뉴스레터

Editor's Note: Dr. Eckhardt Fuchs is the assistant director of the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, an organization dedicated to the production and research of common history textbooks for the greater goal of historical reconciliation. During his recent visit to Korea for a month as a visiting scholar at the NAHF, Dr. Fuchs talked with Kim Min-kyu, Director of the Office of Public Relations at the NAHF.

Kim It's a great pleasure to have you, the assistant director of the Georg Eckert Institute (GEI) for International Textbook Research (Georg-Eckert Institut fur Internationale Schulbuchforschung), at the Northeast Asian History Foundation as a visiting scholar for research, although for a short period of time. Please tell us briefly about your institute.

Fuchs The GEI is a research institute dedicated to the research of textbooks in countries around the world, with the ultimate goal of achieving 'historical reconciliation.' The GEI houses about 200,000 textbooks from all over the world and related materials, and systematically maintain and constantly update them. Researchers of textbooks from countries around the world, including Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Japan, are engaged in various forms of academic projects and exchange activities, as well as joint research.

Kim Please tell us more specifically about the GEI's major missions and activities.

Fuchs The GEI's major mission is to figure out how to provide useful services for general researchers. For example, in order to provide useful information, the GEI does things like establishing 'information infrastructure,' turning textbooks digital and providing them online, or putting the list of textbook-related references or books on the Web. The GEI also hosts various international conferences, as does the Northeast Asian History Foundation, in order to sort out "affairs" concerning international textbooks. Another role the GEI takes on is that of an arbitrator between countries that often find themselves in dispute or conflict. A good example is the GEI's contribution to the production of Germany-France Common History Textbook. As I remember, in 2003 the GEI played a big role as a coordinator between Israel and Palestine in publishing their auxiliary common history textbook into a booklet. We acted on a Palestinian NGO's initiative as they sought our advice first.

Kim Do you mean the GEI mediated between Israel and Palestine?

Fuchs Yes, but not politically, of course. It was a mediation in the production of a 'common textbook.' The GEI came to get involved when the organization called the PRIME (Peace Research Institute in the Middle East) asked us for advice. Since the GEI scheduled the meetings on specific dates and determined agenda, nearly all the meetings were held in Braunschweig where the GEI was located. A considerable amount of effort went into this project, and the textbook was finally produced in 2006. We wanted to do a follow-up research on how the textbook was adopted and used. Unfortunately, however, it was suspended for political and economic reasons.

Kim How does the GEI collect textbooks from countries around the world? Where does the money for research come from? And how is it managed?

Eckhardt Fuchs, Assistant Director
of the Georg Eckert Institute for
International Textbook Research

Fuchs As for the textbooks, we receive a considerable number of them free of charge from textbook publishers in Germany. We collect the rest through book exchange with our research partners, donation from visiting scholars, researchers on textbook-related projects, or government officials we interact with, and purchase during business trips overseas. The money for research largely comes from the fund provided by the federal and state governments. And we receive subsidies from the other (15) state governments as well to run the institute.

Kim What are the special goals or 'philosophy' of the GEI's missions?

Fuchs What we aim to do, in a nutshell, is make a refreshing change in the existing conventional view. To elaborate, we question all the facts and their interpretations taken for granted by all textbook scholars, including historians, and school teachers, and subject them to review, reevaluation, and reanalysis. This effort requires a lot of time and money, but we try, in the process, to naturally upgrade the textbooks with new expressions and descriptions. Ultimately, the GEI's 'philosophy' is to make incessant efforts to build historical views that seek regional and world peace while avoiding ones that are focused on a single nation's history or based on "undesirable nationalism."

Kim Please tell us about the projects that the GEI will be focused on.

Fuchs We are planning on a number of projects, the first of which is research into how 'Europe' was formed and integrated. We also need fundamental research into the post-integration problems and how to overcome them. Only then will we be able to figure out how to describe them in the textbooks. Actually, this project will be also highly relevant to Korea, China, Japan and other East Asian countries, because they could learn from what had gone wrong in Europe. Most of the many Korean, Japanese, and Chinese scholars that I know are actually very skeptical about the 'East Asian Community.' But we should remember that many people were also very negative about the EU before its establishment. The second project is related to the textbook itself. The purpose of this project is to figure out the mechanism of how the textbook as 'a tool for school teachers and students or people at large to become cultured and knowledgeable' is adopted, published, and actually used. Although this may seem a natural course of things, it is actually not that simple because it involves figuring out what specific high-level roles the textbook can play and how the textbook should change before the deepening conflict arising from differences in religion, ideology, and polity today can be overcome.

Additionally, we would also like to promote a research project about the impact of the 'Arab Spring' in North Africa and the Middle East on the textbook. And we also want to venture into a new, rather unfamiliar, research area called 'Memory Practice,' which, although I cannot explain in detail due to time constraints, involves finding out the process by which historical images in classrooms are 'remembered.'

