Competition and Convergence: Images of Europe in German and French Textbooks from 1900 to the Present Day

Aims

1. The project aims to identify, draw up an inventory of and comparatively analyse 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. It focuses on strategies designed to bring together national and European identity constructions. 

2. The images of Europe found in the textbooks are examined in order to identify and examine the historical processes at work in them, systematically comparing cross-border communication processes, similarities, and examples of convergence or conflicts. The various theoretical concepts underpinning the analysis will ensure that the research design is innovative and original, especially since previous work has rarely made use of textbooks as a source material with which to reconstruct the processes of identity formation in transnational contexts.

3. Previous research projects have indicated that, at least until 1945, the nation played a central role in textbook representations 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’. References to significant European values also inherently point towards depictions of one’s own nation. We therefore ask to what extent the ‘European’ can be explained on the basis of a history of bilateral relations. To what point can Europe be said to be ‘conjured up’ in order to legitimise national historiographies, and how far may we describe Europe as a community of values, religions and memories, as a sphere of social practice, action and perception, as a geographical entity, a welfare state, a linguistic entity, or as a political code.

4. The textbook analyses serve to compile a collection of sources that are significant and useful for research in a variety of disciplines. Documents, illustrations and maps central to this project are introduced, provided with commentaries, and translated into either German or French as well as English. The resulting collection of sources forms part of a platform about Europe made available to the public via the international information and communication portal Educational Media Research (Edumeres).

Method

Data is being drawn from analyses of geography and history textbooks designed for the upper level of secondary school curricula (Gymnasium, lycée). In order to ensure the feasibility of both synchronic and diachronic comparisons, the temporal framework is deliberately broad. Seven historical cross-sections geared towards major turning-points in the twentieth century will enable us to reconstruct mutations of images of Europe over time. The project surpasses the scope of standard textbook analyses insofar as it applies 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 still prevailing methodological nationalism.
 
Project Status

Which portrayals of Europe appear in textbooks and when? Which similar or differing forms of evidence, depiction and justification of references to Europe are employed by the French and German textbook authors, and why? These were the questions investigated by the Franco-German team during the recent final conference in the Lower Saxony Mission, Brussels, on 2 March. The project team presented the results of their studies on France and Germany. They agreed in their concluding statements that Europe is a concept attributed both to the self and to the ‘other’ that has existed for centuries. If we look for representations of Europe in textbooks, at the same time we are looking for the regional, social and epochal boundaries of this construct.

The Franco-German comparison for the post-war era led to the following result: References to the nation in German textbooks published after 1945 are replaced by references to Europe, as a credible legitimatisation of the new democratic Germany could only succeed within the European context. This new construction of an Allemagne européenne competes with the Europe française of the time, which was already to be found in French textbooks dating from the pre-war era. This universalising of French values occurs in textbooks from the beginning of the 20th century onwards. The constructions of Europe to be found in historical as well as current history textbooks are primarily defined by the Christian and imperial or colonial heritage, both in France and in Germany.

Presentations

• At the first work meeting of the project, Arc-et-Senans sponsored by the ANR and the DFG, 12^th - 15^th May, 2009
• At the colloquium "Manuels en Méditerranée": "L'Europe et la Méditerranée dans les manuels d'histoire français et allemands", Université Paul Valéry-Montpellier III, Montpellier, 12th - 14th November, 2009
• At the conference « Les représentations de l’Européen dans les manuels français et allemands : Les Européens dans le monde du XIX siècles », Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Montpellier, 10th June, 2010
• At the conference « Der Aufbau des Geschichtsraums Europa. Europäische Einigung im Schulbuch » , Maison de l’Europe, Montpellier, 13th October 2010
• At the conference « Jeux de miroir. Europa im Spiegel von Bildungsmedien », Niedersächsische Landesvertretung, Brussels, 2nd March 2011

 Publications

• Ewa Anklam, Susanne Grindel, ‘Europa im Bild – Bilder von Europa: Europarepräsentationen in deutschen, französischen und polnischen Geschichtsschulbüchern in historischer Perspektive’, in: Eva Matthes and Carsten Heinze (eds), Das Bild im Schulbuch (Beiträge zur historischen und systematischen Schulbuchforschung), conference papers of the textbook conference in Ichenhausen, 25-29 September 2008, Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt 2010.
• Ewa Anklam, Maguelone Nouvel, L'Europe et la Méditerranée dans les manuels scolaires français et allemands, in : Michèle Verdelhan (eds), Echanges humains et culturels en Méditerranée, conference papers of the conference in Montpellier, 12.-14. November 2009  [in print].

Project Leaders:
Simone Lässig, Eckhardt Fuchs, Christian Amalvi

Research Associates:
Ewa Anklam, Maguelone Nouvel, Steffen Sammler

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

Duration:
March 2008-May 2011

Funding:
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR).

Contact