One History for Europe

Adolf Muschg, Swiss author, German scholar, philosopher and former President of the Berlin Academy of the Arts, campaigned for a common History of Europe at a meeting of the EU Ministers of Education in Heidelberg. "I find that a fantastic idea," said the author: "That is a project that will certainly demand even greater maturity of the cultural players." The idea met with the approval of several delegations. On the other hand, a more critical attitude was voiced by, among others, the representatives of Poland and the Netherlands.

The current debate on a common history book was triggered by Germany's Minister of Education, Annette Schavan. As a model in this context, she referred to German-French project for a book on the History of Europe, which is now being used in schools. Speaking to her fellow ministers from the 26 EU Member States and a number of neighbouring countries, Ms. Schavan said this was a way of emphasising "the values and common perspectives" of Europeans.

 The initiative for the Franco-German "History of Europe" originated from banker Frédéric Delouche almost 20 years ago. He also headed the Commission that elaborated a first version of the "experiment" at that time. In 1992, Alfred Grosser called the project "simply revolutionary". The Commission consisted of twelve historians from twelve European countries. Dieter Tiemann, then one of the co-authors, said: "For a long time, we acted as though the whole of history was the history of the nations and the nation states. We are still under the spell of these nation-state notions, and overcoming them is not exactly easy." The associated difficulties are revealed in almost every detail. From the English point of view, for example, Sir Francis Drake is a "hero", whereas the French see him as a simple freebooter and gangster. Charlemagne was a "German" emperor to the Germans, and a "French" emperor to the French. Views regarding Napoleon differ just as greatly as those on the Portuguese and Spanish voyages of discovery, or the assessment of the World Wars of the 20th century.

 Adolf Muschg will address this subject in one way or the other at the culture.powers.europe Congress. His topic in Berlin on 7 June: "How Does Europe Make Use of the Opportunities of its Cultural Diversity?".