Christophe Losfeld has written an essay on Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and politics, which is due to be published in 2024. It has already served as the basis for a project that the 56-year-old Frenchman conducted with the students of his French class at the Latina in Halle. They first read texts in French about Leibniz’s scientific ideas, through to attempts at modernisation, and the wars of King Louis XIV, before developing a debate between the two historical figures. “This was then entered in the German National Foreign Language Competition,” says Losfeld.

The Leibniz project is a good example of the direct link that Losfeld creates again and again between higher education and schools. As an adjunct professor and expert in didactics at MLU as well as a teacher at the Latina, he epitomises both worlds. In fact, he is at home in three worlds: as a representative of the state’s Ministry of Education, he is also involved in cooperations with France. For his services in this area, he was given the title “Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes académiques” in 2022 – one of France’s highest honours.

Losfeld studied modern literature, German and Latin at the Sorbonne in Paris and the Université Charles-de-Gaulle Lille 3. He was sent to MLU in 1989 by the advisor of his first master’s thesis, who was a close friend of Dr Ulrich Ricken, a professor of Romance studies in Halle and a co-initiator of the Centre for Enlightenment Research. As life would have it, Losfeld met his wife in Halle and the planned twelve-month stay turned into 35 years – and a career that only looked like a “typical” university career at the beginning.

Losfeld speaks of a “certain passion for research” that he developed thanks to professors Xavier Darcos in France and Heinz Thoma in Germany. He has always tried to work at the crossroads of history, literature, cultural studies and theology, both in his research and later in his teaching. To justify this, he cites Wilhelm von Humboldt, who once said that humans feel “a desire to connect everything everywhere; the need to not only relate our own selves to the world around us, but to also merge them into one.” Losfeld received his doctorate in 1998 with a dissertation on the reception of the French Revolution in Germany, followed by a post-doctoral thesis in 2008 on politeness theory in 17th and 18th century France. The academic, who first worked at the Institute of Romance Studies and then at the Interdisciplinary Centre for European Enlightenment Studies (IZEA), has also taught school in Halle since 2004. “But I have never lost my joy for research.”  

In 2013, Losfeld was appointed adjunct professor at MLU. In addition to his research, he also holds seminars on bilingual curricular teaching for two to four semester hours per week. He is particularly concerned with the reading and writing skills of future French teachers. A strong awareness of language is still – if not especially – necessary in these times of digitalisation. In order to develop this, the Romance scholar relies not least on the use of classical literature in the classroom. “I’m afraid that otherwise our cultural heritage will no longer be accessible at some point.”

Losfeld emphasises that teaching didactics based on a direct knowledge of practical experience is a great advantage. He tries out this approach to literary texts on pupils on an almost daily basis. He uses this experience to show university students how to deal with literature in a classroom setting – even if the young people initially have neither linguistic nor cultural access to it. Conversely, his work as a lecturer at the university ensures that he is constantly reflecting on his work at school against the backdrop of current research.

But it’s not just the university and school that complement one another. Losfeld is also excited by how they dovetail with his role in the area of Franco-German relations. One example of this is a binational project on the culture of remembrance. The project “Mémoires croisées - sich erinnern, sich begegnen”, which he is currently coordinating, was launched in 2013. Every year, 50 pupils and teachers from Saxony-Anhalt and the French region of Centre - Val de Loire meet on or around 27 January, the day of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism. The meeting alternates between countries. It is not about rigid, ritualised remembrance, says Losfeld. “Pupils should not be extras at a commemorative event; they should shape it with their own words.” Losfeld sees the project as a contribution to democracy education that is not limited to the past. For example, an event is planned in Dessau for 2025 under the motto “Enlightenment – Persecution – Resurrection”, which will focus on the period of Jewish enlightenment, the fate of Jews during National Socialism, and the resurrection of the Jewish community through the opening of the synagogue in 2023.

So far, every meeting has had a focus – and the remembrance itself has often had its own special  medium. In Halle it was about stumbling stones, in Gardelegen about the Shoah in comics, in Centre - Val de Loire posters were designed about the resistance group led by the Armenian Missak Manouchian. Losfeld is now analysing the project scientifically together with an expert in history didactics from the University of Lüneburg. “One of the results will also be a kind of handout on how to design and organise commemorative events from an intercultural perspective.” Practice-orientated for teachers, both current and future.