Education and museum proposals
Letter-ART. Remember 1914-1918
University of Paderborn - in cooperation with Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge and others
This unusual arts project is aimed at school classes and cultural learning or church-based project groups. The concept: creative artworks are produced on A4 envelopes, to be subsequently displayed at UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Germany: Rammelsberg Ore Mines (Goslar), Völklingen Ironworks, , Visitor Centre Wadden Sea (Wilhelmshaven), Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen.
The project was inspired by the Worpswede artist Heinrich Vogeler, whose 1918 written appeal to the Kaiser for peace made history.
Important for all project managers: two issues of the digital magazine World Heritage and Arts Education contain extensive and differentiated material (information, texts, images and creative suggestions). Amongst other topics, issue 8 focuses on various artists (Franz Marc, Käthe Kollwitz and others). Issue 9 contains numerous related cross-curricular items on art, war and peace.
Hanau 1914
Lindenauschule Hanau/Volksbund Hessen
In several project stages, students from the Lindenauschule school will search for clues related to the First World War in Hanau. Their activities will include research at the city's archive, establishing a collection of material, cooperating with experts and institutions outside of the school environment, and also excursions and field trips. These young citizens of Hanau have already taken a closer look at the First World War casualties buried on the local war cemetery, for example.
Mit den Augen der Anderen / La notion des autres
Kulturgeschichtliches Museum Osnabrück
'Through the Eyes of the Others' is an international exhibition project that focuses on the way the respective other side was perceived during the First World War. Contemporary graphic artworks from France and a collection of postcards with comparable German motifs from the 1914 to 1918 period represent the material from which French and German students will develop the exhibition. The project is slightly unusual as the two groups of school children will cooperate via email or through social networks.
Handout Menschen im Ersten Weltkrieg ('People during the First World War')
Please see the above link to the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge homepage for further information about the project and also some interesting ideas and facts.
The tri-lingual publication (German, English, French) approaches the subject of the First World War in various different ways. It includes an anthology of poems as well as an introduction to the paintings of Georges Victor-Hugo, who as a war artist worked directly at the front. Units about the biographies of soldiers from East Frisia, a cross-border remembrance project, searching for clues at a war memorial and the issue of propaganda have been developed especially for classroom use.
Handout Projektmöglichkeiten auf Kriegsgräberstätten (in German)
Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge
The Volksbund German war graves commission believes that four decades after the end of the Second World War, national and international war cemeteries are more than just places of mourning and remembrance. They show students the consequences of the wars and dictatorships that governed the first half of the 20th century. The graves of men and women, soldiers and civilians, and people of all nationalities inspire questions which allow the subject to be approached on a different, tangible and regional history related level.
Using the Schlüchtern war cemetery as an example, this handout designed by the Hessen regional branch explains the various options for establishing a project group and focusing on a particular war graves site in order to learn in a research based way.
The handout Kinder - Opfer der Kriege bis 1945 ('Children - Victims of the pre-1945 Wars')
The handout Kinder - Opfer der Kriege bis 1945 ('Children - Victims of the pre-1945 Wars') addresses a very serious issue. Great care has been taken in the development of this handout to ensure its educational value whilst also ensuring that students are confronted with this difficult issue in a sensitive way.
Krieg ist nicht an einem Tag vorbei - Spurensuche in Schleswig-Holstein ('War Is Not Over in a Day - looking for clues in Schleswig-Holstein')
Under this title, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge regional branch Schleswig-Holstein is organising a competition for school classes and youth groups to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War.
School children and youth groups are encouraged to look for traces of the wars in their region, and to document these.
The competition will run throughout the 2014/15 school year. The closing date is scheduled for Easter 2015; the exact date is as yet to be confirmed.
The closing event and awards ceremony will be held at the Landtag, where the best entries will be shown in the summer of 2015 (before the start of the summer holidays).
Please contact the Schleswig-Holstein regional branch directly for further information or if you are interested in taking part:
Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V.
Landesverband Schleswig-Holstein
Alter Markt 1
224103 Kiel (Germany)
Telephone:: 0049 (0) 431/906619-0
Fax: 0049 (0) 431/906619-9
Youth competition "1914-1918: Heimat im Krieg"
1914-1918: Heimat im Krieg ('1914-1918: Our Region at War') is a youth competition about everyday life during the First World War.
As 'history detectives', the participants can focus on the First World War and its impact on their local region, far away from the battlefields. They will realise that historical research is fun and will also learn something about the history of what is today Saxony-Anhalt in its course. The competition entries should have a regional focus, and they should cover a wide range of subjects. The various themes addressed by the travelling exhibition 'Our Region at War – War in Our Region' provide inspiration for possible contents. Some examples are 'Not with us!' – resistance to and objections against the war, or 'Learning during the war'.
An expert jury will select the best competition entries, and the prize winners will receive their awards in an awards ceremony coinciding with the start of the travelling exhibition in August 2014.
A total of 8,000 euros will be distributed amongst the best entries. A particular project highlight is the planned group trip to France. In addition, some of the contributions will be shown in the regional travelling exhibition 'Our Region at War', which will travel through Saxony-Anhalt for four years.
Please see the above link to the respective homepage for further information and contact details.
Contact:
Torsten Sowada
Sachsen-Anhalt e.V.
