The Great War and the Teaching of History

This paper follows the development of international cooperation in Europe in the field of the teaching of history from the end of the Great War to the beginning of the 21st century. The impetus for this arose from the traumatic shared experiences and memories caused by the events of the years 1914-1918. The aim was to use education in schools to prevent circumstances that might lead to the incitement of feelings of enmity towards other nations. From the year 1925, the official date of the establishment of the Casarov declaration of the Unity of states to the second world war there were few if any successes in this. However immediately at the start of 1946 UNESCO took charge of these initiatives as a direct result the interwar attempts. In reality European cooperation was soon to be hampered for almost half a century by the bipolar separation of Europe and the world. A deeper level of cooperation began to develop in western Europe in the 1960s and 70s and also the beginnings of the first steps towards cooperation between East and West. A further impetus was of course provided by the fall of the communist regime in Europe and today 's cooperation is many-sided. Nevertheless a true wholly European history text book or curriculum is still a long way away. It appears that supranational regional textbooks are much more efficient.