"The project ""Understanding communication means understanding ourselves"" (or ""Communication matters"" in English) was developed jointly by the Lotte-Westerkappeln Comprehensive School and the IES Monastil in Elda, Spain, as part of the Erasmus+ programme in 2019-2020. Two German and four Spanish teachers were in charge of the project, as well as 18 German and 18 Spanish pupils from grades 9 and 10.The aim was to examine the topic from a linguistic, historical and political perspective in order to provide the pupils with tools for social participation in a common Europe. In this way, the students should be supported in participating as responsible citizens in a European society.In addition, the similarities and differences between Spanish and German communication should be explored in order to contribute to intercultural understanding. Reflecting on one's own language behaviour was to offer the pupils very individual assistance in their personal development. The development of the project began with Franziska Sandhaus' visit to Elda as part of a short-term training course on the topic of ""eTwinning"", as the Spanish partner school already had a lot of experience with this medium and this could thus also be made useful for the German school.The first project day continued with a questionnaire to determine the level of knowledge on the topic of ""communication"", followed by theoretical and practical work on the topic. The focus was on working out the communication theories of Paul Watzlawick and Friedemann Schulz von Thun. The knowledge was recorded on posters and through PowerPoint presentations so that it could be presented to the Spanish pupils during their visit to Germany.At the same time, the Spanish pupils analysed important historical speeches, created photos of typical Spanish gestures and facial expressions and produced a communication memory.During the Spanish visit to Germany, the pupils presented their results to each other, the photo wall for the assembly hall in Westerkappeln was created together and the pupils got to know each other better through warm-up games and were able to expand their intercultural and foreign language skills. During the guided tours through the old towns of Münster and Osnabrück, the pupils were able to learn about the historical dimension of communication. The personal exchange between the pupils intensified the contact and some of them still have it today.On our 2nd project day, an external speaker trained the pupils on the topic of ""Rhetoric"". All the pupils gave a short presentation which was recorded on video and later analysed by the speaker. Unfortunately, the planned return visit to Spain could not take place due to the start of the Corona pandemic. The realisation of the other goals set, such as the analysis of historical and current political speeches, could also unfortunately not be achieved due to homeschooling and the upcoming final exams of the 10th grade.Due to the many production-oriented approaches in working on the individual sub-topics, many results could be visually documented. These include, for example, the photo wall on Spanish and German gestures and facial expressions, the Power Point presentations, the museum wall on the important historical speeches as well as the final newspaper documenting the Spanish students' visit to Germany. The questionnaire at the beginning and end of the project demonstrated the students' growth in knowledge on the topic of ""communication"". The created ""project diary"" serves as an example for applying for further projects. The expected long-term benefit of the project is on the one hand that the pupils were able to acquire important competences for their further academic, professional and personal development (theoretical and intercultural knowledge, socio-political competences). The information on the school homepage will be kept in order to make it accessible to interested parties, as will the project diary.The cooperation between the Lotte-Westerkappeln Comprehensive School and the IES Monastil has proven to be very profitable and should definitely be continued. Real friendships have developed between the Spanish and German students and since the return visit to Spain could not take place due to the Corona pandemic, some students are already planning to fly to Spain privately to visit their host students."