DSpace at VNU: Settling the past, building a better future: reconciliation in history teaching in Germany and France

H ow ever, m an y generations of French and G erm an historians and educators have been aw are of these and tried their best to find o u t the w ays for reconciliation in teaching histo

VNU Journal of Science, Social Sciences and H um anities 23, No 5E (2007) 31-38

Settling the past, building a better future: reconciliation in

history teaching in Germany and France

Pham Hong Tung*

Vietnam National University, Hanoi

R ece iv ed 7 N o v e m b e r 2007

A b stra ct In th is a rtic le th e a u th o r p ro v id e s an o v erv ie w of th e reco n ciliatio n in te a c h in g n atio n al

h isto ry b e tw e e n G e rm a n y a n d F rance T he process w a s sta rte d w e ll b efo re th e S econd W o rld W ar

H o w ev er, it b e c a m e fru itfu l o n ly after th e e n d of th e C o ld W a r th a n k s to th e in itia tiv e s of the

F rench a n d G e rm a n Y outh P arliam en t T he a u th o r h ig h tlig h ts th e ro le of b o th F rench a n d G e rm an

e d u c a to rs a n d h isto ria n s as w ell as th e s u p p o rt of G e rm a n a n d F rench G o v e rn m en ts, p a rtic u la rly

th e G e rm a n P rim e M in iste r G e rh a rd S choeder a n d th e F rench P re sid e n t Jacque C hirac

N e v erth eless, th e a u th o r also p o in te s o u t th e G e rm a n a n d F rench h isto ria n s a n d e d u c a to rs try to

settle th e d is p u tin g issu es c o n c ern in g th eir o w n n atio n al histo ries, b u t fu lly fo rg et th e recon ciliatio n

in teac h in g E u ro p e a n h isto ry a n d colonial p a st of th e fo rm e r colonial em p ire s.

There is no d o u b t th a t the teaching of

w orld history an d n atio n al history plays a

very im p o rtan t role in the b u ild in g of the

im agination of y o u n g e r gen eratio n s ab o u t the

w orld and ab o u t their o w n nation The w ays

in w hich they conceive a n d u n d e rsta n d the

p ast will certainly im p act the w ays in w hich

they u n d e rsta n d the p re se n t an d expect of

and im agine ab o u t th eir future The historical

consciousness is therefore an im p o rta n t p art

of the national consciousness

H ow ever, histo ry is teaching in different

countries in very differen t w ays A nd these

differences alw ays d e v elo p into conflicts,

w h en the history of the sam e historical events

or historical processes th a t in v o lv ed the

participation of m ore th a n one country, m ore

’ C o rre sp o n d in g a u th o r Tel.: 84-4-8587590

E-mail: tu n g p h @ v n u e d u v m n

th an one p eo p le or concerning the p ast OÍ

m an y g ro u p s o r parties So far there have been m an y k in d s of conflicts concerning the

d ifferent w ays of teaching and in terp retin g of history a ro u n d the w orld The n ew est one

w as the "histo ry textbook conflicts" betw een Japan and Korea But th at w as surely n ot the first an d the last ones The "histo ry textbook conflicts" is n o t only the pro b lem of the East-

a n d S outheast A sian countries It is also not only the pro b lem s b etw een the form er

"m o th erlan d s" an d form er colonies In fact it has been a pro b lem am ong m an y countries aro u n d the w o rld H ence, each conflict has its

ow n n a tu re an d characteristics, consequence

an d solutions

G erm any an d France are the tw o biggest

an d m ost im p o rta n t countries in central Europe D ue to the strategic im p o rta n t role of the tw o countries, th ere w ere m an y conflicts,

