U.S. English Foundation Research

GERMANY

Language Research

2. Background: Background notes

Germany – first united in 1871 – suffered defeats in successive world wars and was occupied by the victorious Allied powers of the US, UK, France, and the Soviet Union in 1945. With the beginning of the Cold War and increasing tension between the US and Soviet Union, two German states were formed in 1949: the western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR). The newly democratic FRG embedded itself in key Western economic and security organizations, the EU and NATO, while the Communist GDR was on the front line of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.

The decline of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War cleared the path for the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and German re-unification in 1990. Germany has spent considerable funds (roughly $100 billion a year) in subsequent years working to bring eastern productivity and wages up to western standards, with mixed results. Unemployment, which in the east is nearly double that in the west, has grown over the last several years primarily as a result of structural problems like an inflexible labor market. In January 1999, Germany and 10 other members of the EU formed a Common European Currency, the Euro, and the German government is now looking toward reform of the EU budget and enlargement of the Union into Central Europe.

Independence: January 18, 1871 (German Empire unification), in 1945 following World War II Germany was then divided into four zones of occupation (UK, US, USSR, and later, France). Federal Republic of Germany (FRG or West Germany) was declared May 23, 1949 and included the former UK, US, and French zones. German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) was declared October 7, 1949 and included the former USSR zone. Unification of West Germany and East Germany took place October 3, 1990, all four powers formally relinquished rights March 15, 1991.

Current international disputes: individual Sudeten German claims for restitution of property confiscated in connection with their expulsion after World War II.

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Updated (January 2003)

NORTH FRISIAN

North Frisian is one of the indigenous languages in the German "Land" of Schleswig-Holstein and it is spoken in the rural district of North Frisia (Kreis Nordfriesland), on the west coast just south of the Danish-German border including the North Frisian Islands. It is also spoken on the island of Heligoland, which belongs to the district of Pinneberg.

The language has nine main dialects, each having its own name. The name of the mainland Frisian dialect is based on the concept of Frisian, e.g. frasch, freesk, fräisch, whereas the island dialects are called after each particular island, viz. sölring (Sylt), fering (Föhr), öömrang (Amrum) and halunder (Heligoland).

North Frisian is an independent West Germanic language, which has been heavily influenced by Danish and Low German over the centuries (latterly also by High German). It is related to West Frisian in the Netherlands and more closely to Sater Frisian in Lower Saxony (Germany).

Of approximately 156,000 inhabitants of North Frisia, about 60,000 (40 percent) consider themselves to be Frisians and some 8,000 to 10,000 speak Frisian (5-7 percent).¹ Frisian is traditionally an oral language and only after the beginning of the 19th Century it started to be used as a written medium.

Source: Mercator Education, Regional Dossiers, the North Frisian language in education in Germany

http://www1.fa.knaw.nl/mercator/regionale_dossiers/regional_dossier_northfrisian_in_germany.htm

SORBIAN

Sorbian is a Western Slavonic language, spoken in the region of Lower and Upper Lusatia.² It is closely related to Czech, Slovak, Polish and Kashubian. Together with Danish, Frisian and Niederdeutsch, it is one of four recognized autochthonous regional languages in Germany. Sorbian is characterized by its dialectal differentiation. Nowadays Sorbian is spoken in two main and relatively different dialects: Lower Sorbian (Wendisch) in Lower Lusatia and Upper Sorbian in Upper Lusatia. In the Slepe Region an East Central Sorbian transitional dialect is spoken.

While in Upper Lusatia there are still families where all generations speak Upper Sorbian, in Lower Lusatia since 1945, Lower Sorbian has stopped to be passed on from generation to generation. The language is spoken only by the older generation.

HISTORY

Under the influence of the Reformation the Sorbian language developed into a literary language. In 1548, the New Testament was for the first time translated into Sorbian. More than 90 percent of the Sorbs accepted the Protestant Faith. Only the area around the Cistercian monastery of St. Marienstern (present-day Panschwitz-Kuckau) and the estate belonging to the chapter of Bautzen Cathedral remained Catholic after the Reformation. They still form up to 90 percent of the total population in some localities today.

The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) caused a drastic shrinking of the Sorbian language area.

In 1815, a territorial restructuring of the Sorbian settlement area took place as a result of the Congress in Vienna. The subsequent administrative division led to a considerable reduction in the proportion of the Sorbian-speaking population in almost all districts.

After Bismarck established the German Empire, the Sorbs became a target of Germanization. The fact that practically all school lessons were conducted in German forced most Sorbs to change from Sorbian monoglots to bilingual (Sorbian-German) speakers, and so on only German was spoken. The Weimar Constitution, following the 1848 Constitution, granted the non-German population the possibility to develop freely; however, there was a subsequent lack of laws, which supported it.

After a short period of tolerance during the Weimar Republic, the Sorbs, as a Slavonic people, were again subjected to repressive measures under the fascist dictatorship. Sorbian institutions, language and culture were forbidden and many Sorbs were imprisoned in concentration camps. The Sorbian language and Sorbian clubs and associations were banned in 1937. Sorbian teachers and intellectuals were expelled from Lusatia. A systematic Germanization caused that especially the younger generation in Lusatia could not speak their mother tongue adequately. Therefore most Sorbs considered the collapse of the Third Reich to be liberation.

