Border regions/border histories as learning centres to break down prejudices – part 2 Erasmus Project

Project Title

Border regions/border histories as learning centres to break down prejudices – part 2

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

A total of 9 partners were involved in this project:
2 partners in Belgium: 1 secondary school and the Autonome Hochschule, including its Institute for Democratic Education research department, acting as the external learning centre and project coordinator.
5 partners in Germany: 3 schools (2 grammar schools, 1 comprehensive school) and 2 external learning centres – the Peenemünde Historical Technical Museum and the JBS Gom (German War Graves Commission).
2 partners in Poland: 1 grammar school and 1 external learning centre – the Warsaw Uprising Museum.
 
The project brought together students and teachers from border regions in Belgium, Germany and Poland. The first goal was to overcome national historical narratives among participants and to arrive at a transnational view of European history.

In addition to the schools, the following external learning centres were involved in the project: the Golm Youth Meeting and Educational Centre run by the German War Graves Commission, the Peenemünde Historical Technical Museum (HTM), the Warsaw Uprising Museum and the GrenzgeschichteDG research department, which presented our border regions to the participants as places of political and historical learning and experience.

Such a project for secondary school students is all the more important as the history of European states has been mostly confrontational and non-cooperative – particularly during the last century. A visit to the Warsaw Uprising Museum and the city, whose population suffered so much under the German occupation during the Second World War, demonstrates what nations can do to each other.

In the 75 years following the war, prejudices and even open hatred towards neighbouring nations have gradually been overcome. Only the pivotal years of 1989/90 brought about a truly profound understanding between the nations and people in Eastern and Western Europe.

People in border regions have probably particularly suffered from this change. When it came to armed conflicts, they were the first to be affected. Exploitation, expropriation, even threats to life, persecution and forced displacement were the order of the day. Especially here in border regions, this shared history can often still be “experienced” vividly today: project participants visited places of remembrance “at” and “across” borders, and talked to numerous contemporary witnesses and historians, who conveyed this shared history in great detail. The materials that have been produced reflect the impressive insights participants gained.

Participants learned to look beyond their own nation’s historical perspective and to consider other nations, particularly neighbouring states. This allowed mutual respect to blossom and existing prejudices were partly overcome.

The last piece of project work was to develop a “virtual study portfolio” in the form of a multilingual website, on which shared experiences were documented and processed in an original and exciting way, often using audio and video contributions. This was an important contribution to political-historical education in Eastern and Western European border regions, and will hopefully be widely disseminated.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 88733,88 Eur

Project Coordinator

AUTONOME HOCHSCHULE OSTBELGIEN & Country: BE

Project Partners

• Runge-Gymnasium Wolgast
• HTM Peenemünde GmbH
• Heinrich Heine Schule Karlshagen
• Europäische Gesamtschule Insel Usedom
• Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V.
• Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace z Oddzialami Integracyjnymi im. Mieszka I
• César-Franck-Athenäum