A nation's readers: cultural integration and the schoolbook canon in Wilhelmine Germany

• Autores: Katharine Kennedy
• Localización: Paedagogica Historica: International journal of the history of education, ISSN 0030-9230, Vol. 33, Nº. 2, 1997, págs. 459-480
• Idioma: inglés
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• Dialnet Métricas: 1 Cita
• Resumen

  • This article compares the contents of reading books used in the elementary schools ("Volksschulen") of different regions of Imperial Germany around the turn-of-the-century to ask how regionally controlled schools could have contributed to building German national identity. During the decades preceding World War I, children throughout the recently unified "Kaiserreich" read from a shared canon of poems and stories which emphasized themes of community, self-sacrifice, and death, and encouraged emotional ties to the hometown or. region. The most frequently appearing texts in the historical sections of the reading books invoked the medieval empire and featured more Swabians and Saxons than Hohenzollerns, but many geographical and historical reading selections in each book described the locality or region. Reading books for young Germans promoted a national identity based on shared values and loyalty to homeland while acknowledging the varied backgrounds of children in different parts of the nation.