31

32 Pham Hong Tung / V N U Journal o f Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No 5E (2007) 31-38

even bloody w ars betw een the tw o peoples in

the history Therefore, w orld history,

E uropean history and national histories h ad

been teaching in very different w ays in the

tw o countries In its turn, the difference in

history teaching had also becom e a source of

hostilities betw een the tw o people for a long

tim e in the past H ow ever, m an y generations

of French and G erm an historians and

educators have been aw are of these and tried

their best to find o u t the w ays for

reconciliation in teaching histo ry in the tw o

countries, so th at to co n trib u te to the

reconciliation betw een the tw o peoples

Finally, a com m on histo ry textbook w as

published in 2006 for u sin g in both countries

This textbook is on the one h an d a resu lt of a

long lasted reconciliation process O n the

oth er hand it m ay be co nsidered as a good

exam ple for reconciliation in history teaching

in other countries and region T hat is the

reason for this study

Like in any o th er social science, the

existence of m an y different m ethods,

approaches, in terp retatio n s, explanations,

presentations, theories, id eas an d opinions

am ong historians is a q uite norm al and

healthy fact To ask the historians in different

countries, of different tim es and of different

cultures to think, w rite and speak sim ilarly is

really to require an im possible thing This is

the idea of the fam ous Polish h istorian Johann

M artin C hlad en iu s(1) But this d oes no t m ean

th at it is absolutely im possible to find o u t the

right w ays to reconcile conflicts, to reduce the

(1) In his famous work "Allgemeine

Geschichtswissenschaft", Schladenius wrote in 1752: "It is a

big mistake of the ones, who required, that the historians

should express their attitude like a man without religion,

fatherland, family Those people do not know, that they are

requiring the impossible things" [1, p.15-16].

differences an d to overcom e the gaps amorig

h istorians C ertainly, th a t is nevertheless no sim ple task

E u ropean historians, g o v ern m en t and

v ario u s social and cu ltu ral o rganizations as

w ell as ed u cato rs have been a w are of this task

q uite early A ccording to Prof Phillipe

A lexandre, the first initiatives in revising and reconciling the difference in teaching of history in schools in E u ro p ean countries w ere started alread y in 1849 b y the Peace C ongress

in F rankfurt, G erm any The C ongress called

u p o n its m em bers in differen t E uropean countries for com m on efforts to erase prejudices and hostilities by education of the

y o u n g generation, p a rticu la rly by history teaching, so th at p rev en t the o u tb re ak of w ars

in the future A lth o u g h this initiative w as unsuccessfully, b u t for the first Lime, it launched o u t the q u estio n of reconciliation in

ed u catio n in E urope [2, p.2]

In 1900 the Peace M o v em en t held a W orld Peace C onference in P est (Bulgaria) w hich issued a fam ous call for revision and reconciliation in history teaching in E uropean countries The C onference considered this as one of m ost im p o rta n t w ays to keep the peace

in Europe Thus, it ev en t m ad e a step further

by giving four "su g g estio n s" w hich can be considered as m ain p rin cip les for revision and reconciliation of histo ry teaching [2, p.3- 4] H ow ever, before the First W orld W ar the initiatives and en g ag em en ts for reconciliation

of history teaching w ere m ain ly approached

as a p a rt of the peace m ovem ent The participation of E u ro p ean educators and historians in these efforts w as still really w eak

an d no g o v ern m en t seem ed to be really eng ag ed w ith the m ovem ent

A fter the F irst W orld W ar the reconciliation effort w as restarted - this tim e

Pham Hong Tung / V N U Journal of Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No 5E (2007) 31-38 33

