1989: A (Non-)Turning Point for the Polish-German Schoolbook Commission?


Abstrakt

Historical commissions and dialogues of historians have been created in order to foster rapprochement, if not reconciliation. The principle is to create a dialogue about history, and, in a spirit of “reconstructive ethics,” (Ferry) to listen to the other’s viewpoints and therefore to put these visions into perspective. That is exactly what the Polish-German Textbook Commission, created in 1972, has been trying to do after WWII, while the 1970’s constituted a period of growth for such bilateral commissions. The task for the Textbook commission was especially complicated, while the two countries still belonged to two different blocs during the Cold War. It however reached its peak in the 1970’s-1980’s, when the commission was one of the only Polish-German, East-West platform for dialogue. Despite the 1989 revolution, the commission still exists today. But how have the 1989 events affected the commission’s work? Have they been a turning- point toward a completely new reality? My hypothesis is twofold: 1989 implicated few little changes on the short-run, but brought some deeper ones on the long-run. The structure of this article will follow this reasoning. First, I will present the limited changes on the short-run. Second, I will explain the bigger changes that could emerge after 1989. This article is based on data collected for my PhD, especially interviews, archives, participant observations, discourses, the media.


Primary sources

Archives

- Archives of the Land of Low Saxony in Wolfenbüttel. Niedersachsen Staatsarchiv Wolfenbüttel. NLA – Staatsarchiv Wolfenbüttel, 143N Zg. 2009/069 (50/1, 50/2, 161/2, 226, 237/1, 237/2, 254, 267, 445, 438, 377, 235, 236/1, 266, 332/2, 333).

- Archives of the West Institute (Instytut Zachodni) à Poznań. 60.1 to 60.8 ; Zbigniew Kulak’s Documents (1, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 29, 32, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47, 49, 52, 53, 78, 79, 81, 82, 83, 84).

- Archives of the Georg Eckert Institute in Brunswick. Documents of Georg Stöber, Siegfried Bachmann, Wolfgang Jacobmeyer, Elfriede Hillers. Correspondences. Many cartons not specifically identified.

- Archives of New Acts in Warsaw (T2514: T.1, T.2, T.3).

- Archives of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Department PKWiN (18/84, 21-25) ; Department IV Europe (46/84, 45/86, 39/87, 12/88, 44/84, 32/82, 20/79, 45/77).

Interviews

- Interview with Hans-Jürgen Bömelburg, 9 June 2017, Frankfurt (Oder).

- Interview with Włodzimierz Borodziej, 21 July 2015, Warsaw.

- Interview with Roman Czaja, 22 October 2015, Warsaw.

- Interview with Wojciech Kriegseisen, 2 October 2015, Warsaw.

- Interview with Robert Maier, 28 March 2017, Brunswick.

- Interview with Władysław Markiewicz, 8 July 2016, Konstancin-Jeziorna.

- Interview with Michael G. Müller, 12 January 2017, Halle.

- Interview with Krzysztof Ruchniewicz, 16 November 2015, Warsaw.

- Interview with Thomas Strobel, 18 March 2017, Brunswick.

- Interview with Tadeusz Stryjakiewicz, 30 September 2015, Warsaw.

- Interview with Robert Traba, 4 July 2016, Berlin.

- Interview with Robert Traba, 11 January 2017, Berlin.

Media

Bachmann K., “Die Versöhnung muβ von Polen ausgehen”, Die Tageszeitung, 5 August 1994.

Bachmann K., “Niemieccy rewanżyści i polski antysemityzm, czyli kicz pojednania. Marnowane szanse dialogu”, Rzeczpospolita, 22 November 1994.

Hupka H., “Deutsch-polnische Geschichtsklitterung“, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 24 June 1985.

Mahalica Bartosz, “Dwa okresy PRL”, Tygodnik Przegląd, 14 March 2010.

Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft, “Lehrbücher ohne Haβ” and “Vereinbarung zwischen den UNESCO-Kommissionen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Volkrepublik Polen über die Zusammenarbeit auf dem Gebiet der Schulbuchrevision”, Zeitung Erziehung und Wissenschaft 12/72, p.6.

Secondary sources

Books

Becher Ursula A.J., Borodziej W., Ruchniewicz K. (eds), Polska i Niemcy w XX wieku. Wskazówki i materiały do nauczania historii, Poznań, Wydawnictwo Poznańskie, 2001.

Becher Ursula A.J., Borodziej W., Maier R. (eds), Deutschland und Polen im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert. Analysen-Quellen- didaktische Hinweise, Hanover, Verlag Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 2001. [Studien zur Internationalen Schulbuchforschung. Schriftenreihe des Georg-Eckert-Instituts, Band 82/C].

Ferry J.-M., L’éthique reconstructive, Paris, Cerf, 1996.

