As a result of a 2012 agreement between Mr. Zoltán Balog, Hungarian Minister of Human Resources and Dr. Claudia Schmied, Austrian Minister of Education, Arts and Culture, KulturKontakt Austria organised an international conference on the centenary of the First World War, between the 20th and 22nd of March 2014.
Colleagues of the Hungarian Institute for Educational research and Development Balázs FEHÉRPATAKY, Lucia KÁKONYI, László KOJANITZ and Márta Mária SZABÓ participated. The aim of the conference was to reinterpret teaching about WW1, and to create a transnational approach through the national perspectives. Expert historians from Austria, Hungary and from former monarchy states arrived to share their points of view. Welcome addresses were delivered by Ms. Johanna Rachinger, director general of the Austrian National Library, Mr. Zoltán Maruzsa, the Hungarian deputy secretary of state for higher education and Ms. Martina Maschke, Austrian Minister of Education and Women’s Affairs. The keynote speaker was Mr. Jay Winter from Yale University, who had recently published a book on the very same topic as that of the conference. Plenary sessions included the topics of the memory of WW1 in Central-European countries, and presentation of best practices of transnational history projects. During the workshops, participants discussed the teaching of WW1 in history classes and the national memory about the First World War. Furthermore, the conference provided methodological support materials and new digital learning materials for the participants.
