Attempts to address and define Europe thematically vary in specific ways, subject to time and space. Current enlargement scenarios for the European Union and constitutional setbacks have increased the urgency with which we must address issues concerning the inner cohesion of Europe. At the same time, these scenarios pull the floor out from beneath European perceptions of identity that have, until now, emphasized a Western cultural heritage. Academia is unsure how to respond to the question of whether and how a European identity can be grounded in European history. For the teaching of history and political science, ‘Europe’ is both a classical field and a new challenge. The teaching of this subject is bound to engage in the future plans for Europe and at the same time it must adequately understand the questions and research involved in scholarship.

The projects in this research group describe and analyze the ambivalent processes through which structures of European identity and consciousness are taking shape and inquire into their significance for pedagogical practice.

This research group includes the following points of discussion:

• Europe and the National Factor
• Europe through the Prism of Its Regions
• Fault Lines in and around Europe

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Completed projects

• Source Materials about German History of the 20th Century (2003-2009)
  
• The Fate of European Cities (2008-2009)
  
• History OnLine (2008-2009)
  

• German-Polish Textbook
• German-Polish Textbook Commission
• German-Czech Textbook Commission
• Development of Curricula in the Baltic States
• German-Russian Textbook Project
• Images of Europe in German and French Textbooks
• Acoustic Memory
• Pruzzenland
• Historical Constructions in Central Asia
• Cooperation with Central Asia on Textbook Issues
• Colonialism
• Entrepreneurship and Economy in European Textbooks