by the League of N atio n s an d therefore w ith

the p articip atio n of m an y E u ropean states It

w as in this tim e th a t the revision of history

textbooks becam e the focal p o in t of all

reconciliation discussions An international

conference w as o rg an ized in 1924 in Lyon

(France) by the L eague of N ation, in o rd er to

discu ss about the w ays to set u p regulations

for revision of history textbooks and to

im p ro v e the h isto ry teaching in E uropean

countries A fter that, there w ere som e m ore

conferences and initiatives trying to solve the

conflicting ideas, p resen tatio n s and

in terp retatio n s in histo ry textbooks u sing in

d ifferen t E u ro p ean countries

T he French an d G erm an h isto rian s and

e d u c ato rs p lay ed in these efforts the m ost

im p o rtan t role, because am ong all E uropean

co untries there existed betw een France and

G erm an y large g a p s in teaching history

D espite of all efforts of the League of N ations

a n d o f m a n y h i s t o r i a n s f r o m d i f f e r e n t

co untries the reconciliation w as finally en d ed

w ith o u t any success The G erm an delegates

a rg u e d th at the G erm an federation

g o v ern m en t has no control p o w er over the

h isto ry teaching in d ifferen t G erm an states,

w h ile the French d eleg ates said th at the

French G o v ern m en t w a n te d to g u ara n tee the

teacher w ith th eir rig h t of free choices for

textbooks A d d itio n ally , G erm an professors

a n d p o litician s p o in te d o u t th a t th e

regulations for revisions of histo ry textbooks

laid d ow n by the Lyon C onference w ere

u n ju st and conflicting w ith the G erm an

constitution In fact, all this o rig in ated from

the V ersailles A g reem en t of 1919, in w hich

only G erm any, as a d efeated country, w as

accused for the o u tb re a k of the First W orld

W ar and w as p u n ish e d for that T hat w as

exactly w h at th e G erm an ed u cato rs and

h isto rian considered as historical distortion

by the League of N ations and could not accept in their teaching

P e r h a p s t h e o n l y p o s i t i v e o u t c o m e OỶ a ll

reconciliation efforts in E urope before the Second W orld W ar w as the beginning of the cooperation b etw een French and G erm an

ed u cato rs and historian A lready in

D ecem ber 1925 the SNI (Syndicat National des

Institutrices et lnstituteurs de France et des Colonies) organized a m eeting betw een French

and G erm an ed u cato rs in Paris to discuss

ab o u t the reconciling issues in history teaching in the tw o countries Some principles w ere su g g ested for further reconciliation[2,p.9-10] In 1928 French

h istorians and G erm an h isto rian s m et together again in O slo (N orw ay) by the Sixth International C onference of the H istorians

A lthough they did n ot go in concrete conflicting issues concerning the First W orld

W ar, b u t they discussed ab o u t the w ays of reconciling in history teaching, in o rd er to elim inate the hostilities b etw een the tw o countries in history teaching [3,p.3] Seven years later, in N ovem ber 1935, tw o G erm an professors, H erre and Reim an, w en t to Paris

to discuss w ith French h isto rian s ab o u t the possible w ays to settle the conflicting issues concerning the history of relations betw een the tw o countries At the end, they p u t

fo rw ard s '*40 advises" th at w ere to send to all history teachers and au th o rs of history textbooks in the tw o countries to help them

by reconciling of conflicting issues But their

"ad v ises" w ere delivered w idely only in France In G erm any, the situ atio n becam e

m ore and m ore extrem ely difficult for any reconciling effort, because the H itler regim e

w as calling for a "total w a r" to extend the

"Lebensraum" (Living Room) of the arias[3,p.l0].

34 Pham Hong Tung / V N U journal of Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No 5E (2007) 3Ĩ-38

A fter the Second W orld W ar, the

reconciliation efforts w ere restarted in 1950s

in E urope w ith the s u p p o rt of UNESCO Six

conferences of E uropean h isto rian s w ere held

in G erm any and oth er E u ropean countries to

discuss ab o u t the revision of history

textbooks and reconciliation of history

teaching

At the central p o in t of these conferences

w as the reconciliation of history teaching

betw een G erm any and France, the tw o

biggest countries in E u ro p ean con tin en t w ith

so m any u n solved conflicts in the history In a

conference in F reiburg (in Breigaus,

G erm any) in 1951 G erm an an d French

historians decided to accept again the "40

advises" of the m eeting in Paris in 1935 as

principles for revision of the history

textbooks and for the p resen tatio n of the

history of the relations betw een the tw o

countries [13,p.l2] In the follow ing years, 14

other m eetings betw een French an d G erm an

historians w ere held, u n til they decided to

break the conference series in 1967 In 1981,

on the suggestion of the G erm an G eorg-

Eckert Institute, the m eeting series w as

restarted and seven conferences of G erm an

and French w ere o rg an ized u n til the end of

the Cold W ar (1989)

