뉴스레터

Braunschweig in Germany, located between Hanover to Berlin, is a small city with churches, a city hall, and other beautiful buildings constructed during the Middle Ages. I visit this city often to go to the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research for my annual research project and academic conferences.

There was a special international symposium at the Institute on May 4-5. The symposium was in commemoration of the retirement of Dr. Falk Pingel, who had worked at the Institute as a researcher for 26 years from 1983 and served as the deputy director for 16 years thereafter. He was a theorist and practitioner who linked scholarly research with activities related to political education. He also organized projects and served as mediator in order to bring about reconciliation in those areas of the world embroiled in major historical disputes.

Pingel was born in Danzig (Gdansk), Poland in 1944. The year after he was born, his family evacuated/emigrated to Hamburg, Germany. Thereafter, he studied and majored in philosophy, ancient Greek, and history in Hamburg, Gottingen, and Heidelberg. One of the most significant events in his life was meeting his teacher Reinhardt Koselleck, a highly influential scholar in conceptual history and the philosophy of history. He is also of the 68er-Bewegung (1968 German student movement) generation, which took issue with and sought to break the silence of its previous generation concerning Germany's Nazi past. These two factors shaped Pingel's life as a historian.

Falk Pingel: Theorist and practitioner of historical reconciliation

For Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, it was a stroke of good fortune that Pingel joined the Institute in 1983. As a member of the 68er-Bewegung generation, Pingel was acutely conscious of Germany's historical crimes and demanded nothing but the most thorough historical reflection and repentance. He also possessed an exceptional sense of balance that enabled him to always successfully overcome the gap between theory and practice in political education. These are the very skills and qualities with which a researcher at the Institute needs to be equipped. Pingel pursued and successfully led many important projects at the Institute. The international symposium in May was an opportunity to look back on the projects related to historical conflicts that Pingel had led or in which he had made significant contributions.

The overarching theme of the symposium was "Competing Interpretations of History: Controversies surrounding Textbooks and School Curricula." At the first session of the symposium, held in the morning of May 4, historians from Israel and Palestine reported on the two countries' experiences of hope and disappointment regarding text book dialogue in a situation of open conflict. The second session in the afternoon centered on the achievements and challenges of the intervention of foreign experts in mediating historical disputes in southeastern Europe. Pingel had played a role in bringing peace education in Sarajevo as the education director of the delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSZE). The theme of the third session was "Which Historical Interpretation Prevails?: Successes and Failures of Textbook Dialogue in Moldova, South Africa, and East Asia." I was the only scholar invited from East Asia. I presented on the progress on and limitations of textbook dialogue in East Asia.

At first night's dinner, Director Simone Lassig of the Institute, after briefly welcoming the participants of the symposium, presented Pingel with a special book--a compilation of Pingel's papers published as a book. Next, Professor Hanna Schissler, who had joined the Institute the year before Pingel, retraced his life and paid tribute to his achievements. (Much of this article draws from Schissler's speech). The following morning, there were presentations and discussions on the changes in the West's perception of the Orient from a historical and philosophical perspective. In the afternoon, there were interesting presentations and discussions on the issue of history education on Nazism. There was an introduction to the education program on Nazism in Austria that began belatedly in the 1980s. Another presentation shed light on the significance of onsite education--i.e., tours of Nazi concentration camps.

All the themes treated over the two-day symposium were related to projects that Pingel had pursued with a sense of duty and commitment over the past four and a half decades. The presenters had become close friends with Pingel in the course of promoting projects for reconciliation in regions around the world entangled in historical conflicts. Through their speeches, the presenters expressed their appreciation for the intellectual stimulus and guidance Pingel had provided them as well as for Pingel's steadfast dedication to peace in Europe.

Love and Respect for an Intellectually-Stimulating Senior Scholar

Pingel led the "Europe in Textbooks" project, supported by Italy's Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli. He also wrote an important report entitled "The European Home: Representations of 20th Century Europe in History Textbooks" (2000), with support from the Council of Cultural Co-operation of the Council of Europe. Pingel is the author of the UNESCO Guidebook on Textbook Research and Revision, considered the bible on the methodologies of international textbook research. He recently published a revised version of this handbook. His also had deep ties with East Asia. He visited Korea and Japan many times for academic conferences and he had also lectured as a visiting professor in Shanghai, China. In 2006, the Institute hosted a joint Korea-Germany academic conference entitled "Unification and History Education" with support from the Academy of Korean Studies. And of course, it was Pingel who had come up the idea.

The second day of the conference also happened to be Pingel's birthday. The farewell party, which started at 7:30 in the evening, was an interesting experience that revealed just how genuinely Pingel's colleagues respect and love him. Dr. Robert Maier, the eastern Europe expert at the Institute, presented a witty parody of the 9 o'clock news of Germany's ZDF broadcasting with a picture of Pingel's face superimposed on various historical figures. He then presented Pingel a copy of the parody on a CD. Dr. Georg Stober, who is in charge of geography education, edited and parodied famous editorial cartoons and newspaper commentaries to demonstrate just how massive the scope of Pingel's research projects and activities had been.

The women staff edited photos of Pingel at work, leading many of the Institute's academic conferences, and photos and videos of Pingel at Institute parties and picnics and presented them with entertaining narration. They also made a funny song detailing various episodes involving Pingel and sang it at the party. There was also an exciting disco dance fest. Pingel's colleagues had put a lot of effort and thought into making his farewell party a memorable and fun one, and it was something truly beautiful to witness.