Guth S., Geschichte als Politik. Der deutsch-polnische Historikerdialog im 20. Jahrhundert, Berlin, De Gruyter Oldenburg, 2015.

Hébert E., Passé(s) recomposé(s). Les commissions d’historiens dans les processus de rapprochement (Pologne-Allemagne, Pologne-Russie), Bruxelles, Peter Lang, 2020.

Markiewicz W., Sto lat przeciw głupocie. Rozmowa z przyjaciółmi Pawłem Kozłowskim i Jerzym Słabickim, Cracow, Universitas, 2016.

Müller M.G., Schönnemann B., Wawrykowa M., Die “Polen-Debatte” in der Frankfurter Paulskirche. Darstellung, Lernziele, Materialen, Verlag Moritz Diesterweg, Frankfurt, 1995 [Studien zur Internationalen Schulbuchforschung. Schriftenreihe des Georg-Eckert-Instituts, Band 82/BII]

Strobel T., Transnationale Wissenschafts- und Verhandlungskultur. Die Gemeinsame Deutsch-Polnische Schulbuchkommission 1972-1990, Göttingen, V&R unipress, 2015.

Traba R., Hahn H.-H. (eds with Górny M. and Kończał K.), Polsko-niemieckie miejsca pamięci, tom 4. Refleksje metodologiczne, Warsaw, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, 2013.

Traba R., Hahn H.-H. (eds with Górny M. and Kończał K.), Deutsch-polnische Erinnerungsorte, 4 vol., Paderborn, Ferdinand Schöningh, 2012-2015.

Articles and Book Chapters

Bachmann K., “Die Versöhnung muβ von Polen ausgehen”, in: Hahn H.-H., Hein-Kircher H., Kochanowska-Nieborak A. (eds), Erinnerungskultur und Versöhnungskitsch, Marburg, Verlag Herder-Institut, 2008, pp.17-20.

Borodziej W., “The German-Polish Textbook Dialogue”, in: Horvat A., Hielscher G., (eds), Sharing the Burden of the Past: Legacies of War in Europe, America, and Asia, Tokyo, The Asia Foundation, Japan Office, 2003, pp.35-42.

Hébert E., “La commission polono-allemande d’historiens, version XXIe siècle : problématiques anciennes, défis nouveaux”, L’Allemagne d’aujourd’hui, no.228, April-June 2019 – special issue “Allemagne-Pologne au XXIe siècle : une normalisation inachevée ?”, edited by SERRIER Thomas and WEBER Pierre- Frédéric, 2019, pp.70-81.

Laurens S., “’1974’ et la fermeture des frontières. Analyse critique d'une décision érigée en turning-point”, Politix, vol. 82, no. 2, 2008, pp. 69-94.

Ricoeur P., “Quel éthos nouveau pour l’Europe?”, in: KOSLOWSKI Peter (ed.), Imaginer l’Europe. Le marché intérieur européen, tâche culturelle et économique, Paris, Cerf, 1992, pp.107-116.

Ruchniewicz K., “Why We Still Need Textbook Commissions? Wozu noch Schulbuchkommissionnen? Czy komisje podręcznikowe są jeszcze potrzebne?”, Public History Weekly, vol.12, nr3, 2015, 16 April 2015.

Serrier T., “Allemagne-Pologne: partager les mémoires. L’entreprise des Lieux de mémoire germano-polonais (2012-2015)”, L’Allemagne d’aujourd’hui, nr228, April-June 2019, pp.93-106.

Exposés

Markiewicz W., conference “Das Konzentrationslager Mauthausen”, Vienna, 2 December 1995, quoted in: GEI Informationen, nr30, 1995.

Schmidt J., “Auf Giftsuche in Büchern. Deutsche und polnische Historiker sichten den Lehrstoff gemeinsam”, Kölner Stadtzeiger, 15/16 April 1972, quoted in: GEI Informationen, nr30, 1995.

Online resources

Polish-German Textbook Commission, page on conferences: http://deutsch-polnische.schulbuchkommission.de/aufgaben/themenkonferenzen.html (consulted on 1 November 2017).

Polish-German Textbook commission, page on former members: http://deutsch-polnische.schulbuchkommission.de/pl/czlonkowie/byli-czlonkowie.html (consulted on 23 November 2017).

Fine Arts

Szymborska W., “The End and the Beginning”, translated by J. Trzeciak. The full poem is available in English on the website “Poetry Foundation”: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52955/the-end-and-the-beginning (consulted on 19 June 2020).


Opublikowane : 2020-12-17


Hébert, E. (2020). 1989: A (Non-)Turning Point for the Polish-German Schoolbook Commission?. Rocznik Polsko-Niemiecki, (28), 139-153. https://doi.org/10.35757/RPN.2020.28.16

Emmanuelle Hébert  emmanuelle.hebert@coleurope.eu
University of Louvain  Belgia
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2275-5490