Press Releases

The first meeting of the Joint German-Polish Textbook Commission took place in Warsaw from 22 to 26 February 1972. The work on textbooks, aimed at reconciliation, started by the Braunschweig historian Georg Eckert has…

This year eight textbooks for upper secondary level have been shortlisted for the award. The textbooks, in the categories society, languages and STEM, impressed the jury with their new ways of imparting knowledge. The…

A new handout on ‘Islamic and racist attacks – a topic for teaching and schools’ illuminates the pedagogic, didactic and regulatory challenges faced by teachers and schools following Islamic or racist attacks. The…

The GEI now has a new name: ‘Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute’. Coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the Institute’s membership of the Leibniz Association, the government of Lower…

On 10 and 11 November researchers working at Leibniz Institutes in Lower Saxony will once again have the opportunity to explain current trends in research, present recent findings and to discuss the social and political…

The Leibniz Association’s ‘Book a Scientist’ event will take place virtually on 10 November 2021. The event enables anybody interested in the work of the Leibniz Association to arrange an exclusive (online) meeting with…

The GEI is inviting all those interested in education to get to know its digital lab, ‘The Basement’, on 1st October. Visitors to the event can see presentations outlining the Lab’s diverse possibilities: its…

Despite the limitations with which we were confronted last year, we still achieved a great deal. The GEI 2020 Annual Report gives information about the many innovative digital events that were held, the completion of the…

The Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research has produced a report on the depiction of Sinti and Roma in German textbooks that was commissioned by the Unabhängige Kommission Antiziganismus (independent…

This year the Georg Eckert Institute honours textbooks for lower secondary level in the categories languages, society and STEM. A video announcing the winners has been produced and will be posted on YouTube. The winning…

Alexandra Bänecke assumes the role of administrative director at the GEI on 1 July 2021. We wish her every success in this newly created position. The introduction of an administrative director enables the GEI to follow…

The BMBF’s education research conference ‘Future Worlds of Education’ (Bildungswelten der Zukunft) will take place on 9 and 10 March 2021. The project team for ‘Subjects for Democracy. Current Challenges and…

Eight textbooks for lower secondary level have been nominated by a jury of experts from academia, school practice and publishing houses for the ‘Textbook of the Year 2021’ in the categories: society, language and STEM.…

The Digital Lab of the Georg Eckert Institute "The Basement" is an open space for all those who want to try out digital education themselves, explore it and shape it critically and reflectively together. On the occasion…

The winners of this year’s Georg Eckert Research Award were announced on 3 December 2020. The prize is awarded for outstanding academic work in the field of educational media research. The Westermann Group sponsors the…

The GEI annual conference titled ‘In Education we TRUST?’ took place on 10 December 2020. Different perspectives on the manifold dimensions of trust within school education and educational media were brought together in…

The Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research (GEI) is creating a ‘Global Textbook Resource Center’ (GLOTREC). GLOTREC is financed by special federal funding provided by the Joint Science Conference.

In February the Georg Eckert Institute launched a new interdisciplinary project called ‘How the digital shift affects living and learning: Ethnographic studies of schools and teaching (LernDiWa). The project is financed…

Due to the cancellation of this year’s didacta education fair in Stuttgart, the GEI joined with the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) and the Didacta Association in releasing video messages to honour the winners…

On 24 March 2020 the Georg Eckert Institute and its partners, the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpd) and the Didacta Association, will honour authors, editors and textbook publishers who have developed particularly…

The Holocaust memorial in Berlin is dedicated to the victims of National Socialism. Schools are also supposed to teach pupils about this period of history. But which regions of the world actually do? Our colleague Peter…

On 18 November 2019, Britta Ernst, the Brandenburg minister for youth and sport, and Iwona Michałek, the undersecretary of state for national education in the Republic of Poland, presented the third volume of the joint…

The winners of the ‘Textbook of the Year 2019’ were announced on 19 February at the didacta education trade fair in Cologne. First place in the languages category was awarded to ‘Camden Town’ by the Westermann Verlag.…

In an article in 'Der Tagesspiegel', Dr Annekatrin Bock explains the changes required to enable textbooks to function within Learning Clouds. The GEI is a contributor to the ‘HPI Schul-Cloud’ project.

