SOCIOLOGY OF EMOTIONS: Empathy as an emotional practice in historical pedagogy

Most of the pedagogies at memorials and museums in Germany dedicated to the crimes ofNational Socialism and the history of the GDR share the common pedagogical goal of developinga sense of empathy in students and visitors. This take on historical pedagogy holdsthat memorials and museums gain social legitimacy by communicating empathy, and thusby educating visitors about values and morality. The paper argues that this perspective onemotions in general and empathy in particular is very problematic and quite questionable.Teaching 20th century German history should, first and foremost, be about teaching historyand not teaching values. It is observable that the sort of historical empathy sought out by educatorsdoes not automatically lead pupils to the desired views on morality. Rather, it tendsto overwhelm them. If we define historical learning as an autonomous act of productiveappropriation, empathy might come to signify the way learners integrate their perception ofthe other into the self, which ultimately bolsters one’s capacity to judge and to be mindful ofthe plights of others. For this reason, the paper argues that empathy should be conceived ofnot as a goal of historical pedagogy in and of itself, but rather as one possible point of departurefor getting students and museum visitors to engage with history.