Talking about climate change – Telling stories of climate change – Thinking about climate change

This article does not see ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) as a purely policy-oriented and administrative action plan. Instead, it asks what specific contribution can be made by German as a school subject, taking as a point of departure the three perspectives adopted in the University of Kassel project Climate Thinking: Talking about climate change. Telling stories of climate change. Thinking about climate change. These perspectives make it possible to understand the complex phenomenon of climate change as a ‘matter of fact’ (Latour 2004) and therefore as relevant subject matter for German as a school subject. From this starting point, the current article develops three perspectives for looking at and using German lessons for sustainable development at the intersection of linguistic, literary-aesthetic, political and ethical education. The three perspectives are each illustrated by an example: that of the graphic novel Eva. Klima in der Krise (2022) by Arild Midthun and Bjørn H. Samset; the rap track Schäm dich (2020) by Conny;  and the board game Gigawatt. A game about the energy transition (2021).