‘Learning the Other’s history’ – a textbook on the Middle East conflict

Dr Jörn Lehmann will give a lecture on an unusual textbook, published last year. The design of the book reveals its central premise. The left hand side of the book presents the Israeli view of history and the right hand side presents the Palestinian. In the middle between the two narratives is a column for the reader to make his or her own notes. This juxtaposition brings the identity-forming and legitimising role of history telling into exceptionally sharp focus. But which challenges does the book present when placed in the context of the tense ‘Germany – Israel – Palestine ‘triangle?

Dr. Jörg Lehmann is a literary scholar and historian who researches the history of emotions at the University of Bern. He has written two monographs on German and French war literature and recently worked on the Collaborative European Digital Archival Infrastructure project (CENDARI) at the FU in Berlin. He is responsible for the German edition of “Die Geschichte des Anderen kennen lernen“ [Learning the Others’ History](2015).

2 March 2016
5 p.m. - 6.30 p.m.
Celler Straße 3
Georg Eckert Institute conference room

Further information on the project can be found here.