The project „Faces of the past: Re-imagining the European history of Gdansk and Hamburg“ will instruct students from two schools in Hamburg and Gdansk to deal with questions of a cultural, philosophical and economic European Heritage. From 9/2018 until 11/2019 students of the secondary school levels at the 5th Lyzeum in Gdansk and at the Otto-Hahn-Schule in Hamburg will work on this topic in cooperation with archives, scientists and artists of both cities. The students will do research, find and (re)arrange historical sources, invite contemporary witnesses and interview them in order to plan and install a modern multimedia exhibition, which displays common trends and connections in 500 years of European regional history. There will be two workshops in both cities, in which the students from both cities come together to seek for scientific assistance, search for common research strategies and to identify common goals. The project will end with the opening and public display of the exhibition for a young audience in schools first in Gdansk and then in Hamburg. The research topics the students will mainly deal with include Medieval trade in the Baltic Sea, migration during the Industrialisation and forms of liberal and democratic protest of workers’ unions and social movements in both cities since the 1970s. The project centres around the inhabitants of the two European metropoles and focusses on their history(s). It therefore is a postnational project and also deals with the question of how to teach history in multicultural societies, since many students in the project have family histories that start somewhere far away from Hamburg or Gdansk. This is why main topics, key aspects or guidelines are to be kept open at the beginning of the project, because it is up to the students into which direction(s) they will move during their work and their debates. Possible problems about different interpretations and controversies among the young people are an important part of the project and will also be part of the exhibition. The narration of European history, this is the guiding aspect of the project, needs to be kept open for new perspectives, new questions and new pathways of a young and European generation.
The project „Faces of the past: Re-imagining the European history of Gdansk and Hamburg“ wanted to instruct students from two schools in Hamburg and Gdansk to deal with questions of a cultural, philosophical and economic European Heritage. From 9/2018 until 11/2019 students of the secondary school levels at the 5th Lyzeum in Gdansk and at the Otto-Hahn-Schule in Hamburg have worked on this topic in cooperation with archives, scientists and artists of both cities. The students did research, found and (re)arranged historical sources, invited contemporary witnesses and interviewed them in order to plan and install a modern multimedia exhibition, which displays common trends and connections in 500 years of European regional history. There were two workshops in both cities, in which the students from both cities came together to seek for scientific assistance, to search for common research strategies and to identify common goals. The project ended with the opening and public display of the exhibition for a young audience in schools first in Gdansk and then in Hamburg. The research topics the students dealt with, as planned, included Medieval trade in the Baltic Sea, migration during the Industrialisation and forms of liberal and democratic protest of workers’ unions and social movements in both cities since the 1970s. The project centre around the inhabitants of the two European metropoles and focussed on their history(s). It therefore was a postnational project and also dealt with the question of how to teach history in multicultural societies, since many students in the project have family histories that start somewhere far away from Hamburg or Gdansk. This is why main topics, key aspects or guidelines were to be kept open at the beginning of the project, because it was up to the students into which direction(s) they will move during their work and their debates. Possible problems about different interpretations and controversies among the young people were an important part of the project and was also part of the exhibition. The narration of European history, this is the guiding aspect of the project, needed to be kept open for new perspectives, new questions and new pathways of a young and European generation and in our opinion this planning was successful.