EU Projekt: MDM project

Internet: http://www.mdm-project.net/index.html

„Mensch - Denk - Mal“

Auseinandersetzung mit Kriegsdenkmälern und Kriegsspuren in Deutschland und europäischen Nachbarländern

 Projektzusammenfassung:

 Das Projekt ist über einen Zeitraum von drei Jahren gelaufen. Im ersten Jahr erfolgte eine umfassende Bestandsaufnahme der Denkmalstopographie der Schulorte, im zweiten Jahr eine umfassendere Analyse der Denkmäler in Bezug zu ihrer Entstehungsgeschichte und ihrer gegenwärtigen Bedeutung. Vor allem die unterschiedliche Bedeutung der dokumentierten Ereignisse und Personen (-gruppen) für die Menschen vor Ort und für die jeweiligen Partner bzw. der Bedeutungswechsel zwischen Entstehungszeit und Gegenwart ist untersucht werden. Im letzten Jahr ist an der Ideen und an Ansätzen für gemeinsame europäisches Denkmäler der Kriege gearbeitet worden, welche Bei Ausstellungen in verschiedenen ländern präsentiert wurden

Ausstellungen und Veranstaltungen im Forum Stadtgeschichte

des Museums Goch/Niederrhein

4.6. bis 5.9.2004

MDM - Mensch-Denk-Mal

Entwurf für ein europäisches Denkmal

Schirmherrin: Ute Schäfer, Ministerin für Schule, Jugend und Kinder des Landes NRW

Seit Oktober 2001 beschäftigen sich Schülerinnen und Schüler aus 11 europäischen Ländern, darunter auch Schülerinnen und Schüler der Herbststraße, mit dem Thema: Krieg und Frieden in Europa - Gemeinsames Erinnern an schmerzvolle und oft trennende Ereignisse der gemeinsamen europäischen Geschichte.

Im Rahmen und mit Mitteln des Sokrates Projektes der Europäischen Union wurde das Schulprojekt Mensch-Denkmal-Mensch (MDM) unterstützt von den Instituten der Lehraus- und Fortbildung sowie den nationalen Universitäten.

Ziel des MDM-Projektes ist es, einen Beitrag zur interkulturellen Friedenserziehung zu leisten. Die gemeinsame Zukunft kann nur gestalten, wer die gemeinsame Vergangenheit kennt. Vielen Schülern sind die Denkmäler ihrer näheren Heimat erst durch das gemeinsame Arbeiten ins Bewusstsein gerückt. Es ist typisch für Denkmäler, dass man weiß, wo sie stehen, aber das man nur selten weiß, wofür sie stehen. Lehrer und Schüler gemeinsam, erforschen so die Geschichte ihrer Region und lernen durch die Zusammenarbeit mit Kollegen und Gleichaltrigen aus den anderen Ländern, dass Geschichte nicht nur durch eine nationale Brille gesehen werden kann, sondern dass man auch zu gemeinsamen Bewertungen schmerzlicher Ereignisse aus der gemeinsamen europäischen Vergangenheit kommen kann.

Die umfangreichen Ergebnisse der Zusammenarbeit sind auf der Website http://www.mdm-project.net mit zahlreichen Multimediaelementen dargestellt. Während der Arbeit gab es zahlreiche Begegnungen der Institute und der Schulen, um das Projekt zu realisieren. Schüler und Lehrer trafen sich darüber hinaus regelmäßig zu Chatkonferenzen im Internet, um die Ergebnisse zu diskutieren.

Wesentlicher Bestandteil der Projektidee war die abschließende Visualisierung der Ergebnisse in einer umfangreichen Ausstellung.

Dem Museum Goch gelang es, auf Anregung der Greco-Transfestelle Kleve, diese einzigartige Ausstellung als erstes Museum zu zeigen. Später soll die Ausstellung noch in Österreich und Italien gezeigt werden.

Aus ganz Europa kommen am 6. Juni 2004 fünfundzwanzig große, geheimnisvolle Kisten ins Museum Goch: aus Litauen und Spanien, aus den Niederlanden und Bulgarien, Griechenland und Polen, Ungarn und Deutschland, Italien, Spanien und Slowenien. Als einer der Höhepunkte dieser internationalen Projektarbeit tragen nun die beteiligten Schulen ihren Teil zu einem gemeinsamen Denkmal bei, in dem über die Erfahrungen mit dem Thema Krieg und Frieden reflektiert wird.

