General German language association

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At the end of August 1885, the art historian and museum director Herman Riegel (1834-1900) called for the establishment of the General German Language Association ( ADSV ). Following this call, the Dresden German studies specialist and teacher Hermann Dunger founded the first ADSV branch association in Braunschweig on September 10, 1885. This day is now considered the foundation date of the ADSV. The "Vienna Branch" followed in 1886. From the beginning of its work, the association has dedicated itself to combating foreign words in the German language vocabulary. In 1940, during the Hitler dictatorship, the association's activities were severely restricted; 1943 the printing of the club magazine was stopped. Two years after the Second World War, in 1947, a successor organization, the Society for German Language , was founded in Lüneburg ; in Vienna in 1948 the mother tongue association followed .

Time of origin

Dunger was the founder of the first branch, but Riegel was the first chairman of the ADSV from 1885. In 1893 he resigned from the management team after internal quarrels. He expressed himself as a linguistic layman when, in 1883, he wrote “A main part of our mother tongue. A reminder to all nationally-minded Germans ”was the first time publicly against the“ foreign words nasty ”in the German language. He sharply criticized the supposedly deeply rooted influence of French lexicons on the German language. He wanted to “render this service to my nation and hold this mirror up to it” (p. 2). In it he laments a "lack of sensation in relation to the purity and beauty of the language", which he can hardly understand (ibid.). Riegel found it particularly scandalous that “German men, in whose efficiency the weal and woe of the fatherland and the fate of the nation rest” have to use French foreign words: “Why is the German warrior not allowed to load his rifle, but has to 'charge' it? "(P. 58).

Initially, however, there was no talk of founding an association, on the contrary: "I know this: with special associations and societies to combat the evil, with suggestions for German translations and with dictionaries, by and large, nothing helps in the long term." (P . 43). Riegel justified his change of heart two years later with his text “The general German language association” to found a language association with the unexpected success that his “main piece” had. This success is a sign of a "movement" in the German people to work for the beauty and purity of the German language.

At the end of August 1885, Riegel and 20 other personalities sent out an appeal to found the ADSV. On September 10, the first branch association was founded in Dresden under the direction of Hermann Dunger (1843–1912; Dunger studied classical philology and was a grammar school teacher in Dresden). This date is considered to be the founding date of the ADSV.

aims

Examples of substitute words
Foreign word German substitute word
sauce Dip
infant Kleinling
crematorium Flame Hall
chop Rib cuts
Polonaise Noble dance
goal goal
Ticket ticket
platform platform
Coupe compartment
fricassee Whitewashed
cigar Smoke roll

The protagonists of the association understood the language cleansing they are striving for as a national task from the start. In the statutes of 1886 it is said that the association came into being to

  1. "To promote the cleaning of the German language from unnecessary foreign components,
  2. to maintain and restore the real spirit and peculiar nature of the German language - and
  3. in this way to strengthen the general national consciousness in the German people. "

Riegel's sentence became the motto of the association: Remember, even if you speak the German language, that you are a German!

In its early days, the association primarily fought foreign words from French and from Latin or Greek components, and later increasingly anglicisms . He not only had the public use of language in mind, it was about "German language, German honor - also in the kitchen and cellar, on the table!"

The private use of language should also be changed. The club saw itself as moderate and wanted to set itself apart from previous radical purists . Riegel emphasized that he wanted to avoid “foolish exaggeration” and “passionate cleaning mania”. According to Riegel, this self-restraint and moderation is expressed in his motto: “Not a foreign word for what can be expressed well in German.” (Riegel: Hauptstück 1888, p. 3.) This subjective criterion should prevent exaggerated German translations. The practice looked different: The ADSV neither stopped at technical terms, nor did it allow itself to be deterred by the argument of comprehensibility from German translations of any kind.

Rather, he made the use of foreign words or the avoidance of foreign words the yardstick for the patriotism of fellow citizens. The German substitute words for all areas of life should be popularized by so-called "German translation books". In addition, the ADSV tried to displace foreign words as much as possible from the German vocabulary through its magazine, letters to authorities, associations and newspapers as well as public lectures. The ADSV has not displaced foreign words, but has contributed to a “semantic diversification of the vocabulary of the standard language”. So the Germanization of the ADSV for " automobile ", the " motor vehicle ", is only used in official and not in everyday language. However, not all replacements for language cleaners were absurd, not only legislative texts have become more understandable with German terms, the use of “ticket” instead of “ticket” or “platform” instead of “platform” is due to the German advocates.

