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 research department "Zentrum für politische Bildung Ostbelgiens" 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.
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.