Talk at the University of Indiana-Purdue University Indianapolis

As part of the larger network event at the University of Indiana-Purdue University Indianapolis the Center for German-American Educational History (CGAEH) was invited to give a presentation on their plans and aims at the University's Department of History. The talk titled "On Benjamin Franklin, Clemens Vonnegut and other transatlantic travellers: Why German-American educational history matters"will focus on the research of the CGAEH and on possible fields of collaboration between IUPUI and the University of Münster. Since its establishment in January 2014 the Center's policy of information provision, teaching and research is based on the premise that current ideals of education both in the United States and in Germany are derived from and related to a set of key values propagated in the age of enlightenment: Self-responsibility and autonomy of the citizen, religious toleration, individual rights of freedom and a broad general education available to all people as a sign of their human dignity. The genesis and development of these ideals is marked by multifacted interrelationships between German and American pedagogues, school founders and educational theorists from the colonial period up to the 21st century. The awareness of a common history sharpens the sense of the fact that there exists a transatlantic community with shared values even with regard to ideals of edcuation in theory and practice.