Landeskunde in Lehrwerken - über ein Land erzählen oder ein Land erzählen?

Abstract

Classical cultural studies, or 'Landeskunde', as it has been known since the first textbooks on teaching German as a foreign language, tells its readers a lot about a country, initially in a cognitive manner, and later also through an intercultural and communicative approach. Alongside historical events like the fall of the Berlin wall, aspects of everyday life and culture have come into focus, as is evidenced by the existence of many texts about food in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (commonly known as DACH). These classical approaches to 'Landeskunde' are challenged in this essay by arguing that 'Landeskunde' is often transmitted implicitly, through the protagonists of the textbooks and the stories they tell – therefore, 'Landeskunde' is also people's studies. It is in these stories that a country is told. Are German textbooks still dominated by "young, dynamic, cheerful people of different origins" (Funk 2004: 41, translated by the author) that "principally belong to a prosperous bourgeois middle class" (Altmayer 2017: 17, translated by the author)? What are the stories about German-speaking countries that they tell? How is the discursive approach to 'Landeskunde' being implemented? These questions are discussed in this essay with reference to current German-language textbooks, with a focus on three new books on the A1/A2 levels.