After World War II the Sorbs, supported by the Czech government, occupied a rather strong position, especially in Saxony. In 1948, the State Parliament of Saxony passed a Law concerning the protection of the rights of the Sorbian population, which allowed existence of Sorbian schools and strengthened the position of the language in public life.

In 1949, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was established. The new Constitution paid attention to the Sorbs in the article on their right to maintain their native language and culture.

Despite financial aid from the state, the number of Sorbs has constantly decreased. On one hand, the GDR pursued a large hearted cultural policy with regard to the Sorbs. Organizations such as the Sorbian Folk Theatre, the State Ensemble for Sorbian Folk Culture, the Sorbian Museum, the Domowina Publishers and the Sorbian Film Group were in fact state organizations, administrated, censored and completely financed by the state. On the other hand, the Sorbian language and culture were seriously threatened by the Republic's policy on industrialization and energy (brown coal opencast mining). Besides to the immigration of hundreds of thousands of non-Sorbian speakers, many Sorbian-speaking people had to move, because of the enforced demolishing of villages.

After the reunification in 1990, the new German Constitution of 1994 did not have any sections devoted to minorities. In the Federal Republic of Germany, Lower Lusatia became a part of the new "land" of Brandenburg and Upper Lusatia was included to Saxony. However, the Sorbs succeeded in convincing the new authorities to support the Sorbian language and culture (under Protokoll notiz No. 14, which refers to article 35 of the Unification Treaty).

Both Brandenburg and Saxony passed an Article on the Sorbs in their Constitutions as well as the Law on the Sorbs. Moreover, the Federal State of Germany and the both "Länder," (Brandenburg and Saxony) founded jointly the Foundation for the Sorbian People in order to solve the acute financial needs of the Sorbian infrastructure and to continue the financial support for nearly every Sorbian activity and organization. The federal support is guaranteed until 2008, although in the course of the coming years it will be decreasing.

The total number of people with active knowledge of Sorbian is estimated at 20,000. In Lower Lusatia it is 7,000.

HISTORY OF EDUCATION

Before 1945, the Sorb minority had only very limited opportunities for education and development. However, after World War II, an equal rights approach established bilingual programs from nursery schools to universities. In Saxony, the 1948 law on the protection of the rights of the Sorbs guaranteed the Sorbian language a place in public life and schools. In 1952, there were 78 Sorbian elementary schools and 4 Sorbian secondary schools. Nine of these bilingual schools were the so-called "A" type schools with Sorbian as a medium of instruction. Unfortunately, circumstances soon deteriorated. The directive of October 2, 1962, prescribed the use of the German language in Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics and Citizenship Education lessons.

The following directive of April 30, 1964 almost annihilated the Sorbian education. The possibility of parents to decide whether their child will attend Sorbian classes resulted in the fact that studying of the language became voluntary and the number of pupils substantially declined. In 1963, 11,600 pupils took part in Sorbian education, a year later only 3,300 pupils did so. After 1965, only courses on the Sorbian History and Culture were included in the curriculum and made compulsory for all educational institutions. In 1968, the 1964 directive was changed again. Schools were allowed to advise the parents about the educational program; however, the Sorbian language was equated with a foreign language and thus it had to compete with English.

Up until 1990, there existed 7 Sorbian polytechnical schools of "A" type³ and 85 polytechnical schools of "B" type.⁴ By 1990, over 500 bilingual teachers were employed in Lusatia.

Source: Mercator Education, Regional Dossiers, The Sorbian language in Education in Germany

http://www1.fa.knaw.nl/mercator/regionale_dossiers/regional_dossier_sorbian_in_germany.htm

¹ It should be noted that this is an estimate as the last survey encompassing the whole of the Frisian-speaking area dates from 1927.

² Lower Lusatia is a part of the Land of Brandenburg and Upper Lusatia is part of the Freistaat Sachsen (Saxony).

³ Schools had a Sorbian-German bilingual program and Sorbian was a medium of instruction.

⁴ Schools where Sorbian was taught as a second language and German was a medium of instruction.

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Updated (February 2004)

THE NORTH FRISIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE

Such a linguistic diversity as in North Frisia, where within a very small area several languages (the High German, Low German, High Danish, Low Danish and Frisian language) co-exist side by side, can hardly be found in any other region in Europe.

Throughout the centuries Frisian was commonly used in families and villages. After the Reformation at the latest, Low German was the official, ecclesiastical and school language, though since the 17th Century High German has taken over this role. North Frisian was restricted to a pure verbal use for a long time. Only since the 18th Century it has started to be used in a written form.

Frisian is not a German or Danish dialect, but an independent language. Just like English, Dutch, High German and Low German it belongs to the West Germanic language group.

