A total of 9 partners are involved in this project, as set out below: 2 partners in Belgium: 1 secondary school and the Autonome Hochschule, with the GrenzGeschichteDG research department acting as the extra-curricular learning centre and project coordinator. 5 partners in Germany: 3 schools (2 grammar schools, 1 comprehensive school) and 2 extra-curricular learning centres – the Peenemünde Historical Technical Museum and the JBS Gom (German War Graves Commission). 2 partners in Poland: 1 grammar school and 1 extra-curricular learning centre – the Warsaw Uprising Museum. The aim of the project on “Border regions/border histories as learning centres to break down prejudices” is to initially familiarise school students from border regions in Belgium, Germany and Poland with the other partner’s regional commemorative cultures. The students involved will learn – in light of this historical development and even today to a certain extent – how prejudices can arise between neighbours across borders. After all, only those who know the historical roots to these prejudices and confront the reasons for their occurrence can finally contribute to overcoming them. This shared project work is designed to develop and strengthen the students’ reflected and self-reflective historical awareness, historical orientation skills and communication skills. More specifically, those students from the two border areas in Poland, Germany and Belgium who are involved in this project will visit authentic places of historical remembrance together and confront the events that occurred there. In doing so, students from the three countries involved will get to know one another, and will understand and grasp how widespread prejudices have developed. The main target groups are therefore students but also teachers and employees from the extra-curricular learning centres in these countries. As part of the project, the students will create a virtual learning suitcase containing films, photos and documents covering (imagined) borders and prejudices, which in principle will then be accessible to all European schools and citizens, and can be used as didactic material during lessons. The extra-curricular learning centres, museums, memorial sites and regions in Belgium, Poland and Germany will further develop their pedagogical offerings to align them with the schools’ needs, as well as developing new, innovative offerings that can then be used by all schools throughout Europe.
The project partners have remained the same as indicated in the application during Part 1 of the project. The aim of the first part of the project on "Border areas/border stories as places of learning for the reduction of prejudices" was to familiarise pupils from border regions in Belgium, Germany and Poland with the regional memory cultures of the other partners. The pupils involved should learn how prejudices among border neighbours arose before this respective historical development, partly even today. For only those who know the historical roots of these prejudices and the reasons for their emergence can ultimately contribute to overcoming them. This joint project work should also develop and strengthen reflected and self-reflexive historical awareness, historical orientation competence as well as communication competence among the pupils involved. In concrete terms, the pupils from Poland, Germany and Belgium who took part in this project were to visit authentic places of remembrance in Peenemünde/Golm/Insel Usedom in project part 1 and to deal with what happened there. The pupils from the three participating countries got to know and understand each other and were able to understand how widespread prejudices developed. In the first part of the project, the pupils created a part of the virtual learning case with film, photos and documents on the subject of borders (in the head)/prejudices about Peenmünde and the Golm. In the 2nd part of the project, the virtual learning case will be filled with further material on the subject in Warsaw and Belgium.