URL: http://www.bpb.de/veranstaltungen/dokumentation/130050/civic-lessons-from-the-real-world-from-the-fall-of-the-wall-to-the-collapse-of-the-world-trade-center

Civic lessons from the real world – from the fall of the wall to the collapse of the World Trade Center

Political education by the real world – from the Wall to the collapse of the World Trade Center The title of Dr. Schadler´s speech is "political education by the real world – from the fall of the Wall to the collapse of the World Trade Center". He wants to show the challenges and possibilities for political education that can be taken from these dramatic events. First of all, he assesses "history and recollection. lessons of the past". He shows that many juveniles do not know too much about their own countries´ history. Then he goes into three historic periods, starting out with the first period of cold war, which leads to the period "end of history". But this period also ended after roughly ten years and the world still finds itself in a phase of a so-called "war", where the enemy cannot be precisely defined. All we know is that the democratic system has been attacked. The questions that can be posed are to what extent this affects the political education and what conclusions can be drawn from this. In answering these questions, he refers to the significance of a nation as such, its laws and constitutions and the separation of State and religion. Afterwards he discusses the relation between democracy and tolerance and goes into the difficulties that occur with the introduction of a new democratic system. In conclusion, he emphasizes once again that the constitutional countries face a new challenge caused by immigration and the fight against terrorism. In this context history has to be included and serious topics have to be addressed reasonably. It is established that history has not come to a halt and that political education will not become boring in the near future. One has to make the best of it.

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