Germany - The depiction of Christopher Columbus in popular history magazines

Abstract

The learning object presented here deals with the image of Columbus that is portrayed in German and English popular history magazines, which were selected as examples. The main focus is on how illustrations are used in the magazine articles and whether the way of presenting them meets the standards of using historical sources. The tasks presented in this learning object can be seen as suggestions for dealing with this topic and can also be used for analysing the presentation of illustrations in history magazines from other countries (additional material). Furthermore you can find overviews, which summarise the depiction of Columbus and the “discovery” in national history textbooks (additional material) to give you an understanding of the national tendencies in presenting the topic.