ABSTRACT
An object as historical learning tool – a souvenir miniature Eiffel Tower, acquired by a German soldier in World War II – is the starting point for this chapter. This chapter follows the journey of the object, from the context of the soldiers in France in the 1940s to a grandfather's home in Germany and a history classroom in Norway. I explore how we can use the miniature Eiffel Tower to teach both complex historical content knowledge and some of history didactic's key concepts such as historical consciousness, historical empathy, and multiperspectivity. The historical consciousness of the soldier who bought the Eiffel Tower in 1940 is different from the teacher students in the classroom in 2022. They have different lived experiences and educational backgrounds, leading to different historical consciousness, i.e., different ways of linking together past-present-future to orient themselves in life. Meaning making, and remembrance of war, changes in different historical contexts and learning settings. The way individuals and societies in specific times, places, and contexts narrate and make sense of the past affects their expectations for the future.
