Session Information
17 SES 14, Challenging Democracy Education as a Political Tool in the Conflict between Democracy and Totalitarianism, 1900-2000
Symposium
Contribution
My paper will consider how middle-class and working-class children were exposed to German propaganda in schools during the war. Before the war, teachers and educational administrators did not promote the instruction of militant nationalism, but focused upon cultivating the hard-working and dutiful citizen. Once the war began, however, educational methods were brought into line with the demands of reformers who urged child-centered learning, and the subjects of study now included the war itself. Even the physical environment of the classroom changed, from an empty drabness to rooms festooned with maps, photographs of airplanes, zeppelins, submarines, and drawings of battle. And thus the student found himself or herself actively engaging in learning and study about the war. The result was powerful indoctrination of the individual student, such that most youth came to support the war. Indeed war literature introduced to the children encouraged a new image of militant masculinity based upon war service. Physical strength, bravery, loyalty to ones comrades, and the courage to kill or maim the enemy were all held up as virtues in this new war literature, and the war itself was presented as a series of dramatic scenes of adventure, movement, and success.
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