Obraz zakonu krzyżackiego w ikonografii podręcznikowej Polski, Niemiec, Litwy i Rosji w XX wieku

Abstract

The article was written on the basis of source materials gathered for the purposes of the international project “Pruzzenland [ziemie pruskie]. Porównawcza analiza regionalnych konstrukcji tożsamości w podręcznikach szkolnych Niemiec, Polski, Litwy i Rosji,” executed in the years 2010–2013 by the Georg–Eckert–Instytut in Braunschweig (Germany) and the Institute of History and International Relations at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn in cooperation with partners in Russia (Moscow) and Lithuania (Vilnius, Kaunas). The research aims at a comparative analysis of school handbooks that were one of the most important means of shaping the identity of the young generation in the 20th and 21st centuries. A total of 740 handbooks in four languages was analysed. The resulting two monographies, one in Polish and one in German, differ slightly in terms of content but are based on the same source material. The works analyse several main topoi: Prussian landscape, specificity of Prussian tribes, battle of Grunwald, issues of religion, canon of important figures across the ages, migrations in the 20th century, history of education and contemporary Polish education regarding the region. Since both monographes do not use the available illustrative materials extensively, this text analyses the image of the Teutonic Order in handbook iconography. The library search that preceded the writing process consisted in analysing scanned pages from handbooks gathered within the project. Not all 288 handbooks included therein regarded the Middle Ages or the modern times, which chronologically encompass the operations of the Order. Some of those publications have very general titles and only browsing through them allowed for the identification that they actually regard later times