Educating the nation. German history textbooks since 1900 : representations of colonialism

Abstract

Empires and colonies had a distinctive impact on the formation of national identities in Europe and school history education helped to translate the colonial experience into national histories. As the German colonial experience was rather short-lived one could argue that it bore little on German national identity. However, a close reading of German history textbooks since the turn of the 20th century illustrates that colonialism affected the lesser imperial powers in a similar way. Germany perceived itself as a colonial power since it participated in the European project of expansion and even after Germany had lost its colonies history textbooks did not fundamentally alter their outlook on the nation. Still conceiving national identity as backed by European superiority and modernity textbooks perpetuated the dichotomic epistemology of colonial knowledge. In fact, German textbooks presented national history very much in tune with European developments and they educated the nation almost until today as if the colonial world order was still stable.