Abstract Prof. Dr. Andreas Körber (Hamburg): Crusades – A promising theme for Intercultural learning?

Abstract Prof. Dr. Andreas Körber (Hamburg): Crusades – A promising theme for Intercultural learning?

The lecture asks whether the subject  of  “Crusades” is suitable to  motivate and organise intercultural learning as a type of historical learning. On the basis of a simplified analysis of the evolution of the concept “intercultural learning” and a critical glance at  the basic approaches and its concepts, the possible meaning of contemporary “intercultural learning of history” will be worked out. An emphasis will be put on the fact that, in today’s globalised world and heterogeneous society, the content of “intercultural learning of history” cannot be reduced neither to the deculturisation of migrants in order to start taking the historical view of the majority, nor on a process of getting to know the closed and unchangeable group of “the others” and its views on history, not even from the perspective of tolerance. It is argued that history lessons are rather to enable learners to question their own perspectives and these of many different others in a critical and productive way, to recognize their own culture and to expand it. Under this perspective, I will sketch how to deal with the subject of “Crusades” in history classes in order to fulfil the roughly drawn expectations.