Deutschlehrwerke in Italien von 1933 bis 1945. Sprachenlernen und politik

Based on qualitative content analyses of a corpus of German textbooks from the years 1933-1945, two selected case studies examine the relationship between language policy, content, and teaching methods as well as the underlying language ideologies. The first example, from 1939, is a German textbook for schools that is challenged by specific policies. The second example, from 1941, is a language guide/phrasebook for military personnel, published by the ministry of war. Following the individual case studies the comparative summary highlights the underlying concept and ideologies of foreign language use and relates these to current issues in textbook analysis, political discourse, and language learning.