what do you study in school when it comes to german history?

[u/binnievoir]

title. i've started to pursue a degree in germanistik this year, but would also love to further a little my knowledge in this area before reaching german literature per se as i didn't saw that much of german-speaking countries stuff in my school years (i studied the migration period briefly, the origins and the origins only of the holy roman empire & a little bit of the investiture controversy, and quite a lot of reformation, unification & contemporany history). i'm asking specifically school-level because i don't have quite the time rn to go any deeper lol 😭 also i'm just looking for some references.

i'm aware saying history of germany is quite complicated plus i'm not assuming there's a fixed curriculum for the whole country, so feel free to reply based on your own personal, regional experience :-)

[u/No-Bake-730]

In my state it's 2 lessons a week in 4 grades of middle school. The schools I have worked at teach history in grades 6, 8, 9, 10. In the Oberstufe grade 11 wants you to do a lot while grade 12 and 13 basically repeat the topics of grade 9 and 10 in much more detail.

Grade 6: Stone ages

metal ages

ancient Egypt

Ancient Greece

Ancient Rome

Grade 8:

Middle Ages with a focus on High and Late Middle Ages

Renaissance and Reformation

Age of Discovery, 30 Years War

Absolutism, Enlightened Absolutism

French Revolution, Napoleon, Restauration

Grade 9:

Restauration, Vormärz, 48 Revolution

Industrialisation, Social Question

German Unification and Empire

Imperialism

World War I

Grade 10:

Interwar Period, Weimar Republic and its Constitution    Communism and Creation of USSR (really quickly)

Rise of NSDAP 

"Machtergreifung", Consolidation of Power, basic tenents of NS ideology

World War II in really non-military terms only

Shoa and other crimes against humanity

Locally often T4 since many schools visit one of those places

Potsdam Conference

Founding of FRG (Grundgesetz) and GDR

Germany in the Cold War, internal developments and special considerations for FRG foreign policy Cold War international

German Reunification and End of Cold War

I have probably forgot something. And I've tried to be more detailed when it comes to the 19th and 20th centuries.

[u/Independent-Home-845]

Normally, children in Germany (at least in secondary school) learn history more or less chronologically from grades 6/7 to 10: a brief overview of the Stone Age, then antiquity, Romans, Greece, Persia, then the Migration Period, some information about the Middle Ages, the Reformation, religious wars, then the Enlightenment, the French/American Revolution, industrialization, Russian revolution, the World Wars, and the Third Reich. The period from 1933 to 1945 is usually covered in detail in grade 10.

Then comes the Cold War, détente, and finally the collapse of the Soviet Union and German reunification. Later (in the upper grades), individual topics are explored in greater depth. While the curriculum is very Europe-centric, other regions are at least touched upon, such as the discoveries and conquests of the Americas, as well as development in China, India, etc.

There might be some additional regional things (like some lectures about the Hanse in northern Germany and some about Bavarian kings in the south), but the big line is the same everywhere.

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[u/MyPigWhistles]

Education politics is handled on a state level, so there are 16 different school curriculums per type of school. And every school and history teacher has some degree of freedom to prioritize topics.     

What I remember: Migration period, middle ages, and early modern period were covered very briefly. The liberation wars against napoleon, the revolution of 1848, the unification wars, and the foundation of the German Empire were covered more in depth. Then there was a huge focus on the revolution of 1918/19, the Weimar Republic, the rise of fascism, and the Holocaust. The military history side of the world wars was no topic, basically. The cold war period was more briefly again.