In those tw o conference series the G erm an

and French historians h ad tried their best to

settle m an y conflicting issues and

in terp retatio n s in teaching of the history of

Europe, history of the G erm an-French

relation and the geographical changes of the

tw o countries in the history O f course there

h ad been certain issues th a t they could found

no possible w ay for reconciliation,

particularly the issues concerning the G erm an

occupation of France an d the collaboration of

the Vichy regim e d u rin g the Second W orld

W ar But in general, these efforts of the French and G erm an h isto rian s and educators after the Second W orld W ar w ere really fruitful They had d iscussed very frankly and thoro u g h ly ab o u t the w o rk in g principles, the

o rganization of French - G erm an history textbook com m ission, the topics to be exam ined and revised and then ab out the concrete "advises" for settlin g the conflicting issues Step by step they p u t forw ards their efforts, issued m an y valu ab le "advises" for history teachers and school textbook authors

in the tw o countries, and therefore

co n trib u ted greatly to reconciliation of history teaching in France an d in G erm any Surely, u p to now the state relation betw een France an d G erm any h as n ot developed

w ith o u t conflicts H o w ev er the reconciliation

of the relation b etw een the tw o biggest countries in E urope has been really one of the key factors for the stre n g th e n in g of the

E u ropean C om m unity

As a resu lt of this long reconciliation process, in 2003, on the occasion of the 40th celebration of the Elysée A greem ent, the

G erm an - French Y outh Parliam ent, w hich consists of 550 U p p er-S eco n d ary pupils, voted for the idea of p u b lish in g a G erm an - French com m on histo ry textbook w ith identical co n ten ts for u sin g in schools in the

tw o countries This w as a very g ood im petus for the reconciliation process of the tw o countries, concerning h isto ry teaching issues The sug g estio n of the French a n d G erm an

"y o u n g sen ato rs" w as stro n g ly su p p o rte d by the g o v ern m en ts of the tw o countries and particularly by the French P resid en t Jacque

C hirac and the G erm an C hancellor G erhard Schroeder

Based on such stro n g s u p p o rt of the tw o governm ents, a G erm an - French project

Pham Hong Tung / V N U journal o f Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No 5E (20U7) 31-38 35

g ro u p w as established in June 2003 to discuss

ab o u t the principles an d conception of a

com m on history textbook They also set u p an

a u th o r g ro u p consisting of 8 historians (four

G erm ans and four French) u n d e r the

lead ersh ip of tw o C hief-Editors, Prof

G uillaum e Le Q u in trec an d Prof Peter Geiss,

w hich w as responsible for com piling of the

com m on history textbook*2) In M arch 2005

the G erm an school textbook pu b lish ers Ernst

K lett and the French ed itio n publishers

N ath an an nounced officially their

co operation in p u b lish in g the G erm an -

French com m on history textbook It w as also

p lan n ed th a t this com m on textbooks consists

of th ree volum es: the first one is entitled

"Europe and the World since 1945" and will be

follow ed by tw o others, "From the Hellenic

Democracy until the Revolution of 1789" and

"From the Changes o f the 19th Century to the

Second World War" W hile the first volum e

w ill be u sed for the 12th class of G erm an

schools a n d the Terminal (final class) of the

French schools, the second v o lu m e will be

u sed for the T enth and E leventh of G erm an

schools a n d the Seconde class of French

schools The th ird v o lu m e will then be used

for the 11th and 12th class of G erm an schools

and the Premiere class of French schools.

Three years after the m eeting of the

"Y outh P arliam ent" the first volum e of

G erm an - French com m on history textbook

cam e to life on the 10th July 2006 u n d e r the

(2) The authors of the German - French common history

textbook "Histoire/Geschichte Europa und die Welt seit

1945" are: Guillaume Le Quintrec and Peter Geiss (Chief

Editor), and other 4 German co-authors: Ludwig

Bemlochner (Munich), Lars Boesenberg (Ibbenbueren),

Michaela Braun (Bendorf), Claus Gigl (Landshut); 4 other

French co-authors: Daniel Henri (Paris), Enrique Leon

(Paris), Msthicu Lepetit (Buc) and Benedicte Toucheboeuf

(Nanterre).

title: "Histoire/Geschichte Europa und die Welt

seit 1945" Im m ediately, the textbook w as

allow ed to use in French and G erm an schools

in the school year 2006-2007 U ntil now there still no su rv ey on the response of the pupils and history teachers in the tw o countries

to w ard s the textbooks, b u t on international

m edia it has been com m ented very differently W hile som e G erm an praised it as

"a textbook that goes beyond the borders'' [4],

oth er au th o r considers it "apparently is not just

Euro-centric, but also teaches a pro-European sentiment on the expense of the United States", or

even describes it as "anti-American" [5].

