Joint Initiative of German History Competition Finished Successfully
The interest was huge: More than 1,500 children and young people handed in 1,120 contributions to “Tomorrow's History - Everyday Life in Times of Corona“. With this initiative the German History Competition together with “coronarchiv” wanted to encourage young people to actively shape the way how future generations might talk about the epidemiological threat of 2020.
From two to 21 years old, from individual projects to digital classwork, from non-fiction to comics, from films to podcast - participation in this campaign has been very diverse. Based on the principle of the German Federal President's History Competition, which Körber-Stiftung has been running for almost 50 years, the participants chose their own example: a memory, a find, an impressive experience or conversation that shows how the corona crisis affects one’s family or region.
Many participants took up examples from family life. For example, they reported not only on the negative effects on the living situation and concerns about grandparents, but also on creative forms of digital meetings in times of social distancing. Many participants also identified everyday changes using the example of leisure, sport and religion. A particularly large number of submissions dealt with concrete actions in the Corona crisis and their consequences for living together as well as changes in everyday school life.
Last but not least, what motivated the participants as well was to deal with forms of solidarity in the Corona crisis, to observe political decisions and media reports, to reflect on their own behavior and to dare to look into the future, including beyond the Corona virus. The young people recommended that new forms of solidarity should also be lived and nurtured in the future and that there should be more recognition for social professions.
Children and young people from all German Federal States took part in the campaign. Almost half of the participants are between 12 and 17 years old, the youngest participant is two years old. The submissions also include around 100 group contributions which were developed, for example, as a digital class project. Young people from abroad also participated, such as from Japan, Poland, Portugal, Italy, New Zealand or Egypt.
The majority of the submissions consist of written texts (40 percent), these include around seven percent of diary entries recording personal impressions and reflections on developments. Creative approaches such as films and podcasts were also very popular with the participants (15 percent). Others prepared their testimonials in the form of comics, photo collages or drawings.
All submitted contributions are transferred to “coronarchiv”. In addition, Körber-Stiftung is going to award 50 book prizes for the best entries and will present the winners and their topics to the public. The results are going to be announced at the end of June.
On 1 September, the German History Competition will announce the regular competition of 2020/21 that will run until 28 February 2021.