European Union Heroes – National Stereotypes or Archetypes? Erasmus Project

Project Title

European Union Heroes – National Stereotypes or Archetypes?

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

Together with our partner schools in Italy, Norway and Portugal, we would like to analyze what makes a hero.
German 9th graders are dealing with the topic Individual and Society in all subjects taught to them all year long. Considering the fact that we in our schools today deal with lots of different backgrounds the students come from, the question how an individual can integrate into society and what it can expect from society are diversely dealt with, just like the question what society can expect and needs from individuals. The occupation with the topic “hero” can combine all these questions in an exemplary way.
Starting point for all schools will be the novel by Martin Zsusak “The Book Thief” – a novel about a little girl‘s life during the time of World War II, being given away to a stepfamily, presumably because her mother is Jewish. Thanks to her stepfather the little girl learns how to read and write. Again due to her stepfather she also lives in a rebellious environment in those dangerous times, full of secrets to keep, little and big defiances against the totalitarian regime. This novel is set in a fictional little town in Bavaria, the project’s basis for finding out about how the Third Reich has been perceived and portrayed in literature. The German students will prepare a guided tour through the outskirts of Munich with reference to life there from 1930 to 1950 and the aftermaths of having to come to terms with the Third Reich later. This can include visits to cemeteries of working camp victims and a trip to the Concentration Camp in Dachau as well as the new NS Documentary Centre in Munich and the exhibition on the heroes of the White Rose at the LMU. English being the lingua franca for all participating students will make sure that everybody understands what’s going on in those exhibitions.
Close to the school in Mafra there is the historical prison at the Fort of Peniche, where students can visualize local history. On the outskirts of Oslo there were working camps for prisoners which can be at the basis of a visit to find out about life during German occupation. And Genua, being one of the few cities that have been handed back from German occupation without a fight, presents yet another point of view of life and its hardships during those times.
One question our participating students will have to work on starting with “The Book Thief” is, what exactly defines a hero (and who in the novel can be attributed with the label) – and do “everyday heroes” exist as well? Do they differ from “national heroes”and if so how? These “everyday” heroes might include soldiers, firefighters, single moms and dads, nurses, … the students might have come across in their personal lives or their readings and movie watching.
Putting their fingers on nationalistic characteristics, the students will furthermore set out to find out whether these characteristics are the same in other European countries. Do Italian, Norwegian and Portuguese students define heroes the same way as German students do? Starting from fictional characters presented in novels about the time of the Nazi Regime, they will go further into modern national literature, which is part of their curriculum.
The students, aged 15 – 17 years, are presented with lots of different heroes in the literary curriculum of their German classes (e.g. in Bavaria Storm’s Schimmelreiter, Dürrenmatt’s Physiker, Morton Rhue’s The Wave, Keller’s Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe, Frisch’s Andorra). Other subjects like religious education, history, social studies and even the foreign languages present further material for the students to analyze in depth what makes a hero.
So the participating students will choose a second medium for the project, each different, depending on the national curriculum of each partner school and the students’ interests. When visiting the partner schools, the students will first discuss their findings about “The Book Thief” and their definition of “hero” and then carry on to present their second choice with another, maybe more modern or a more classical hero figure.
The aim of the project proposed is to make European Youngsters aware of values we all share, no matter which country we live in or come from and also of the differences there are in perception, dealing with history and especially with the focus of how the national role during the time frame from 1930 to 1950 is promoted and taught.They will be able to bring their new experiences into their classrooms at home and share them with the rest of their class and school, as well as in the case of the HGV with the complete year 9 and with this promote the necessity to look across borders, not close them.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 119346 Eur

Project Coordinator

Humboldt-Gymnasium Vaterstetten & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Escola Secundária José Saramago-Mafra
• Heistadskolene avd ungdom
• IIS E. MONTALE NUOVO IPC