D espites of different tem poral evaluations, the first F ranco-G erm an com m on history textbook is really a g reat success in the long reconciling process taken place in

E urope since the second half of the 19th century It is also a h an d so m e resu lt of the

co n tinuous reconciling efforts of French and

G erm an historians and educators, particularly d u rin g the tim e after the sww

The com m on textbook is also resulted from the large s u p p o rt given by the French and the

G erm an governm ents, on the oth er h an d it reflect the reconciling atm osphere, the globalized w ays of th in k in g a n a liberal political cu ltu ral orien tatio n of the young generations of the tw o nations

The Project leaders and the a u th o rs of this history textbook m ade a very clever decision,

as they chose to the perio d from the end

sww to the en d of the Cold W ar for the first

pu b lish ed volum e T hat w as in fact the period

w ith few conflicting issues in the history of Franco-G erm an relations T hat m eans, th at is the sim p lest p erio d to be reconciled

C oncerning the Franco-G erm an or

E uropean issues the au th o rs of this com m on history textbook seem have been doing well

36 Pham Hong Tung / V N U Journal o f Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No 5E (2007) 31-38

th eir reconciling job H ow ever, concerning

the colonial q u e stio n they could in fact do

n o th in g b ette r th a n o th er history textbooks

u sin g in France H ence, decolonization w as

one of m o st im p o rta n t historical processes in

the w o rld h isto ry after 1945 Particularly, this

process w as really a significant p a rt of history

of som e E u ro p ea n form er m o therlands, like

France, Britain, th e N eth erlan d s an d Portugal

H o w ev er, ihe a u th o rs of the Franco-G erm an

co m m o n h isto ry textbook d o n ot pay m uch

atten tio n to this process A m ong 17 chapters

of th e tex tbook th ey reserve only one ch ap ter

(ch ap ter 5 of th e Second P art) u n d e r the title

"Das Ende der Kolonialreiche" (The End of

C olonial E m pires) for the topic The ch ap ter is

also relative short: only 13 pages (pp 82 - 95),

m ak es a b o u t 0.36% of the total coverage of

the boo k (335 pages) [6,p.82-95] The

d eco lo n izatio n is also d ealt w ith in the

c hap ter 14 "Die politische Entwicklung

Frankreichs von 1945 bis heute" (The Political

D ev elo p m en t of F rance from 1945 to Today),

b u t only as one p o in t of a p a rt of the ch ap ter

u n d e r the su b title "Der Algerienkrieg as

Bedrohung fu er die Vierte Republik” (The

A lg erian W ar as a T h reat to the F ourth

R epublic) [6,p.240]

It is clearly th a t the a u th o rs of the Franco-

G erm an c o m m o n histo ry textbook do noi

c o n sid e r th e h isto ry of the decolonization

after the sww a n d the relations b etw een the

fo rm er E u ro p e a n "m o th erlan d s" and their

fo rm er colonies in the post- colonial period as

an im p o rta n t topic T hat also m eans th at in

th e ir p re se n ta tio n of the histo ry of the

"E u ro p e a n d the W o rld ", th ey do n o t take the

reconciliation b e tw e e n theses p artn e rs as an

im p o rta n t issue in the w o rld order This is

su rely n o t a rig h t w ay to p re se n t and

in te rp re t th e W o rld histo ry since 1945

It seem s in the first sight, th at the au th o rs

of this new history textbook look a t the history of W estern colonization from the perspective of reconciliation, because of the

m ost im p o rta n t reason for the birth of such com m on histo ry textbook like this is reconciliation, and try to p rese n t the history

of colonization and decolonization objectively It is also to e m p h asiz e here, th at this text w as p u b lish ed in July 2006, directly

after the crisis caused by the French "LO/ n°

2005-158 du 23 fD vrier 2 0 0 5 D ealing w ith the

W estern colonization in g en eral an d the French colonization in p articu lar, the a u th o rs

of this textbook avoid g iv in g any open evaluation T hey n eith er talk ab o u t the