Die großen Kisten dienen nicht nur als Transportbehältnis, sie stellen vielmehr ein gestaltendes Element dieser Ausstellung dar, mit dem jede Schule auf sehr individuelle Weise umgeht.

Der europäische Projektleiter Norbert Krebs sagt zur Projektidee von MDM: "Die Zukunft kann nur gestalten, wer die Vergangenheit kennt." In der Projektarbeit gelang es, schmerzliche Ereignisse der gemeinsamen Geschichte gemeinsam zu reflektieren und zu bewerten.

In diesem Sinne verstehen wir die erstmalige Präsentation als ein Beitrag für die europäische Verständigung, nicht zuletzt im Jahr der Osterweiterung, in dem 10 neue Mitgliedstaaten der Europäischen Union beitreten, von denen einige an dem Projekt beteiligt sind.

Die Bedeutung des Themas und der Ausstellung wird auch dadurch unterstrichen, dass die Ministerin für Schule, Jugend und Kinder des Landes NRW, Frau Ute Schäfer, die Schirmherrschaft für die Ausstellung übernommen hat.

Museum Goch

Katalog / pädagogisches Material
Handbuch für 15 Unterrichtsmodule

English, MDM project:

This project is conceived as a contribution to the development of European Citizenship. This is to be achieved through a contribution to the development of a European dimension in the study of history. Common issues can be brought to the fore without leaving out others that are individual to each country.

The concrete results of the project work are meant to help widen the educational curriculum. Resources on memorial topography and suggestions/ hand-outs for teachers will be developed and tested for use in school lessons (methods and teaching strategies). These will also be of use for INSET and further education of teachers and other school staff.

The project is planned over a period of three years.

In the first year an inventory of memorials in the regions of the schools will be compiled.

In the second year an extensive analysis of the origins of the memorials and their present meaning and value will follow. In particular the project will evaluate and assess the meaning of the memorials to the community today, and how much that meaning has changed over time.

In its final year a common European (war/ peace) memorial will be developed in conjunction with artists, the results of which can be exhibited in museums of all the participant countries.

The concrete aims and contents of the MDM project are as follows:

• To make a contribution to the development of European Citizenship.
• To work towards the development of a European dimension in the treatment of history (Common issues can be foregrounded without leaving out others that are individual to each country).
• To combine local, regional and European history in the context of the National Curriculum
• To enable teachers to develop approaches that move from a local/ regional experience to a European one, so that local and regional history can be recognised and classified as a part of European history, and local events can be understood in a European context
• To enable pupils to see, to understand and to interpret aesthetic sculptures, to be aware of their effect, to recognize the pictorial properties and historical aspects of these memorials, to question the need for these memorials and to consider whether they still have a meaning in the new Europe
• To develop approaches that will analyse the effect of such memorials and historical experiences on the school children of today
• To develop strategies to allow pupils to compare memorials and attitudes towards them through contact with other partners across Europe
• To develop strategies to make pupils more aware of the experience of other countries in this context
• To examine common aspects of local and regional history
• To encourage interdisciplinary working methods in History, Art, Politics and Literature
• As a final outcome, to consider the design of a common European memorial based on the common features that the project has identified.

During the first year of the project the central focus will be to compile comprehensive documentation of the memorials in the participating regions. At the same time members will begin to develop teaching materials for use by teachers. A web site will be set up to disseminate such material.
During the second year of the project there will be a broader consideration of the historical context of the memorials. Teaching materials will also be completed. Central to this phase will be an examination of the meaning of war memorials to people of today.
In the third year two activities in particular will be concentrated upon: Firstly the partners will consider designs for a common alternative European ‘peace memorial’ and what kind of work of art this might be. Secondly, teaching materials will be further developed and tested. It is intended that some of the material will be trialed in the course of European teacher training. The materials will also be externally evaluated by pedagogic specialists. Finally, the design for a peace memorial, together with the documentation, teaching materials and project results, will be presented to all partners’ countries and others in a mobile travelling exhibition. It is, however, essential that the project’s results and activities should be disseminated throughout the duration of the project and beyond.