UNESCO’s Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development reports on the awards for ‘Textbook of the Year 2019’. The article (in German) refers specifically to education for sustainable development (ESD),…

Dr Tobias Ide is collaborating with two colleagues on a critical geopolitical analysis of how conflicts concerning water resources are depicted in geography textbooks. The analysis appears in the interdisciplinary…

Archaeologists have now joined the mechanical diggers on the building site for the GEI’s new library building. While digging the foundations builders discovered human bones, most likely from the cemetery of the cloister…

The Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research (GEI) has awarded the ‘Textbook of the Year’ award annually since 2012. The Institute, which is a member of the Leibniz association, works closely with the…

The GEI, in partnership with the Federal Agency for Civic Education and the Didacta Association, honours innovative textbooks each year in order to highlight their social significance. The prizes for ‘Textbook of the…

How does a photograph of nine captured heroes become an ‘Icon of Annihilation? Lars Müller, a GEI research fellow, explores this question in his blog entry ‘Starving Heroes’ on the Visual History website.

The GEI Research Award and the Award for Young Academics were announced at a ceremony in the Dornse in Braunschweig's old town hall on 30 November 2018. Dr Sabine Johannsen, the parliamentary state secretary for the…

Promoting dialogue between the worlds of politics and academia – this is one of the maxims of the Leibniz Association. On 23 and 24 October 2018 academics from Leibniz institutions based in Lower Saxony met with members…

Dr Dirk Sadowski, a research fellow at the GEI was among those interviewed for an article by Spiegel Online regarding the criticism levelled at German textbooks by Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews…

‘People will continue to come to Europe over the next 50 years due to political discrimination, violence or poverty’ according to Tobias Ide, a political scientist at the GEI. Climate change may intensify the rationale…

In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Riem Spielhaus discusses #MeTwo, the current debate about racism and why the topic should be addressed in textbooks.

Riem Spielhaus and Zrinka Štimac are working with the Federal Agency for Civic Education to illustrate options and approaches that address how religious education in schools can best adjust to increasing religious,…

Who defines what appears in textbooks? And who decides which textbooks are to be used in lessons? These were some of the questions answered by Eckardt Fuchs in an interview with Kakadu, the children’s radio programme by…

Eckhardt Fuchs and Dirk Sadowski spoke to the radio station Deutschlandfunk Kultur on the influence textbooks can have on international understanding and the role played by international textbook commissions (interview…

The GEI has been granted the Total E-Quality award for the first time, in recognition of its commitment to equal opportunities for men and women and to being a family friendly employer. On awarding the Total E-Quality…

On 14 December 2018 the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research (GEI) presented in Berlin the findings of a study that analysed extremism in textbooks and curricula. History and social studies…

The globalDAS project-team visited three German schools located outside Germany: in Dublin, Seoul and Silicon Valley, and produced a short video about the schools and their pupils.

Inaccurate or fragmented depictions of topics in textbooks can contribute to ethnic tension, discrimination against specific social groups and can even stoke violent extremism. UNESCO and the GEI have produced a guide…

Tobias Ide spoke to Swiss broadcasting company SRF on the reasons why he believes certain studies on climate change and the resulting potential for conflict are problematic

To mark the announcement of the winning entries for Textbook of the Year 2018 Eckhardt Fuchs took the opportunity to speak to the radio station Deutschlandfunk Kultur about what exemplifies a good textbook.

Riem Spielhaus, head of the Textbooks and Society department, was among several people interviewed by Spiegel Online about their experiences of integration and their view of current political signals on the subject of…

Riem Spielhaus, head of the Textbooks and Society department gave a lecture in the Stuttgart city library on prejudices and negative clichés expressed in textbooks about people with migrant backgrounds.

During its meeting in Berlin on 11 July 2017, the Senate of the Leibniz Association recommended funding the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research for a further seven-year period. Founded in 1975, the…

What do children learn about Islam from their textbooks and what is not included? Germany’s classrooms have reflected its position as a country of immigration for some time. Many textbooks, however, still do not…

A book that can speak? The Finken Verlag created the sound and picture book ‘Komm zu Wort!’ (Raise Your Voice!) for refugee children without previous knowledge of German. At the 2017 ‘Textbook of the Year’ award ceremony…

With the 2017 ‘Textbook of the Year’ award, the Georg Eckert Institute and the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) honoured extraordinary textbooks at the primary level. The ceremony took place on 24 March 2017 at…

Why do so few immigrants appear in our textbooks? Do authors and publishers still consider immigration an anomaly? NDR Info Forum is looking for answers.