" mission civilisatrice", n o r a b o u t the colonial

"exploitation" an d "su p p ressio n " T hat is also not the central topic of this volum e D ealing

w ith the histo ry of decolonization, they on the one h an d ack n o w led g e the in d e p e n d e n t will of the colonized peo p les in Indochina, India an d A frica and d escrib ed the successes and im pacts of the in d e p e n d e n t m o vem ents

as positive tra n sfo rm atio n s in th e m o d ern

w orld O n the o th er h an d , they are seem ly critical to w a rd s th e a ttitu d e s of French

g o v ern m en ts to w ard s the colonial question after the sww The a u th o rs of the textbooks acknow ledge the rational policy o f the British

in g u a ran te e d India a n d o th e r peoples w ith national in d ep en d en ce an d b ro u g h t them together into the British C o m m o n w ealth In the m ean tim e they criticized the French policy of re-conquering the form er colonies and su p p ressin g the in d e p e n d e n t m o vem ents after the sww They also p o in t o u t the negative consequence of the colonial w ars in

In d o ch in a and A frica to the political

d ev elo p m en t of France The p u p ils are also inform ed ab o u t the m assacres caused b y the

Pham Hong Tung / V N U journal o f Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No 5E (2007) 31-38 37

French colonial troops in V ietnam and in

A lgeria in 1945 and 1946 and the defeats of

the French arm y in the colonial w ars in

Indochina and Africa In this respect, the new

G erm an-French com m on histo ry textbook has

really overcom e the shortcom ings of som e

oth er history textbooks used in France

previously

H ow ever, the new textbook has still

co n tain ed of som e p o in ts th at can be

co n sid ered as intentional d isto rtio n s of the

histo ry of decolonization of V ietnam (3) Like

in oth er French history textbooks the authors

of this textbook sim p ly ignore the

collaboration betw een the French colonial

g o v ern m en t in In dochina u n d e r G eneral

G overnor Jean D ecoux w ith the Japanese

arm y from Septem ber 1940 to M arch 1945

[6, p.86]

The textbook w rites: "The national

m o vem ents and in d e p e n d e n t stru g g les had

a p p e ared already in the tim e b etw een the

W orld W ars; they w ere violently su p p ressed

by the colonial pow ers, for exam ple in India

a n d N o rth Africa" [6,p.86] T hat is true for

India and N orth Africa, b u t w hy d o they not

m ention the su p p ressio n s of the French

colonial g o v ern m en t ag ain st the national

m ovem ents in V ietnam before 1945? Are

these su p p ressio n s n ot typical e n o u g h or they

ju st w an t to ignore them ?

In the "D ossier" "Vietnam im Brcnnpunkt

der internationalen Beziehungen" (V ietnam in

B urning P oint of the In tern atio n al Relations)

of the ch ap ter 5 the inten tio n al historical

d isto rtio n s of the textbook becom e even m ore

clearly H ere, the a u th o rs describe the

situ atio n of V ietnam a ro u n d the end of the

In so far I am not able to check the history of the

decolonization of Africa.

sww and continue to ig n o re the Franco- Japanese collaboration T hen th ey com e on to write: " and in the last w eeks of the Second

W orld W ar the national m o v e m e n t th a t w as lead by the C o m m u n ist p olitician H o Chi

M inh, took the control over th e n o rth e rn p a rt

of the land"[6,p.94] T hat is sim p ly n o t true, because the Viet M inh took th e control over the w hole V ietnam , except only som e provinces in the N orth, and the fo u n d a tio n of the in d e p e n d e n t DRV w as d eclared on 2nd

S eptem ber 1945

In the next p a rt of the "D ossier" they write: "The G eneva A g reem en t th a t w as

signed in July 1954 fixed ựestlegen) the

partitio n of the land into tw o p a r ts /' [6,p.94] Again, th at statem en t is to tally false The

