“To Hell and Back”?! – Germany, Italy and France at the end of the “Great War”: a European exhibition Erasmus Project

Project Title

“To Hell and Back”?! – Germany, Italy and France at the end of the “Great War”: a European exhibition

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 Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

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

Project Summary

Last year, in 2018, the 100th anniversary of end of the “Great War” was commemorated. For this reason and on this occasion a number of ceremonies, events, exhibitions and historic publications were initiated on the topic and the effects it had as introducing a radical and global historical change. This anniversary was impulse and motivation for the three schools united in this Erasmus+-project to trace back the developments that led into WWI as well as to observe which results and consequences the war had on European societies in the years after – and in the long run – up until today.

Therefore, the scope of and the approach towards the project was quite comprehensive and diverse: issues that been hotly debated by the people 100 years ago were scrutinised from a current perspective, trying to find modern answers that are also supposed to help to understand 21st century Europe. The consistently adopted, transnational character was the outstanding feature of the project, focusing in past and present on overcoming traditional, national and post-national patterns. During the project this transnational approach proved to be able to contribute to erasing historically developed antagonisms and oppositions by raising the awareness of another contrast, which should possibly be called a “historic gap”. This gap mentioned is the deep contrast between the values, lifestyles and global perspectives between the “1914 generation” and their great-grandchildren of the 21st century.

These differences (also in the approach towards the terms “nation” and “Europe”) between then and now, between past and present would turn into one of the central guiding themes, leitmotifs of the cooperating teachers and schools, helping to analyse the radical changes originated by the Great War. This theme was also used to illustrate the effects it had on local, regional, national and international developments since then. Results of these observations and their analysis were presented and discussed in a transnational pupils’ exhibition taking place from November 2018, each at the same time at every participating school. This exhibition had been prepared and assembled in two project meetings in Germany and France in the months before. The core ideas of all the three exhibitions was the same: the use of a certain number of exhibition panels had been part of the teachers’ agreements and was therefore compulsory. But there was also space for a more individual, flexible approach for every school, trying to meet local needs or the individual requirements of every school involved. It was also optional for the schools to accompany the exhibition with a supporting programme, that was intended to disseminate results of the project into a local or regional public open to the topic.

The evaluation of the project took place in a final exchange programme in Reggio Emilia in February 2019. It was an important feature of this last meeting to involve the participating pupils in the evaluation: which gave birth to the final project of a common Erasmus+-video prepared and produced by members of all three schools.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 62895 Eur

Project Coordinator

Leonhard-Wagner-Gymnasium & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Collège Henri Wallon
• Istituto Europeo Studi Superiori