The GEI bids farewell to a man who shaped the path of the Joint German-Polish Textbook Commission like no other: Władysław Markiewicz. He passed away in Warsaw on 18 January 2017 at the age of 97.

State premier of Lower Saxony Stephan Weil presented awards for academic works in the field of international media research to Anja Kirsch and Anna Heym on 11 November 2016.

The ‘bookworms’ from children’s radio station Kakadu came to the GEI with a radio reporter from Deutschlandradio Kultur. They asked the following questions in their report: What constitutes a good textbook? How can books…

The service sends specialist international literature, that is not generally available in Germany, directly to you and digitises historic source material and textbooks upon request.

New teaching materials – now under Creative Commons License! Societal processes throughout history imprint themselves upon our language keeping it in a constant state of flux. It not only represents our reality it also…

The Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research (GEI) is enabling free online access to over 4,000 historical textbooks at gei-digital.de. The process of digitising the historic textbook collections…

On March 18, winners of the ‘Textbook of the Year 2016’ were announced at the Leipzig Book Fair. The expert jury of representatives from academia, teaching and publishing presented awards to textbooks for the upper…

On March 18, 2016, the Georg Eckert Institute will present the fifth annual ‘Textbook of the Year’ award at the Leipzig Book Fair in cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb). This prize recognises…

On 13 March 2015 the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, in conjunction with the Leipzig book fair, will announce the winners of the fourth annual ‘Textbook of the Year’ award. The nominees have…

On March 18 2016 The Georg Eckert Institute will present the fifth annual ‘Textbook of the Year’ prize at the Leipzig book fair. This year’s award will focus on outstanding textbooks for upper secondary school level. The…

The Federal Foreign Office and the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook research presented the findings and recommendations of the German-Israeli Textbook Commission (DISBK) in Berlin on 23 June, jointly…

The Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research (GEI) has conducted a study on the topic of migration and integration in textbooks in collaboration with the Centre for Educational Integration (ZBI), at the…

The GEI, and the Leipzig Book Fair, awarded the 4th annual “Textbook of the Year” awards on the 13 March. This year's jury, who represented academia, educational practice and publishing, focused on textbooks for…

Which textbooks will receive the highly prized accolade this year? What are the newest trends in textbook development? What characterises a good textbook? All are welcome to attend the announcement of this year’s winners…

International Symposium at the Georg Eckert Institute –30th and 31st July.On the 30th and 31st July 2014 the inaugural Arnhold Symposium will take place at the Georg Eckert Institute (GEI). Experts from around the world…

How do schools around the world handle the Holocaust as a subject? In what areas of the world does the Holocaust form part of classroom teaching? Answers to these questions are being sought by a project set up by the…

Textbooks dating from the eighteenth century up to the present day are now available for interested members of the public to view on the Lower Saxony cultural heritage portal. The selected examples are part of GEI…

How do schools worldwide handle the Holocaust as a subject? In what areas of the world does the Holocaust form part of classroom teaching? Answers to these questions are to be provided by a project set up by the Georg…

The winners of the textbook prize have been selected. On 16 March the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research awarded the ‘textbook of the year’ prize to three works in the context of the Leipzig Book…

Im Rahmen einer Pressekonferenz im Auswärtigen Amt in Berlin wurde am 15. September die erste systematische Analyse der Öffentlichkeit vorgestellt

Edumeres.net (Educational Media Research), the Georg Eckert Insti­tute’s portal for international educational media research, is now offi­cially online with a new layout and design.

The stocks of the Georg Eckert Institute library will be the first to be digitalised in the course of the project ‘GEI-Digital’, which has been running since 2009 and is funded by the German Research Foundation. The aim…

The troublesome remembrance of the victims of the concentration camp. Article published in the Dutch newspaper "Trouw" on 22 December, 2007