The activities have been specifically planned to cover three years. The period of one year is too brief to encompass all the planned activities of the project : the development of a web site, collection of memorial documentation, design of a CD-ROM, school-based and ITT materials and the overall planning of the course.

The work of the project is conceived to be pupil-oriented and interdisciplinary. In addition to this the participating schools will be able to establish contacts through cooperation with museums, archives and libraries, local history societies, and other local and regional interested groups. It is intended that the results will be retained in the participating schools’ curricula and programmes. It will also contribute to ICT, since all teachers and pupils involved will be trained in the use of ICT by using electronic means of communication and constructing multimedia materials. Consideration of the memorials opens up new and different ways of using history in the classroom. The design of the peace memorial is seen as a special and very important part of the project (reflected in the financial frame) in changing the role of teachers and pupils from passive observers to active creators.

The following procedures play a role in this project:

• Construction of a topography of all war memorials situated in the schools’ region, and the creation of a map with the location of all memorials in the region. Photography of the memorials, measurement and description and research on their origins. For whom was the memorial constructed? What were the reasons behind it and the date? Who paid for its construction? What is its local significance? What ceremonies and traditions are connected with it? Who was the artist/ sculptor and the builder?
• Documentation of the events commemorated by the memorial: What action in which war is remembered? Which individuals or groups are mentioned or portrayed? From whose point of view are the events portrayed?
• Description of the memorial’s history. Examination of changes in meaning. Has the memorial grown or diminished in significance? What is the state of it today ? Is the memorial in a good or poor state of preservation ? Has it been restored? If so, when and by whom? What kind of restoration has taken place? Why ?Description of the memorials’ characteristics. Consideration of ideas of how to construct a European memorial or to reshape an existing one.
• Exchange with partner schools. Finding out about parallels and contrasts. How would my neighbour see this memorial? How do other countries evaluate the event which is commemorated on the memorial?
• Introduction and exercises in methods of ODL. Construction of internet pages (production of web capable pictures, texts, videos, etc). Introduction to uploading to web sites (FTP-process).
• Reduction of language barriers to facilitate a common European dialogue. Introduction to ‘Internet-English’. Construction of a multilingual glossary. Using all mother tongues of participants (the main language of the project will be English, but web sites will always be written in English and in the language of its author/ writer.)
• Consideration of the gender balance. Girls in particular will be trained in the new technologies.
• Construction of teaching materials for lessons in Art , Politics, Literature and History. Inclusion of familiar and significant war memorials, the history of war memorials and important war pictures such as those of Goya and Picasso in school lessons.
• A European workshop of teachers, pupils, artists and historians working towards the construction of a European peace memorial.

Teachers and pupils from 24 schools and 6 countries will be the project partners as an active group. They will present their results to all teachers and pupils from their schools and later to all schools near them. Through cooperation with museums, local history societies, libraries and archives the amount of available information on a local and regional level will be broadened, by the involvement of people outside the school. Public exhibitions will help to disseminate the information and news of the project to a wider audience.

Since the mobile peace memorial will be available to other countries after the end of the project, perhaps via the European teachers’ further education program, it will be necessary to look for sponsors to fund exhibition space in other countries.

The project will supply teachers with documentation of memorial topography and teaching materials suitable for school lessons, which aim at the possibility of creating a new European historical consciousness. Pupils will have direct (electronic) contact with persons of the same age across Europe. The results are intended to be integrated in the European teachers’ further education programme, which will begin in the third project year and will include other teachers from all European countries. Through exhibitions and co-operation with museums, local history societies, libraries and archives the aim is to include the wider public.

The project partners see the following elements of the work as innovative. Teachers work out new procedures for iconography and iconology, as well as aesthetic procedures for the analysis of memorials, new kinds of interpretative work, co-operation between artists and other young Europeans in the design of a public memorial . The latter is a central focus of the planned teachers’ further education as well. The travelling exhibition can be seen as schools actively contributing to society and will be a good example of European collaborative work.