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Citation: 

Semmet, Sylvia. “Controversiality and Consciousness: Contemporary History Education in Germany.” In History Wars and the Classroom: Global Perspectives, edited by R. Guyver and T. Taylor, 77-88. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, 2012.

Abstract/Summary: 

Modern history education in Germany is described as facilitating students’ ability to think historically on their own in order to engage their lives with historical understanding and use causal relationships, events and their country’s history in order to be responsible and informed citizens. However, the difficulty lies in the fact that there are sixteen different education systems with sixteen different history curriculums. According to Semmet, to understand the teaching of history in Germany one needs to understand education in Germany as a whole. She discusses the state of history education in German schools, which begins in primary schools, and how cross border and multi-lingual programs are promoted. It is not surprising that German history is one that many students need to come to terms with, especially the country’s role in the first and second world wars. However, there are two topics that have not been discussed in German history: the rise and fall of Hitler’s Nazi regime and the Holocaust, and the history of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Semmet concludes with a discussion of tasks in history education that remain to be accomplished: the relationship of the federal and state levels of government, actual outcomes of Holocaust and GDR education, maintenance of disciplinary knowledge, and the tendency to include history in a less distinct classroom which encompasses wider subject areas.

Source/Credit: 
Erika Smith