The Joint German-Polish Textbook Commission, 1972-1990

For many years, research on international textbook revision has attempted to define criteria according to which binational or multinational negotiations about textbooks can lead to rapprochement and mutual understanding, and those methods which are best suited to bringing about such an understanding. It has become clear that textbook revision is not only determined by political, social and academic factors and the education system, for in turn it also impinges on these fields of practice. It has a two-way function, therefore, and acts somewhat like a hinge.

This research project focuses on these dynamics, which lead to negotiations about textbooks or, alternatively, which can be triggered by them. It is based on a case study of the German-Polish Textbook Commission. This commission was founded in 1972 in response to the growing rapprochement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the People's Republic of Poland. Its unceasing work is considered to be a model for dialogue about textbooks. The primary goal of this research is to trace the threads of the German-Polish history of historiography. It will also explore the internal, national and transnational negotiation processes within the commission, as well as the borderlines and connections between historiography, politics and the theory and methodology of education.