Posted on 05/04/2006 2:54:25 PM PDT by Jedi Master Pikachu
Franco-German textbook launched French President Jacques Chirac and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. File photo Mr Chirac and Mr Schroeder backed the project in 2003 The first joint French-German history textbook is to be unveiled in France.
The book, by French and German authors, covers recent history since 1945 - the year when World War II ended.
It is the world's first joint manual on the sensitive subject that is often viewed differently by neighbouring states in some parts of the worlds.
In 2005, China was hit by anti-Japanese rallies following Tokyo's approval of schoolbooks which critics said whitewashed its wartime past.
Thursday's launch of the French-language history book is due to take place at the World War I museum in the northern town of Peronne, near the site of one of the bloodiest battles of that war.
The idea of the manual was born after French President Jacques Chirac and the then German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, met a group of high school students from both countries, said Bernard Kampmann, spokesman for the German embassy in Paris.
"It was not easy because of the complexity of the German and French school systems, but both leaders really threw their weight behind the project," the spokesman said.
'Heated discussions'
The 10 authors did not encounter major difficulties, according to France's Figaro newspaper.
Paradoxically it was not World War II which provided the main topic of debate, but the US role in the world since 1945, the newspaper said.
It quoted Guillaume Le Quintrec, co-director of the project, who said "the French found the Germans to be pro-American and the Germans found our viewpoint anti-American".
Heated discussions, in which each word was carefully considered, resulted in a text which both sides judged to be "balanced".
Another stumbling block was the German historians' desire for a more critical approach than the French one towards the former people's democracies in Central Europe.
The book will be on the curriculum in French and German schools.
The German version is expected to be unveiled in July in the city of Saarbrucken.
The next textbook - covering the 18th Century to 1945 - is planned to be published next year.
What's surprising about this? America rebuilt German industry and made them an economic powerhouse. French failure is their own creation.
The French are just pi$$ed because we still don't use the metric system and no one will buy a Citroen.
Paradoxically it was not World War II which provided the main topic of debate, but the US role in the world since 1945, the newspaper said.
It quoted Guillaume Le Quintrec, co-director of the project, who said "the French found the Germans to be pro-American and the Germans found our viewpoint anti-American".
I'm not surprised by this observation. Germany may be like France: a European country and both committed to the deepest levels of European integrations, but there is no doubt Germany itself has more direct links and legacies with the United States than France ever will have.
Another factor is that it has been 4 generations since Germany had significant real direct world influence while for France it was only their father's generation that they still had departments around the world. The world history since 1945 has been a radical change of world power that makes the traditional Balance of Power in Europe largely meaningless and the United States started to exert real worldwide influence on its own and which it no longer piggyback on the British Empire. France before 1945 was still a significant superpower and it is probably best characterised now as an ex-superpower although still a major country. The eclipse of French influence started at precisely the time period 1945 to today and it is precisely the US that replaced its influence. It wouldn't be human nature to expect a country like such to step out of the centre stage of geopolitics too gracefully. Understandable the French perspective might be, it is not necessary we must buy it to conduct the US, New Zealand, Australian, or whatever foreign policies.
"I'm not surprised by this observation. Germany may be like France: a European country and both committed to the deepest levels of European integrations, but there is no doubt Germany itself has more direct links and legacies with the United States than France ever will have."
It's also a cultural thing: Both German and English are west-Germanic languages (together with Dutch, an example for a north-Germanic language would be Swedish) and especially in northern Germany livestyles resemble those on the British isles.
Many Germans still feel a kind of deep betrayal because Great Britain took sides with France in WWI.
Yep I wanted to say it as well. Teutonic culture is one step closer to Anglo-Saxon derived American culture, while French cultural model is Latin. Taking meal habits as an example, French people have lunch as their main meals similar to Hispanics or Italians, while for Americans and Germans the major meals tend to be dinner while lunch is a relatively quick affair.
Thanks for adding this for me.
That B ritain and France has seats in the Security Council and Germany and Japan do not, is of course, a reflection of the world of 1945. But the hostility of France to the US goes back to the beginning of the United States, when France bankrupted herself to help us free ourselves from British rule, only to get nothing out of it except bills they could not pay. Push come to shove, we continued to have more in common with Great Britain than with France. Indeed, we had more in common with Germany. Millions of Germans immigrated to the United States. It is one of the great ironies of history that the Commander of the AEF during WWI and the Commander of the Anglo-Saxon forces during WWII were Americans of German descent. By contrast, immigrantion from France was quite small, in large part because of slow poipulation growth of France during the 19th Century. An American with a Frenmch name is usually a descendent of French colonials.
I understand French immigration to the US were small, but how many were indirect descendents from Quebecois or Maritime French-Canadians that initially moved to New England in the 19th century? In addition, there were French Creoles in New Orleans and Acadians in rural Louisiana. So there are still a number of French descents living in the US. How do they compare with German migrants' descendents in numbers?
In the book "Band of Brothers", the soldiers of Easy Company note that the Germans are much more like Americans than the French are...industrious, clean, hardworking, etc.
In general, they didn't care much for France or the French, with some exceptions.
I thought that was pretty spot on.
Moral of the Story?
Countries that you bomb to hell and back and overthrow their dictator will end up appreciating it. Countries that you save from being wiped off the map will spit on you in the years to come.
You leave out the French Calvanists who settled in the Americas before most of the Germans got here. The Carolinas were full of them and there descendants are still there. They settled from the Jacksonville Florida area all the way up to New England. There were also French colonies all up and down the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers and most of their descendants fused into the population of America.
The German settlers had to be within the top five in numbers though.
Probably 40% of all Americans have some recent German ancestery. On my father's side I am rather typical, being German-Scots-Irish-English. There was heavy German immigration from 1700 to about 1900. In 1900 there were more German-speakers in San Antonio, TX, than either English- or Spanish-speakers. Many Germans colonies in Texas.
Germany Bump!
That's what I had said.
can please remind me what I was saying -it must have been something awfully unapropriate (don't want to exclude that - but I am a bit surprised that my comment has been pulled)
Here's a hint. Re-read your comment closely, someone else quoted it above.
I think you forgot the pulling a country out of the excrements part ...
But that's peoples nature - if someone missbehaves and you snctionize his behaviour only to care afterwards what this rioting was all about and even offer help - then you are the men.
Sanctions and Help - Stick and Carrot - no donkey walks without.
lol yeah I read it - but it's hard to believe that it's worth a pull - it's not even been thoughtfull - wait a minute !
There are some places in the Texas Hill Country where German is still spoken at home. One barber shop in Fredericksburg (near the courthouse) you can hear German.
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