Aims

1. The project aims to identify, make an inventory of, and carry out a comparative analysis of images of Europe in order to establish a historical and systematic record of all the events, ideas, values and expectations which have been associated with the notion of Europe in France and Germany. The focus lies on strategies designed to bring together national and European identity constructions.

2. The images of Europe which arise in the textbooks will be examined with an aim to identifying and examining the historical processes at work in, and systematically comparing cross-border communication processes, similarities, examples of convergence, or conflicts. The various theoretical concepts underpinning the analysis will ensure that the research design will be innovative and original, in particular since previous research has rarely made use of textbooks as a source material on the basis of which one can reconstruct processes by which identities emerge in transnational contexts.

3. Previous research projects have indicated that, at least until 1945, the nation played a central role in the representations of textbooks of both countries, and that opposition to one’s respective neighbour contributed considerably towards the process of building a sense of self as either a French or German citizen. Starting from this premise, the project aims to examine the extent to which these national interpretations have also developed in relation to and alongside ‘Europe’. Since the appeal to significant European values also enables us to draw conclusions about the self-representation of one’s own nation, we have to enquire to what extent that which is ‘European’ can be explained on the basis of the history of bilateral relations, to what extent Europe is ‘conjured up’ in order to legitimate national historiographies, and to what extent Europe may be described as a community of values, religions and memories, as a sphere of social practice, action and perception, as a geographical entity, as a sphere of the welfare state, as a linguistic sphere, or as a political code.

4. The textbook analyses will serve to compile a collection of sources which is both meaningful and useful for research in a variety of disciplines. Documents, illustrations and maps which are central to this project will be introduced, commented and translated into either German or French as well as English. This resulting collection of sources will form part of a platform about Europe which will be made available to an international public via the international information and communication portal Educational Media Research (Edumeres).

Method

Data will be drawn from analyses of geography and history textbooks designed for the upper level of secondary school curricula (Gymnasium, lycée). In order to ensure that both synchronic as well as diachronic comparisons can be carried out, the temporal framework in which textbooks are to be examined is deliberately broad. Seven historical cross-sections geared towards major turning points of the history of the twentieth century should make it possible to reconstruct the mutations of images of Europe over time. The project surpasses the scope of standard textbook analyses by applying methods of historical image analysis. A joint comparative study will be carried out on the basis of two separate studies of each of the two national cases. Every effort is therefore made to apply an appropriate methodology to a transnational historiography which goes beyond existing national methodologies. 

State of the Project

Following the successful completion of the pilot studies last year, the project has progressed to its second phase, in which source material is collected and selected. During the last international workshop of the German and French project group in Braunschweig on 14 and 15 July 2009, current findings were presented and intersecting ‘core topics’ selected, on the basis of which sources for the final comparative study could be agreed upon. The repertoire of images collected so far offers insight into images of Europe which are geared towards the nation and primarily forward-looking. Those images which find their way into history textbooks are those which depict events in Europe rather than the patterns and correlations within European history. Wars and crises in Europe continue to dominate history textbooks even after 1945. A considerable number of the representations of Europe found in current history textbooks can be traced back to conceptions of pan-European order and peace, which are now considered to be a fundamental aspect of the development of the European community. In this respect, the policy of maintaining the balance of power between the major powers in the aftermath of the Vienna Congress of 1815 is given pride of place, which involved carving up the continent into spheres of influence and activity. Europe’s power to act militarily was repeatedly renegotiated as a result of crises and efforts to develop strategies to cope with crises. This question is given vivid visual expression in the numerous concepts and political visions designed to give shape to Europe in the future.

Project leaders: Simone Lässig, Eckhardt Fuchs, Christian Amalvi

Project assistants: Ewa Anklam, Maguelone Nouvel

Cooperation: Université Paul-Valéry/Montpellier III (C. Amalvi), CEDRHE/Montpellier II (B. Morand)

Duration: March 2008-February 2011

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