Kim The GEI played in a key role in publishing Germany-France Common History Textbook in June 2006. Please tell us about it.

Fuchs Germany-France Common History Textbook is the fruit of efforts that Germany and France had made for decades toward reconciliation and cooperation. As is well known, the two countries were like cats and dogs, fighting against each other in as many as four wars over a period of about 150 years, from Napoleon's invasion of Germany to World War II. For many years after the wars, the two countries remained on bad terms with each other, and their undesirable relationship got worse. And it can be partly blamed on their self-centered, biased, and distorted historical views and history education. The production of the common history textbook began at the request of the German and French youth councils celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1963 Élysée Treaty (Treaty of Friendship between Germany and France). And the GEI would play a central in the actual production process, which took off in January 2003 when about 550 high school students from both countries requested the publication of a history textbook of common contents that could help them understand each other, and the two heads of state, Chancellor of Germany Gerhard Schroder and President of France Jacques Chirac, accepted.

Kim Min-kyu,
Director of the Office
of Public Relations, NAHF

Kim Germany-France Common History Textbook was published in Korean as well in 2008 with support from the NAHF. What do you think is the true significance of the common history textbook?

Fuchs I cannot deny that there were many difficulties in publishing the textbook because, in fact, interpretations of history always tend to differ from one another. To complete the textbook, experts from both countries gathered together and went through numerous discussions and debates. Not only the experts, but also the government authorities, the publishers, and the authors were committed to working together step by step and also around a systematic schedule. However, this common textbook, as I'd like to clarify, is not a history book compiled by the governments of both countries. The authors wrote it not to replace but to complement the textbooks in use in France and Germany. To be honest, the common history textbook was not so much aimed at meeting the desperate "needs" of schools. It was intended to be the political 'metaphor' of reconciliation between the two peoples, rather than create educational effects. In other words, it may be called a symbol of mutual understanding and friendship. Anyway, the common history textbook is the first of its kind produced under official support from the two governments, and its significance is far beyond what we normally think.

Kim How is it actually being used in classrooms?

Fuchs Although I'm not sure about the exact years and numbers, I understand that the first volume of the textbook published in 2006 sold about 45,000 copies the following year. And as for the third and final volume, which I believe was published in 2011, we are planning on an overall observation over a period of two to three years. There is a more interesting story I heard about the common history textbook; It is being used more widely in the language class than in the history class because it admirably presents the same contents in two different languages. Getting to learn the history of the other country while learning their language would be like killing two birds with one stone.

Kim Please also tell us about the 'Auxiliary Textbook of East Asian History (Original Title: Ostasien in Geschichte und Gegenwart)' which your institute and my foundation have been collaborating to write and is now in the stage of completion.

Fuchs As its name indicates, my institute is actually doing 'work' related to any textbook in the world. Historical conflicts in the East Asian region in general and the 'textbook affairs' in particular are of great interest to us as well. How to teach a balanced 'East Asian History' in high schools in Germany is one of the questions that all the history teachers are struggling to tackle. In this respect, I think that the textbook written from the perspective of regional history while avoiding the existing historical description based on the history of a single nation and considering the reality of historical conflicts in the Northeast Asian region, if used in classrooms, would have considerable significance and effect.

Kim I heard that there has been actually considerable difficulty in education related to Korea (and its history) in Europe.

Fuchs Correct. Europe's interest in East Asia in general and Japan and especially China in particular is increasing exponentially. Korea is also emerging as an object of interest for its remarkable economic development, democratic development in politics, and the Korean Wave. Admittedly, however, there are markedly less educational materials on Korea than there are on China or Japan. The 'Auxiliary Textbook on East Asian History' in German is now almost ready for publication thanks to your foundation's support. I'd like to stress that this is highly significant as it will make a very good opportunity to introduce Korea correctly to Germany or other parts of Europe. And I'd also like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to researchers at the NAHF for their advice during the production of the textbook, particularly on parts related to Korea (and its history).

Kim East Asia is currently in 'historical war,' as you put it. What is your advice on how to tackle this situation?

Fuchs I understand that in mid-November last year, if I remember correctly, President Park Geun-hye of Korea suggested the publication of 'a Common History Textbook of Northeast Asia.' Personally, I am convinced that it is a very constructive and productive suggestion for historical reconciliation in East (Northeast) Asia. This suggestion cannot be President Park's personal opinion, much less a 'rhetoric' intended to ease the strained relations between Korea and Japan. I believe that in making this suggestion, President Park presented vision and addressed certain well-defined agenda she was determined to deal with. So I was surprised by the skeptical response within Korea, aside from the response of China and Japan. As an European scholar specializing in the textbook and historical reconciliation who has been deeply involved in the production of the common history textbook, I believe that President Park's suggestion is more than feasible. How about the Northeast Asian History Foundation taking the initiative by accepting this suggestion and trying make possible action plans?