German children: What do they know about the Berlin Wall?
Frankfurt, Germany - Yesterday, Marlene Muehlmann saw the Berlin Wall tumble down.
Along with tens of thousands of young people from around the world, she decorated one of 1,000 giant dominoes erected along the strip that once divided East and West Germany and then toppled to commemorate the end of the cold war.
"I knew everything already, how the border was," says Marlene, a 9th-grader who lives in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg, not far from where the wall was."The parents in half the class had something to do with it." She knew that her mother had been barred from taking her high school exam because of her parents' church activities. She knew, too, that her friend's grandfather was put in jail when he tried to escape, only to be denounced by a friend. [Editor's note: The original misstated how her mother left East Germany.]...
... In the Black Forest village of Ichenheim, near the French border, Tobias Geiser knew little of his country's eastern half until his teacher sent him on a historical scavenger hunt. After months of interviews, he and fellow students built a Trivial Pursuit of sorts about the German Democratic Republic's (GDR) history.
His verdict?"The wall still exists in people's heads," says Tobias, whose project won third place in a national history competition"We hope that that can happen if the economy in the east improves."
Study: Kids have rosy view of east
Last year, a study stunned Germans by revealing not only how little youths know of the GDR, but how many still view it as a cozy, socially just society. Two decades after unification, children's views of their country's second dictatorship still hinges on whether they grew up in the east or in the west.
"We still have a country that's divided into two," says Monika Deutz-Schroeder, co-author of"Social Paradise or Stasi State? The GDR seen by schoolchildren – an East-West comparison."
Conducted with 5,219 schoolchildren in Berlin, Brandenburg, Bavaria, and North Rhine Westphalia, Ms. Deutz-Schroeder's survey showed the disparities: Only 57 percent of young people from East Germany approved of the Federal Republic's political system as opposed to 83 percent from West Germany...
... History minus the ideology
Experts tend to agree that too little time is devoted to teaching GDR history – but note that it typically takes two decades for history to be absorbed and taught without ideological twists.
"Until the wall came down, there was no GDR history that wasn't ideologically tainted," Professor Moser says."We need teaching materials."
Read entire article at The Christian Science Monitor
Along with tens of thousands of young people from around the world, she decorated one of 1,000 giant dominoes erected along the strip that once divided East and West Germany and then toppled to commemorate the end of the cold war.
"I knew everything already, how the border was," says Marlene, a 9th-grader who lives in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg, not far from where the wall was."The parents in half the class had something to do with it." She knew that her mother had been barred from taking her high school exam because of her parents' church activities. She knew, too, that her friend's grandfather was put in jail when he tried to escape, only to be denounced by a friend. [Editor's note: The original misstated how her mother left East Germany.]...
... In the Black Forest village of Ichenheim, near the French border, Tobias Geiser knew little of his country's eastern half until his teacher sent him on a historical scavenger hunt. After months of interviews, he and fellow students built a Trivial Pursuit of sorts about the German Democratic Republic's (GDR) history.
His verdict?"The wall still exists in people's heads," says Tobias, whose project won third place in a national history competition"We hope that that can happen if the economy in the east improves."
Study: Kids have rosy view of east
Last year, a study stunned Germans by revealing not only how little youths know of the GDR, but how many still view it as a cozy, socially just society. Two decades after unification, children's views of their country's second dictatorship still hinges on whether they grew up in the east or in the west.
"We still have a country that's divided into two," says Monika Deutz-Schroeder, co-author of"Social Paradise or Stasi State? The GDR seen by schoolchildren – an East-West comparison."
Conducted with 5,219 schoolchildren in Berlin, Brandenburg, Bavaria, and North Rhine Westphalia, Ms. Deutz-Schroeder's survey showed the disparities: Only 57 percent of young people from East Germany approved of the Federal Republic's political system as opposed to 83 percent from West Germany...
... History minus the ideology
Experts tend to agree that too little time is devoted to teaching GDR history – but note that it typically takes two decades for history to be absorbed and taught without ideological twists.
"Until the wall came down, there was no GDR history that wasn't ideologically tainted," Professor Moser says."We need teaching materials."