Since 2022, the so-called Historikerstreit 2.0 (Historians' Controversy 2.0) has been preoccupying the German culture of remembrance. It questions whether the state-sponsored culture of remembrance with the Holocaust at its centre still does justice to the social realities of the present, which are characterised by migration. Is the Holocaust really still a central component of the historical consciousness and historical narratives of all citizens living in the country, or is it not accompanied by other (colonial) experiences of violence? So do the dominant historical narratives still correspond to people's background experiences and, if this is not the case, what are the educational policy consequences of the differences between public and private remembrance?

In the Sparkling Science project ‘Remembering in the classroom’, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, we are investigating the question of whether the central historical narratives in schools and society reflect the diverse backgrounds of experience of all people living in Austria. Firstly, curriculum and textbook analyses as well as key question interviews with teachers are used to determine which contemporary historical narratives are taught in secondary schools and grammar schools in Graz. Subsequently, life history interviews conducted by the participating pupils with their parents and grandparents will be used to empirically determine which historical narratives are present in family memories. The project is being carried out at six schools in the Graz city area, which differ from one another and therefore cover a wide range of diversity. Based on these interviews, a travelling exhibition on "multidirectional remembering in Graz schools" will be designed together with the young people and a book publication will be produced that takes into account the expected polyphony of memory. Both the travelling exhibition and the publication will be supplemented by didactic handouts and, based on the project results, guidelines will be developed for contemporary history and history didactic education and training.

A Sparkling Science project of the Center for Jewish Studies in cooperation with the Department of Didactics of History at the Institute of History of the University of Vienna.