"Mehrheit, Macht, Geschichte"("Majority, Power, History")

Intercultural history lessons for young people

The Anne Frank Zentrum has developed a set of materials and methodology for teaching history in a society open to immigration. It is aimed at teenagers between the ages of 14 and 19 and is suitable both for in-school as well as extracurricular youth education.

Thematically, the material focuses on an examination of history, democracy and human rights, discrimination and racism, intercultural societies and the participation of minorities. Approaches and topics from intercultural youth education are combined with historical and political theory, generating material that contributes to human rights education with a historical focus.

The set of materials is based on a biographical approach as the central method. The material centres around the life stories of seven people and the following topics: nationalism, colonialism, the time of National Socialism, homophobia and Sinti and Roma groups. On the basis of these biographies young people examine the mechanisms of exclusion and racial discrimination.

Nationwide introductory seminars "Mehrheit, Macht, Geschichte" ("Majority, Power, History") consists of a comprehensive book of teaching methods including a DVD costing 29,80 EUR and a youth text book for 11,- EUR. Six of the seven life stories are accompanied by an interview on DVD - either with the person themselves or a relative. These interviews form the starting point of many of the exercises in the teaching book.

The methods are oriented towards experience and action: young people will make personal connections to the presented biographies and they will get ideas they may be able to put into practice themselves. In a day seminar you can get to know a selection of the various methods such as still pictures, role-plays, simulation games, association exercises, painting and surveys. The book of teaching methods and the DVD are multi-media; they contain video interviews, texts, and photos as well as music, poems, images, songs and comics.

The material, the text book and the teaching book are available now. Please note that the material is in German!