Reconstructing individual fates in World War One Erasmus Project

Project Title

Reconstructing individual fates in World War One

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: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

Reconstructing individual fates in World War One
Subject: The great seminal catastrophe of the 20th century: World War I from the perspective of the combatant nations and individuals.
The European Union has secured peace in central Europe for seventy years. Even in regions where war, dictatorships and civil war were raging only a few decades ago, it has helped to resolve the violent conflicts. But now the unique peace project “EU” is in danger. Populist politicians are trying to blame the European Union for national problems, playing with nationalist resentments, distorting facts, fuelling intolerance and racism, and raising new border fences between nations. The European idea seems forgotten, fortune is sought again in the single national state. However, looking for salvation in nationalism again sets a nation apart from its neighboring states and creates a national consciousness in demarcation to the other European partners. This development can lead nations to become opponents again.
One look at history is enough to recognize the disastrous consequences of nationalistic thinking. The First World War is considered “the great seminal catastrophe of this [20th] century” (George F. Kennan). Distrust emerged from nationalistic hubris, even hostility towards the European neighbors, alliances were forged, a giant spiral of rearmament emerged. Finally, a single spark was enough to trigger the disaster. The war broke out and claimed more than 17 million lives.
In times of renewed nationalism and growing skepticism towards the EU (especially among young people), the six participating schools from Germany, France, Italy, Croatia, Portugal and Romania want to sensitize their students to the above-mentioned dangers by showing them how the societies at the time, the war participants involved and their relatives suffered from World War I, but also how they saw their opponents of the war and how maybe propaganda influenced their perception. The participating schools support each other in achieving the project goal, since each school has its own potential regarding the topic, from which the other project partners will benefit (e.g. special knowledge of memorial work, IT and new media, the effects of war trauma, etc .)
The focus of the project is on individual fates from the hometowns or regions of the participating countries. After they have worked out the implications of their own country (or the country to which the region previously belonged) in the subject/course “history” or in interdisciplinary classes “history”/”language”/”religion”, the students go on a local/regional search for traces of that period. With the help of visual, written and representational sources, they will develop the “stories” of combatants and their relatives.
Based on their findings using monuments, archives, museums, etc., the students document individual fates on film using their smartphone, e.g. by replaying historical scenes, by reading letters and newspaper reports, by recording on battlefields and cemeteries, by inserting film recordings, or other creative methods.
But they will also experience World War I from the perspective of the other participating countries, through the perspective of certain priorities (e.g. women and children) and debate the dangers of nationalism, importance of peacekeeping measures and the European Union as a guardian for a peaceful Europe.
As a result of the project there will be film documentaries from different national perspectives, which provide an insight into the thinking, feeling and acting of the soldiers and their relatives. On the other hand, a combined documentary that shows that war is bad for everyone and in which the pupils debate the dangers of nationalism, how peace can be secured and the role of the European Union in this.
Both the film documentaries and other project results such as guided tours to local and regional historical sites, exhibitions and a mural about the fate of war participants and their relatives, creative works about World War I, the dangers of nationalism, populism and racism as well as the positive role of the EU after World War II as guardian of peace are made available to the school public as well as the local and regional public to convey the message of the project outside the schools.
The results of the project work will then be published via social networks, Erasmus internal platforms like eTwinning and/or a project-related website.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 160033 Eur

Project Coordinator

Erich-Gutenberg-Berufskolleg des Kreises Herford in Bünde Wirtschaft und Verwaltung & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Agrupamento de Escolas de Aveiro
• Lycée Eugène Woillez
• Colegiul National
• Gimnazija Jurja Barakovica