It has two main dialects, which can be further divided into nine smaller sub-groups. Six of them exist on the mainland (including the Halligen) and three on the islands of Sylt, Föhr-Amrum and Heligoland. Although this dialectal diversity makes any efforts to preserve the North Frisian language more difficult, it also represents a multitude of fascinating linguistic variations and its cultural richness.

Moreover, this language can be divided to the North, East and West Frisian branch. While the East Frisian language has died out in its country of origin and at present it is spoken only by 2,000 people in Saterland (a region in the District of Oldenburg), the West Frisian language community in the Dutch province of Friesland has almost 400,000 members.

The North Frisians constitute numerically a minority in their own homeland. Among nearly 160,000 inhabitants living in the District of North Frisia,¹ approximately a third would consider themselves as Frisians. Considerably smaller is the number of Frisians speaking Frisian as their mother tongue. In the last century, it was estimated at about 30,000; today 10,000 people at the most speak Frisian in North Frisia. The North Frisian language community belongs thereby to the smallest in Europe.

As compared to the two other minorities in the border region of Schleswig, the Germans in Denmark and the Danes in Germany, the Frisians cannot feel like a part of any nation state. Their status in Germany is similar to that of the Sorbs in Brandenburg and Saxony (southeast of unified Germany), and in Europe to that of the Bretons in France or the Sámi people in northern Scandinavia.

Source: The Nordfriisk Institute, http://www.nordfriiskinstituut.de/

¹ Founded in 1970

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Updated (April 2004)

There are five recognized minority languages¹ in Germany: Danish, Frisian, Sorbian, Romany and Niederdeutsch.

DANISH

The Danish language is spoken by approximately 50,000 people in the north of Germany (Schleswig-Holstein, close to the Danish border). In some parts of Schleswig- Holstein, the Danish minority constitutes 20 percent of the total population (Flensburg).

FRISIAN

Frisian, rather than to Dutch, is related to Old-English or Old-Danish. This language is spoken by 50,000–60,000 people in the Regions of Schleswig-Holstein and Niedersachsen. Of this number around 10,000 Frisians can speak and write the language actively, whereas additional 20,000 declared they understand it.

SORBIAN

Sorbian is the Slavic language, that is foremost present in the east of Germany: in Sachsen (two-thirds) and in Brandenburg (one-third). At present approximately 60,000 Sorbs live in Germany and in some districts they constitute up to 90 percent of the local population. According to the estimates, 20,000 Sorbs speak and write the language actively.

ROMANY

Romany is an independent language related to Sanskrit. It differs from other forms of Romany, spoken in the Eastern European countries. Presently, there are about 60,000 Romany-speakers and 10,000 Sinti-speakers living in Germany.

The Roma and Sinti live dispersed throughout the whole country, mostly in bigger cities, such as Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Köln and the Rhein/Main and Rhein/Neckar areas. For historical and other reasons, the use of Romany is largely a preserve of the private sphere.

NIEDERDEUTSCH

Niederdeutsch (also Plattdeutsch or Low German) was for a long time the common spoken and written language of the northern part of Germany (the Hanseatic Region). However, in time it lost its importance and became a minority language.

Currently Niederdeutsch is experiencing a renaissance, it is again increasingly popular among the inhabitants of seven German States (Brandenburg, Freie Hansestadt Bremen, Freie Hansestadt Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein), particularly among writers, musicians and in the media (mostly in the northern and central regions of Germany). It is spoken, or at least understood, by about eight million Germans.

Source: Minority-language Related Broadcasting and Legislation in the OSCE, Program in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP), Center for Socio-Legal Studies, Wolfson College, Oxford University & Institute for Information Law (IViR) (http://www.ivir.nl/index-english.html), Universiteit van Amsterdam (Study commissioned by the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities), April 2003, edited by T. McGonagle (IViR), B. Davis Noll & M. Price (PCMLP), http://www.ivir.nl/publications/mcgonagle/Minority-language%20broadcasting.pdf

¹ Each language group could be divided into smaller sub-groups; however, we deal only with these five main groups. Generally, minority languages are related to a particular geographic territory, with the exception of Romany.

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Updated (July 2008)

MINORITY LANGUAGES ARE IN DANGER OF EXTINCTION

The Council of Europe has recently released the third report on the application of the ECRML in Germany which revealed that minority languages, in particular North Frisian, South Frisian and Lower Sorbian, are in danger of extinction. Moreover, the report pointed to the fact that many of the recommendations of the previous reports have not been taken into consideration.

Based on the report, the Council of Europe calls on Germany to introduce new legal provisions to preserve and protect the endangered languages. Germany should make primary and secondary education available in regional and minority languages and take steps to boost their use on radio and television. It also calls on the German Government to provide adequate education in Upper Sorbian, Low German and Romani in particular.

Moreover, the Council asks Germany to ensure that all its languages currently under the ECRML's protection – among which Danish features in addition to the above - can be used in dealings with the administration and the courts.

In response, Germany said its “competent authorities do not invariably share the views and evaluations” of the Council. But it would not do the report justice to comment further before consulting with the Länder, said the Interior Ministry in a statement, explaining that the government will be able to react in detail when the next such report is published.

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