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An exception : first try to design a common French German history handbook (1932).
When in 1930 the historians Fritz Kern and Jean de Pange envisaged a «Manual of Franco-German relations» to be written by both French and German scholars, they emphasized that the cultural and civilizational perspectives were best able to grasp the similarities, convergences, and exchanges between the two nations, whereas the political history then dominant led to excessive emphasis on divergences and conflicts. This remark is still valid, and almost eighty years later, it is by combining these diverse approaches that German and French historians and teachers have succeeded in making readers share a history that long divided European peoples.
Jean De Pange
Fritz Kern
“Common handbook of the French German relationships” by Fritz Kern and Jean de Pange, 1932. It is not so much a matter of ‘joint educational works’, which would imply an adaptation of curricula on the part of both or several states; rather, these are ‘joint materials for teaching and learning’, intended to contribute towards overcoming national or nationalistic approaches to history tuition. This book derives from a university-based initiative which act alongside – or sometimes against – governments, which is how they differ from the Franco-German History Textbook.
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