Editorik beginnt in der Schule? Ein essayistischer Weckruf am Beispiel mittelalterlicher Textabdrucke in rezenten österreichischen Schulbüchern

For young people school is the very first place where a fruitful and enlightening encounter with literature may take place, provided that the teaching can rely on well edited texts. Against this background of experience, the essayistically sharpened paper reports the results of an examination of eighteen Austrian textbooks at secondary level II, in which original-language text examples from the German literary history of the Middle Ages are reproduced. The results of the survey depict, on the one hand, a revealing canon of near-source printed literary works and on the other hand it illustrates that in most cases the editorial templates used in textbooks are far away from the quality standards and informative value of modern reference editions. As the study generally concludes, it would be up to the editing community to urgently establish a new, mutually beneficial cooperation with all the institutions and publishers involved in the production of school textbooks in order to supply the classrooms with more suitable specialist editions and customised materials as soon as possible.