Liebigstr. 5
39104 Magdeburg
Der Erste Weltkrieg: Alltag und Propaganda
How did young people experience the war? As students, daughter and sons, as the targets of national war propaganda, as young soldiers and finally as 'the lost generation', as the consequences and burdens of the war particularly affected the young during the 1920s? The key focus of the most recent edition of Politik und Unterricht ('Politics and Teaching') a magazine dedicated to civic education approaches published by the Regional Agency for Civic Education Baden-Württemberg, are the perspectives of children and young adults of the war, their respective experiences and local everyday events.
The magazine is divided into three themed sections about 'the outbreak of the war and experiences at the front', 'the war on the home front' and 'the aftermath', and supplies a diverse range of teaching aids and source material for use in the classroom and lessons taught outside the school environment.
The LpB leaflet on the centenary, LpB Spezial: Hundert Jahre Erster Weltkrieg, lists the regional agency's entire year of remembrance 2014 programme, which ranges from publications, lectures and panel discussions to educational trips and events aimed at particular groups.
Download the Alltag und Propaganda issue of the magazine free of charge in PDF here (in German).
The magazine and the leaflet are free of charge and can also be ordered in larger quantities from the Regional Agency for Civic Education Baden-Württemberg (see headline link), Stafflenbergstr. 38, 70184 Stuttgart, Fax: 0711/164099-77,
Tracking war casualties online
Regional Branch Hessen
The Hessen regional branch is making a project available to the public: an online war casualty research facility.
It is aimed at illustrating the geographical extent of the First World War as well as the various effects the First World War had on individual communities.
The description below provides an overview of the objectives, method, content aspects/leading questions, realisation tips and ideas for more in-depth work at a glance.
An online research worksheet with a detailed description of the tasks is also available. This can be handed out to students/groups/individuals along with instructions on online research methods.
- Description of online research procedure (in German)
- Instructions for locating a grave (in German)
- Online research worksheet (in German)
This project idea makes it possible to make the First World War more tangible through independent research and the discovery of individual fates.
Searching for local historical evidence
Regional Branch Hessen
The regional branch Hessen has also designed another fully developed project similar to 'Tracking war casualties online', again available free of charge. The search for local historical evidence allows those searching to establish a regional connection.
- Description 'Searching for local historical evidence' (in German)
- Worksheet 'Searching for local historical evidence' (in German)
The objective is the exploration of local war cemeteries as part of a regional culture of remembrance and commemoration, and the contextualisation of the First World War within the German national culture of remembrance and commemoration.
Project Gallipoli/Gelibolu 2015
Schools project Hauptschule Innenstadt, Osnabrück/Ismail Kaymak School, Çanakkale
To mark the 99th anniversary of the Dardanelles Campaign, where the number of casualties was particularly high, the Hauptschule Innenstadt in Osnabrück will be focusing intensively on the topic. The 2014 activities will conclude with an exhibition, which will be held from Tuesday, 18 March 2014 to Sunday, 23 March 2014, at the school (Hauptschule Innenstadt, Hakenstraße 10-11/ Building 4, by Katharinenkirche church).
In 2015, the battle's centenary year, the exhibition will move to Çanakkale, accompanied by a delegation of students from the Turkish city's twin town Osnabrück, and will go on display there close to the former battlefields to coincide with the commemorative events scheduled for 18 March.
First World War Themed City Tour
around Berlin
This new themed city tour recalls First World War events in Berlin. As the central arena of historic events, the German capital witnessed the elated displays of patriotism in 1914, the setting in of disillusion, the subsequent disastrous supply situation, the first stirrings of political unrest and, finally, the downfall of the empire in 1918 first hand.
The guided tour primarily focuses on:
- Important political events- The impact of the war on everyday life- Propaganda, government communication policy and how the war was presented- Resistance against the war- Events in 1918/19 - First World War remembrance culture
The tour can be done by public transport or, this is the extended version, by coach. It lasts around two to two-and-a-half hours.
If you are interested: please give us a call on (030) 803 66 02 or write to us at
Kriegsdenkmäler als Lernorte friedenspädagogischer Arbeit
The Duisburg Institut für Sprach- und Sozialforschung, a sociolinguistic research centre, has developed a pedagogical concept for peace education at war cemetery sites.
Besides a history overview, the handout Kriegsdenkmäler als Lernorte friedenspädagogischer Arbeit - 'War Memorials as Peace Education Sites' - offers suggestions and ideas for educational projects. It also contains a section on different bibliographies.
Follow the headline link to download this carefully prepared, informative material free of charge in PDF.
Remembering - Recounting - Experiencing
Franco-German Competition for Schools 2014/15
To mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First Wolrd War, the Goethe Institute France and the Institut Français Germany will be holding a Franco-German cross-curricular competition for schools that focuses on this time of great fundamental changes. Fourth, third, second and first grade students from all types of secondary schools who study German have the opportunity of approaching the subject using all sorts of creative forms of expression, for example videos, sounds, images, posters, photographs, comics etc.
To provide help with this, a database with authentic materials will be made available. Besides documents about the war, it also contains texts, images and posters about general social and arts related topics from that era.
All of the participating students will receive small non-cash prizes, and 150 students will be invited to a project meeting with awards ceremony, which will take place from 4 to 6 May in Paris, and to Péronne or Maux, where they will attend exciting intercultural theatre workshops together with German students. In addition, the Franco-German Youth Office will award a special prize to a project developed as part of a Franco-German exchange.
Closing date for submission of finished projects: 15 December 2014.
Contact:
