Слика Немаца од уједињења немачке државе у уџбеницима Србије (1907-2001)
Image of the Germans from the Unification of the German State in the Serbian Textbooks (1907-2002)

Summary/Abstract: The article analyses the stereotypes about Germans in the Serbian history textbooks published between 1907 and 2001. It is based on the representative sample of 16 textbooks for elementary and secondary schools, more exactly texts dealing with the period from German unification of 1871 until present. The author's standpoint is that the textbook play an important role in building of stereotypes as integral part of the collective consciousness and that they prepare certain action towards those about whom the stereotypes are built. The author divided textbooks into three groups: 1. those written before World War II, 2. those written in the period from the end of that war and the disintegration of Yugoslavia; and 3. those written after the decline of Yugoslavia. In the first group an image of the Germans is formed through the image of Germany unified on the ideology of "steel and blood", which is the main characteristic of the Germans, but it was placed into positive context. The fact that Germany had become a "great power" was considered as positive. Before World War II, so-called "Drang nach Osten" was described as a conflict between Germany and other colonial powers. After the war it was explained ideologically, as the imperialism of German capital. World War I was moslty shown in a balanced way almost without the influence of ideology. After the World War II, the inter-war period was described in a way that the appearance of Hitler completely held back the Weimar Republic, as a consequence of ideological stereotypes and political needs. During the times of Josip Broz, World War II was shown dualistically and completelly distorted, as a struggle between good and evil. Germany in the period after the World War II was hardly mentioned in the textbooks. After the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the ideological pattern still existed, more or less hidden so the negative stereotype about Germans was preserved. Such an approach has not been changed even after the fall of Milošević's regime.

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