Are there any differences in the teaching foci of German and American history departments?
As I understand it, the difference really arises from the American academic system being rather market driven, and the German system being associated more with the training of Gymnasium (high school) teachers. In the German system, high school teachers are trained through the universities in specified programs. This means that teaching a particular narrative of history, one that will be taught in the high schools, and one that follows a traditional narrative focused mostly on Europe, is in great demand. In the United States, what undergraduate students want to take seems to play a greater role in the way departments make decisions about course offerings. In recent years in Germany, things have been changing, and new kinds of courses, many of them not focused on Europe, are being offered. But these are still seen as additions to a “traditional” course of study. What is your current research? I am working on a history of Jews in Germany after 1945, focused on the 1970s and 1980s. This de
