The Private Use of Public History and its Effects on the Classroom

Abstract

In the German-speaking countries, the paradigm of historical consciousness as differentiated since the 1970s by Jeismann, Pandel, von Borries et al.1 has resulted in a tendency to view historical culture as the “practically effective articulation of historical consciousness in a society” (Jörn Rüsen). Historical thinking and learning must therefore also take into account this level of public confrontation with the past and history. The various representations of the past and their use in very different contexts ranging from television commercials to amusement parks do not always follow academic standards, but are, as Oswald and Pandel claim, not just “banal derivatives of academic history”, but instead offer interpretations and forms of representation that actually have an influence on the ways people think of the past that inevitably seep into the academic discourse.2 Even the everyday encounter with history represents a major challenge for all of us. The diverse forms and media in which history is (re)presented are powerful tools that shape our perceptions of the past and, in many aspects, replace academic debate. In my own childhood, I was a fan of the 1970s German, Austrian and Japanese TV cartoon series “Vicky the Viking”. In Austria at that time, in contrast to northern European regions, we were largely cut off from other cultural encounters with Viking culture. As my own studies focused on the contemporary history and there was no one with particular expertise in early medieval cultures at my universities to inform me otherwise, my ideas and understanding of Viking life was based on the TV series until a visit to a museum in Stockholm some ten years