The German ambassador has attacked history teaching in British schools, claiming it fuels xenophobia by focusing solely on his country’s Nazi past. Thomas Matussek’s comments follow an assault on two German schoolboys by a gang of youths in London.
The newly appointed ambassador also criticised the media, but expressed serious concern that British schoolchildren were not taught about modern German democracy. He said: ”I want to see a more modern history curriculum in schools. I was very much surprised when I learned that at A-level one of the three most chosen subjects was the Nazis.
”I think it is very important that people know as much as possible about the Nazi period and the Holocaust. But what is equally important is the history of Germany in the past 45 years and the success story of modern German democracy. This is necessary to convey to young people that the Germans have learned their lesson and that they have changed.”
Matussek praised the film Schindler’s List for redressing the balance in a medium which normally portrays his countrymen as villains. The Spielberg film tells how a German industrialist saved Jewish lives.
But he rebuked British newspapers: ”A lot of what is reported about Germany in parts of the media is not so much based on direct knowledge of Germany. The repetition of cliches and the repetition of stereotypes is sometimes a substitute for reality.
”You see in the press headlines like ‘We want to beat you Fritz’. It ceases to be funny the moment when little kids get beaten up, if totally innocent young German schoolchildren get beaten up.”
His remarks were prompted by an attack on two boys staying with British host families in Morden, south London, in October. The pair, aged 15 and 16, had been invited to play football by local teenagers but were set upon by another group when it was discovered they were German. One had his glasses broken and the other was shoved into a bush.
Children in the party from the Harsewinkel Realschule in western Germany were also heckled as ”Nazis” in the street. Their English teacher, Gunhild Rübesamen, complained that German children were being harassed despite their country’s efforts to confront its wartime guilt.
”Would Russian schoolchildren be described as communists?” she asked. ”The Soviet Union was not exactly a democratic state. As a teacher I ensure that young Germans are informed about and confronted by the Third Reich and the Holocaust.”
She added: ”The youth of the partner countries should work together. The young people of one land should not stigmatise those of another because of the crimes of their ancestors.”
The German School in Richmond, south-west London, has in the past advised pupils to speak English on buses to avoid trouble. Now its director, Gerd Köhncke, is seeking to overcome hostility by inviting another local school to share sports facilities and join classroom exchanges.
He said harassment had declined since the initiative was launched. ”It has to do with the media,” he said. ”Not only in the press but on television, which still has all those old war films where Germans are always stupid and aggressive.”
Last month two computer experts claimed they had been forced out of their jobs after British colleagues bombarded them with anti-German abuse. Jens Puhle and Heinrich Sawatzki said colleagues at Motorola in Swindon, Wiltshire, had goosestepped around the office and made references to gas chambers. – Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001