Research Theme and Aims

The friction-prone political consolidation process within the European Union continually raises questions about societal and intellectual coherence among the European citizens it seeks to unify. At the same time, expansion debates question traditional self-assurances with regard to common historical roots as well as connecting values. These debates also cross with the self-discovery processes of neighboring countries, which also feel connected to Europe.

Against this background, Europe is currently re-establishing itself as the main focus of different research disciplines, which is then increasingly reflected in the teaching of history, politics and geography. Europe has always been a geographical arena and a political framework, a ‘projection surface’ for cultural identification and a tertium comparationis; it appears as a cipher, a myth or vanishing point, and is the object of idealization and dissociation. The idea of Europe can, in combination with competing leitmotifs, be subject to an entirely arbitrary process of instrumentalization, yet it can also take center stage and be seen as a mission and as a teleological quest. The means by which the idea of Europe is transmitted can be explored and compared on the basis of textbooks, which thus reveal interactions, oppositions and common trends. Notions of Europe contained in textbooks reflect the most pressing issues of the day.

The political project of ‘Europe’ is open: neither its external boundaries nor its internal composition nor its status in the world are fixed. Even future generations will face the task of giving it form and identity. This is why political and historical education on this topic is indispensable.

The title of the research group “The European (School)House” refers metaphorically to the emerging contours of a virtual common educational space. The educational institutions in European countries unmistakably align political-historical education to Europe and try to design a Europe-compatible curriculum. By no means are the standardization aims within the European Union always successful in meeting the desire to retain the historically cultivated entities in Europe. The slogan “Unity in Diversity” also pertains to historical imagery, which remains very influential. A European Union whose history is not politically unified remains open towards the historical perceptions of its neighbors. The research group’s title consciously refers to a metaphor (Gorbachev’s “European House”), which does not define European commonality as part of a West European program.

The research group “The European (School)House” selectively observes and describes how the process of developing European identity and consciousness structures, a process which is driven by numerous players and which is also in part spontaneously implemented, takes place within the framework of pedagogical practice. Europeanizing tendencies or changes in the educational programs of European countries are examined and its setbacks are also brought into focus. Particularly examined in the research group’s projects are under which historical recourses this discourse takes place, how concepts of Europe are revitalized and modified and where new elements appear.

Attempts to define Europe from old cores and occidental cultural inventories are followed. Taking into account the limited scope of this model, formative diversification impulses are located within the space of contact with the Eurasian, trans-Atlantic and Arabic-Islamic world. It is assumed, that Europe is constituted strongly by its borders but also by its inner-peripheries (cultural enclaves). The research group likewise examines how the European identities and mentalities portrayed are seen from outside.

This research group is designed to underpin discourse about European pedagogy with scientific backing and critical accompaniment on the basis of its analyses, development and consultancy work. The results of the research should demonstrate to what extent it is questionable if ‘Europe’ takes shape in a process similar to the one by which nations emerged in the past, if ideas of empire fuse with the European ‘project’, or if traditional eurocentricity obstructs Europe’s quest to establish a suitable place in the world.

Thematic Foci

Europe and the National Factor

Visions of Europe range from a confederation of nation-states to a one-state organization in which nations no longer appear. On the one hand, there is a clear tendency to limit the authority of the nation-state -- a trend that is compounded by economic developments. On the other hand, there is also evidence that national interests will continue to compete with ‘Europe’ for a long time, or at least that nations will continue to shape conceptions of Europe. This trend gained new impetus when Central and Eastern European countries joined the European Union. Moreover, education in Europe has traditionally been under state control. Resulting traditions naturally tended to perpetuate the structural foundations of national perceptions. One of the key tasks facing this project area is to analyze the tension between national self-assurance and national memory cultures on the one hand, and between the continual revision and redefinition of one’s own ‘Europeanness’ on the other, and to inquire into their relevance for teaching practices.

Europe through the Prism of Its Regions

If we think of Europe less in terms of nation-states, we immediately face the challenge of defining its alternative constitutive components. Other categories come into play such as large and small regions, most of which can lay claim to a longer history than the nation-states. These regions can range from the extensive relics of confederations or imperial structures, to organizations whose origins are rooted in dynastic territorial rule, to regions bound by language, culture and religion, to small landscapes whose boundaries are dictated by nature. However, their characteristics are often eclipsed and their history long forgotten, especially if they have not been adopted and nurtured within the framework of a national history. This research group will therefore rediscover and recast these strata of memory in a new format.

This idea of ‘Europe from below’ will also draw attention to the ways in which it has been constituted on the basis of cities and social groups that show considerable potential for transnational exchange or, as in the past, on the basis of social classes.

Fault Lines In and Around Europe

Notions of Europe acquire significance according to where they place emphasis: where they locate the center of Europe, which zones they divide it into, and where they define its limits. All three parameters indicate historical change. Prevailing external relations generally determine what people perceive to be the center or the periphery. It is therefore a very rewarding exercise to observe the shifting of centers and of force fields within Europe from a transnational perspective. The division between Eastern and Western Europe has revealed the extent to which the fragmentation of the continent has been consistent over the years. Such division has been virulent since the separation of East and West, Byzantium and Rome. The question of what belonged to the East and what belonged to the West has consistently been open to negotiation. The collapse of the Soviet Empire has added new impetus to these negotiations. One of the questions to be answered is why this opposition between East and West never impaired the vitality of the idea of ‘Europe’. The various mutual perceptions in the East and the West are also very relevant research topics: while the West now perceives Russia to be a natural part of Europe, a recent poll claims that almost half of all Russians consider the European Union to present ‘a danger for Russia’. Similar results might be expected in the case of Turkey, albeit in reverse.

This brings us back to the question of the external boundaries of Europe. In this respect, notions of Europe differ radically, as shown by the case of Turkey. Conflicting positions draw support for their arguments from the medium of textbooks – an ongoing area of research and work that will surely remain topical for many years to come.

Current Projects:

‘Dark Moments’ and ‘Golden Times’ – The Fate of European Cities. Three Case Studies (Eva Dorner-Müller, Robert Maier)

Northern Europe and International Textbook Revision (Eckhardt Fuchs)

Source Collections on German History of the Twentieth Century in the Russian Language with a Didactic Commentary (Robert Maier)

‘From Pruzzenland to the Kaliningrad Region.’ A New Transnational Survey of a European Region (Robert Maier)

German-Polish Textbook Work (Robert Maier/Thomas Strobel)

Historical Construction and National Formation in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan (Bahodir Sidikov)