German empire in the last 100 years; during the imperial era itself and the Weimar Republic, during National Socialism, in the GDR and FRG and the nation today. The pupils worked with current textbooks from a variety of countries in order to augment this perspective by learning about the differing international significance of World War I’s outbreak and subsequent progression.
The pupils encountered diverse source material, which has been provided by the participating institutions, and which comprised textbooks, archive material and records, teaching aids, curricula, contemporary images, sound recordings and films as well as games. Using what they have learned from this material the pupils produced an exhibition addressing the issues covered during the project, which has been displayed in the municipal library in Braunschweig at the conclusion of the project.
