The common French German history handbook. (2006 – ….)

Page 1 of 2

An unprecedented project: a collection carried out by a team of French-German teachers to cross the teaching point of views and approaches on the history of the world and Europe.

January 2003: the French-German Parliament of the Young people proposes to chancellor Schröder and to president Chirac the realization of a French German handbook of History in three volumes with the identical contents for the two countries in order to look further into mutual comprehension.
 

"Under the title 'Europe and the World from the Congress of Vienna to 1945":  this volume deals with a period shaped by three great wars that is particularly difficult for neighbors. When one considers this time of hostility and suspicion, the significance of the trust achieved today and the intensity of German-French relationships becomes particularly clear.

As this press release issued by the Berlin senate emphasizes, this common manual, which is addressed to students in Première (German eleventh and twelfth grades) was awaited with special interest because of the tragic nature of the period it covers: three wars—one between France and Germany, while the other two were world.

A closer look and a comparison with other teaching materials will demonstrate, however, that the Franco-German History Textbook is not the ‘light reading’ it may first appear to be, even from a German perspective.

It deals with the period from the Congress of Vienna up until the end of the Second World War over 385 pages, while the equivalent volume on the Early Modern Age, for instance, Geschichte und Geschehen (GuG), begins with the French Revolution and follows history chronologically up to the ‘Berlin Republic’, further dealing with European integration, Islam and the Modern Age as well as the development of China from 1800 up to the present in the subsequent chapters (covering a total of 590 pages).
 

Index of contents Previous Next