Can We Really Learn from History? Experiences from a German–American Project on Critical Memory

When asked about why they should study history, high school students and undergraduates typically answer, perhaps unthinkingly, “so that we don’t repeat past mistakes.” For German schools, universities, and for the German public that charge has carried significant weight. In the US, too, as society has begun to confront the legacies of chattel slavery, “learning from the past” has become a more urgent task. Still, more recently, a critical study of the past has come under assault in both countries. Racism, xenophobia, and anti semitism are on the rise on both sides of the Atlantic, and, in the US in particular, politicians court voters with promises of policing school and university curricula, library holdings, and museum exhibits. The public, too, seems unwilling or unable to apply lessons learned from a difficult past to the problems of the present.

Is it possible to learn from history? In 2025, a project bringing together 50 German and US scholars, curators, educators, public historians, civil society leaders, and journalists for two immersive tours provided participants with the opportunity for a deep comparative look at how Germany and the United States have dealt with their difficult pasts. Participants were invited to investigate their respective memory cultures, policies, and their societies’ current challenges with racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia. Participants discussed failures and best practices, and how to transition from denial to collective responsibility in order to maintain a critical memory in schools, universities, and the public sphere. This roundtable will feature some of the group’s participants and invite them to share what they learned as part of the project, how they have carried that learning into their daily work, and whether they believe that historical narrative can be crafted and presented in such a way that an audience will learn from history.