G eneva A greem ent d id n ot fixe the p a rtitio n

of V ietnam , b u t only set u p a tem p o ra l

m ilitary dem arcation line at th e 17th parallel The A g reem en t also reg u lated for a general election to reunify the co u n try in July 1956

T hat w as the tru th th at ev ery o n e know s But the a u th o rs of the textbook ig n o re th a t and write: "H ow ever, the c o m m u n ist N o rth th at

w as su p p o rte d by the USSR a n d C h in a

w an ted to enforce a reu nification on their

ow n favor."[6,p.94]

D istortions and falsifications like these can be fo u n d also in the p ag es d e scrib in g on the d ev elo p m en t of the co u n trie s in A sia and Africa d u rin g the post-colonial perio d The

au th o rs em p h asize the m ism an ag em en ts, econom ic crisis, social and political crisis an d

w ars in these lands, b u t they fail to acknow ledge th at these w ere also p a rtly the consequences of the colonial policies th a t France, Britain and o th er colonial p o w e r h ad carried o u t in the colonies p rev io u sly

T aking the reconciliation in h isto ry teaching am ong E u ro p ean countries,

38 Pham Hong Tung / V N U Journal o f Science, Social Sciences and Humanities 23, No 5E (2007) 31-38

p a rticu la rly the reconciliation betw een

G erm an y an d F rance in the po st-w ar period

as an ex am p le "case stu d y " can help us to

d ra w o u t m an y v alu ab le experiences for o u r

s tu d ie s here Firstly, th a t is the lesson

co n cern in g the active role of the educators

an d h isto rian s of concerning countries If they

c an n o t find o u t th e w ays to talk an d to w ork

to g e th e r effectively, then the conflicts cannot

be reconciled C ertainly, the go v ern m en ts of

co n cern in g c o u n trie s play very im p o rtan t

role, b ecau se th e conflicts in history teaching

are often h ighly politicized an d the education

in m an y co u n trie s are often u n d e r the tight

control of the states Thus, the outcom e of

reconciling efforts d e p e n d s largely on the

a ttitu d e s of th e concerning governm ents The

civil in itiativ es are also very im p o rtan t to the

reconciliation A s p o in ted o u t here, the first

reconciling effort in E urope w as initiated by

the Peace M o v em en t, and the n ew est one w as

also in itiated by th e F ranco-G erm an "Y outh

P arliam en ts"

The first G erm an - French com m on

h isto ry tex tbook can be co nsidered as a

"classic" ex am p le of successful reconciliation

for h isto ry teach in g conflicts Besides m any

p o sitiv e characteristics, this textbook still

c o n tain ed a n u m b e r of d isto rtio n s or

falsifications A bove all, it reflects clearly a Eurocentric ap p ro ach of the G erm an and French authors Therefore, the n ew G erm an- French com m on history textbook can help to settle the old conflicts, b u t at the sam e tim e, it

b rin g s in new conflicts

References

[1] Chladenius Johann Martin, Allegemeine

Geschichtswissenschaft, B oehlau, L eip zig (1752),

1982.

[2] A lex a n d re, P h ilip p e, Z u r Vorgeschichte einer deutsch-franzoesischen Geschichtsshulbuchrevision,

WWW france-blog i nf o /p d f/A lex an d re_250906 p d f.

[3] A llain, Der deutsch - franzoesische Dialog ueber die Geschichteschulbuecher,

w w w fe sto k y o c o m /te x t_ a lla in rtf.

[4] A nne Haem ing, http://www.tagcsspiegel.dG/magazm /m o d e rn e s-le b e n /w e rb in ic h /w e rb in ic h ;a rt 413,2212192.

[5] "Failure o f Education": frnnco-German reconciliation w ith A nti-Am ericanism ,

h ttp ://a tla n tic re v ie w o rg /a rc h iv e s/3 1 4 -F a ilu re -

o f-E d u catio n -F ran c o -G e rm an -R ec o n cilia tio n -

w ith -A n ti-A m e ric a n ism h tm l.

[6] Q u in trec , G u illa u m e Le, P e te r G eiss,

Histoire/Geschichte Europa unci die W elt seit 1945,

E rnst K lett S ch u lb u c h v e rla g , S tu ttg a rt - L eipzig, 2006.