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Peace of Westphalia 1648: Lessons from the Past for Today’s Peace Diplomacy

Workshop Retrospect: Peace of Westphalia 1648
Photo: © Körber-Stiftung/David Ausserhofer

This content was developed during a workshop at the EUSTORY Next Generation Summit 2018 "Making Peace with History" from 14 to 19 November 2018 in Berlin. The Summit brought together 120 participants from Europe and beyond who worked together with experts from the fields of academia, journalism, education and arts to focus on the processes of making, negotiating and maintaining peace in Europe.

Why should we look at a conflict from the 17th century to solve some of today’s conflicts? Are there really parallels between the Thirty Years’ War and contemporary conflicts? Can we learn from history and if so, which lessons can we draw and where are the limits?

This workshop dealt with the Peace of Westphalia, which in 1648 ended the Thirty Years’ War in central Europe. The participants used it as a specific historical experience but also as an analytical tool to understand and shed a new light on the roots of current conflicts and political rivalries. Can historical research on »Westphalia« provide a creative approach to resolve or at least to gain a better understanding of longstanding conflicts? The participants got the chance to meet experts and scholars who have been working on taking this new path and reinvent the Peace of Westphalia.

Larissa Düchting

Larissa Düchting
Trainee at Stadtmuseum
Münster
Münster, Germany

Photo: © Körber-Stiftung/David Ausserhofer

Explorative learning is an open and dynamic methodology and the participants had the chance to work with history off the beaten paths and with a clear perspective on the present.

Photo: © Körber-Stiftung/David Ausserhofer

For the closing ceremony the participants created a presentation on their learnings which was presented by two participants.