Training measure for teachers on June 16, 2025

Experiencing history - The educational added value of encounters with contemporary witnesses in school lessons.

Our institute and the German Sport & Olympia Museum cordially invite you to specialist presentations, workshops, a tour of the museum and live interviews.

Date: 16.06.2025, 9-15 Uhr
Location: Deutsches Sport & Olympia Museum, Im Zollhafen 1, 50678 Köln
max. number of participants: 50

Content
This advanced training course for teachers from different subject areas focuses on the didactic, epistemic and educational potential of oral history. Using specialist presentations and workshops, proven experts will teach practical methods for planning, conducting and evaluating interviews with contemporary witnesses in the classroom. The event will conclude with an interview with Olympic and world champion boxer Torsten May. The program also includes a tour of the museum.
Cost: free
Deadline for registration: until 08.06.2025 per email to schmidt@sportmuseum.de („first come, first served“)
Contakt:schmidt@sportmuseum.de

See the Program

Background and objectives
Engaging with and meeting contemporary witnesses gives pupils unique insights into historical events and social developments. Personal stories bring history and memory to life and make them tangible. Interviewing contemporary witnesses can not only promote historical understanding, but also empathy, critical thinking and media skills, so that their educational added value in the context of school lessons is beyond question.
Political or cultural, but not least also sporting horizons of experience, such as authentic insights into sporting events, training conditions and social framework conditions are of interest. They make historical
developments tangible, especially as sport is often closely linked to political, social and cultural changes.

Testimonials from successful or lesser-known athletes can motivate young people to pursue their own sporting goals and convey values such as fairness, team spirit and perseverance. They provide insights into topics such as equal opportunities, discrimination, doping or the political instrumentalization of sport and encourage critical debate. Interviews with regional sports stars, coaches or club members strengthen identification with local sports traditions and clubs.

The course provides teachers of various subjects with practical methods for planning, conducting and evaluating interviews with contemporary witnesses in the classroom. At the same time, the limitations of this method will be addressed, for example in dealing with subjective memories, sensitive content and ethical issues. Together, approaches will be developed as to how eyewitness accounts can be meaningfully integrated into lessons in order to enable pupils to deal with history in a reflective manner. The event will conclude with an interview with a prominent contemporary witness of sport: Torsten May, Olympic and world champion in boxing.

See theProgram