Schooling the new generation of German citizens: a comparison of citizenship curricula in Berlin and Baden‐Württemberg

In Germany, unlike other European countries, citizenship education has a long history. Since the Second World War, its role has evolved from promoting de‐Nazification in the West and state socialism in the East to emphasising common citizenship in a multicultural society. Today, the federal states (Bundesländer) are largely autonomous in matters of education. Drawing on citizenship curricula from two states with historically opposite political constellations – Berlin and Baden‐Württemberg – we argue that they share an emphasis on the fragility of democracy and the challenges arising from migration. While Baden‐Württemberg favours the concept of tolerance, Berlin privileges the idea of interculturalism. There are important within‐state differences: the Baden‐Württemberg curriculum for the vocational‐track Hauptschule being more similar to the curricula in Berlin, perhaps as a result of the larger concentration of migrants. This raises questions for educators and policy‐makers around the need for a single coherent model of citizenship education and the importance of citizenship in multicultural Germany for all.