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Minister of State Cornelia Pieper welcomes go-ahead for German-Polish history book
Cornelia Pieper, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office and Coordinator of German-Polish Intersocietal and Cross-Border Cooperation, today (9 March) issued the following statement on yesterday’s decision by the Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK – Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany):
“I welcome the decision by the KMK and the Länder to work with the Federal Foreign Office and the Polish side to realize the project for a German-Polish history textbook.”
There is no jointly produced school textbook to date dealing with the history of the two countries from ancient times to the present day. The idea for such a textbook was first suggested in 2008 by the German-Polish Textbook Commission and the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research.
The aim is to show that Germans and Poles have today arrived at a shared view both of their bilateral history and of European history. The book will appear in both languages and be usable in history lessons in both countries.
Minister of State Pieper commented further:
“The idea is one thing, but the fact that it’s now actually going to materialize is the really key thing. I see this common history textbook as a milestone for German-Polish relations and a measure of how good they are.”