Democracy Education

As a key educational mission in Germany, democracy education aims to prepare young people to become active and responsible members of a democratic society. It enables students to understand the complexity of modern society and to critically assess political, social, and economic issues.

Through school education, they are encouraged to actively uphold fundamental values such as freedom, democracy, human rights, justice, economic security, and peace.

Democracy education is a cross-curricular task with its main focus in the social sciences. Schools bear the responsibility of conveying a value system that aligns with the principles of freedom, democracy, and human rights. According to the Federal Constitutional Court, fundamental rights represent an objective system of values—meaning schools are not value-neutral spaces. In particular, the inviolable dignity of the human being, as a core principle of the Basic Law, shapes all educational practice.

Topics addressed in connection with democracy education include:

• Culture of Remembrance
• Human Rights Education
• European Education
• Holocaust and National Socialism
• Jewish History
• Antisemitism
• Antiziganism

In light of current social and political developments and the rapid progress of digitalization, the Standing Conference updated its 2009 recommendation and adopted a revised version on October 11, 2018, titled: Democracy as a Goal, Subject, and Practice of Historical-Political Education and School-Based Learning. (Link)

Since 2007, the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK) has organized an annual conference together with the Federal Agency for Civic Education to address key issues of democracy education. These conferences are documented on the Federal Agency’s website.