The U.S. and Canada are frequently chastised for how poorly they describe indigenous history and slavery in public schools. How does Germany teach Nazi history, and how has it changed over time?

by [deleted]

[deleted]

Chris2pher2

I'm breaching the 20-year limit here on my first post, but I think it would be worthwhile elaborating on my personal experience having grown up in Germany and ventured through the 12-year school system in the state of Bavaria from 2002-2014. Judging from my personal experience, no single historical topic is discussed more in-depth in secondary-school history class than the Holocaust and the Nazi rise to power. Looking back into German history curricula (which are determined by state), Nazism is discussed twice throughout secondary school. First in 8th or 9th grade, then again in 11th or 12th grade. The focus in both years is the Nazi rise to power and Nazi crimes against humanity/war crimes. Actual battle history of World War 2 is barely discussed at all. I will be going more in-depth on how the history of Nazism is taught in Bavaria, since that is the state I am most familiar with.

Nazism is first discussed in 9th grade in Bavaria, history class starts in 6th grade and moves chronologically through time from year to year, with 6h grade dedicated mostly to antiquity, 7th grade to the (European)Middle Ages, 7th grade to the Reformation and Early Modern Age, 8th Grade to the Enlightenment, Industrialization and WW1 and finally 9th grade going into the Third Reich and the Cold War. As caveat, I must say that the German secondary school system (starting in 4th grade) is divided into 3 tiers (Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium), with only the top tier going up to 12th grade. My comment here refers only to the top tier, which around 40% of students in Bavaria attend.

In 9th grade history class, the portion on World War 2 and National Socialism make up the greatest portion of the year. Students learn about the Nazi Rise to power, particularly how Hitler dismantled parliamentary democracy and the judiciary. It also breaks down Nazi race-based ideology, life in the Third Reich, Nazi crimes against humanity, with a particular focus on the persecution of Jews, details of Nazi war crimes and even takes care to disprove arguments made by Neo Nazis and Holocaust deniers who refuse to acknowledge the Holocaust. Customarily, 9th grade classes in Munich(where I went to school) will visit Dachau concentration camp, which left a deep impression on me and many members of my class at the time.

History class takes up Germany's Nazi past again in the second semester of 11th grade, titled "Issues in German history in the 20th century". It is mostly dedicated to a discussion of failures in the Weimar Republic, the Holocaust, how the Nazis managed to co-opt most of the German population and finally goes into the Cold War as well. The material discussed in this class is more in-depth and granular, analyzing the problems inherent in the Weimar Republic (which preceded the Nazis) and the development of the Nazi party and Hitler's biography in that period (the 1920s/early 30s). Next, the curriculum deals with the thorny question of how involved the "general" German population was in Nazi crimes. It maps out the history of Antisemitism in Germany, dating back to the Middle Ages and how that made Germans more susceptible to Nazi ideology, as well as the sense of shame and anger Germans felt after WW1, the treaty of Versailles, the economic turmoil of the 1920s and finally the Great Depression of the early 30s. However, teaching curriculum also states that Germans in the 1930s were not merely deceived by Nazi propaganda but that most were receptive to the Nazi vision of a "national community" and latched on to Nazi defamation of Jews, Communists, Homosexuals etc., both actively and passively. Our teacher made clear that almost all Germans at the time knew of the Jewish persecution to an extent, even if that extreme magnitude (death camps like Aushwitz) may not have been known to all.

As a final note, I contend that there exists a sense of a collective German consciousness of the holocaust throughout German society. The vast majority of Germans age 10 and above are aware of the unparalleled crimes against humanity and the tyrannical dictatorship that was perpetrated by the Nazis. There are still remaining artifacts of an attempt to exonerate "the average German" and separate the "general population" from the Nazis. For instance, one of my friends in school who knew his grandfather had been in the SS would consistently tell me that, though his grandfather may have been in the SS, he was only responsible for writing his superior officers personal letters. Given that the Nazis were sending 12-year old kids to fight by the end of the war that seems highly questionable. I have also heard anecdotally that immediately after WW2, schools continued to use Nazi science textbooks that had all direct text references to Nazi ideology "blacked out". I think somebody more qualified than me should comment on how Germany has taught history in the past, particularly differences between curricula in West- and East Germany.

TL,DR: There is comprehensive discussion of Nazism and Nazi crimes against humanity in the German secondary school education system.

Sources:

Official Bavarian History Class Curriculum in Gymanisum (the top secondary school tier) 8th grade http://www.isb-gym8-lehrplan.de/contentserv/3.1.neu/g8.de/index.php?StoryID=26818 11th grade http://www.isb-gym8-lehrplan.de/contentserv/3.1.neu/g8.de/index.php?StoryID=26228 (it's in German but you could try translating it in browser)

Saxony (a different German state) History curriculum: https://www.schule.sachsen.de/lpdb/web/downloads/lp_gy_geschichte_2011.pdf?v2

P.S.:Please forgive any grammar and spelling mistakes, this is my first reddit post and I have not figured out how to type in a boz that displays more than 5 lines and spans only half the web page.