Members and expansion

The ADSV wanted to be understood as impartial , as Riegel's appeal at the 1888 general meeting shows:

“I have to allow myself to suggest another reminder. Our association has only one goal: the salvation of our precious mother tongue. Every German who wants and strives for this with us from the bottom of the heart is welcome and valued by us, regardless of whether he belongs to a political party or a religious denomination. […] In our midst we have conservatives and progressives, liberals of all degrees and center men, Catholics and Evangelicals, strictly ecclesiastical men and free thinkers, Jews and anti-Semites: We do it with everyone [,] but not with any individual. We are only national and only with regard to our German language. "

To what extent this alleged political heterogeneity of the members corresponded to reality is unclear, as there are no studies on the membership structure of the ADSV. Riegel understood nationalism as a non-partisan virtue of all Germans - although social democrats are not mentioned in his list.

The club grew quickly. In October 1887 there were 6,000–7,000 members and 91 branches, just under a year later 106 branches and around 8,000 members. In 1890 the number of members had grown to almost 12,000. However, the club did not grow equally fast and equally strong everywhere. While numerous branch associations were formed in north and central Germany as well as in Austria, southern Germany, and especially Bavaria, lagged behind, which Riegel expressly regretted. The work had real language-changing effects in Austria, but hardly in Switzerland. In 1906 there were 284 branches, 24 of them in Austria-Hungary .

The largest group of members, almost a third (29.17%), came from the trade and industry in 1890. Teachers and university lecturers followed with 20.8%, the latter only making up 1.67%. The further distribution was as follows: members of the authorities and technicians are each represented with 7.5%, lawyers with 6.7%, medical professionals with 4.2%, the military with 3.3%, the book trade and printers with 2 , 8%, theologians with 2.2%, postal workers with 1.9%, writers, journalists and artists “unfortunately only” with 1.8%, farmers with 1.5%. 2.5% of the members were women, 3.3% were associations in the ADSV.

Early criticism of the ADSV

The association hardly received any recognition from university German studies. The only exceptions are Friedrich Kluge and Otto Behaghel , who sympathized with the ADSV but were not members. Instead, the ADSV had to deal with numerous, sometimes prominent opponents at an early stage. Herman Grimm (1828–1901), Jacob Grimm's nephew and professor of art history in Berlin, Gustav Rümelin (1815–1888), lawyer and chancellor of the University of Tübingen, Hans Delbrück (1848–1929), historian and politician, and others came first individually against the language association. Delbrück not only attacked the work of the association, but also the reason for the language cleaning:

“There is no more dangerous enemy for true Germanness than Deutschthümelei, which throws an appearance of its own ridiculousness back on that. This type of German thumbling also includes 'language cleaning' [...]. "

These critics could still be dismissed as stubborn troublemakers. The so-called “Declaration of 41” of March 1889 then had to be downright shocking for the ADSV. 41 partly prominent personalities, mainly writers and people from the university environment, including the philosopher Wilhelm Dilthey (1833–1911), the writer Gustav Freytag (1816–1895), the historian and writer Heinrich von Treitschke (1834–1896), the Doctor Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902) and the poet Theodor Fontane (1819–1898) signed a declaration against the association on February 28, 1889, which was published in the March 1889 issue of the “Preussische Jahrbücher” magazine published by Heinrich von Treitschke and Hans Delbrück has been.

The signatories of the declaration accepted the necessity of language cleaning in principle, but refused to patronize the use of language by the association or state institutions, as the ADSV sought. The reason for the declaration was that the board of directors of the ADSV had sent a letter to the Prussian minister of spiritual, educational and medical affairs, Dr. von Goßler, in which he was asked to inform the school authorities about the “efforts of the general German language association.” In this, the signatories recognized the attempt to have the language regulated “from above”.

The deeply injured ADSV, who had apparently taken many of the signatories, at least Gustav Freytag and Heinrich von Treitschke, to be comrades-in-arms and not opponents, responded with a campaign in which the signatories were aggressively mocked, ridiculed and vilified. Fontane was accused of being "outrageous" and "an insult and mockery of the German emperor and the German people."

According to Helmut Bernsmeier, some of the critics showed an ambivalent behavior because they searched their own works for foreign words and replaced them with German terms. From this it can be concluded that the influence of the language club on the school as an institution and the language maintenance caused by its proximity to the government was rejected from "above" rather than its efforts.

Internal quarrels and Riegel's resignation

While the ADSV was able to move closer together in the joint fight against its opponents, from April 1891 internal disputes almost endangered the existence of the association. The dispute between the entire association and the Berlin branch association was, in the end, a very personal dispute between the two chairmen Herman Riegel and Franz Reuleaux . Riegel and the entire board criticized the "non-statutory unauthorized procedure" of the Berlin branch. Reuleaux and anonymous critics from the circle of the Berlin branch, accused Riegel of violating the statutes and a "selfish greed for power".

In the anonymously published article “The gagged language association and its veiled administration”, Riegel was criticized even more, for example the accusation that the ADSV magazine only spreads Riegel's opinion. In addition, Riegel was accused of "self-importance". Further allegations of the author were: Critics were muzzled, the board elections were manipulated and undemocratic, Riegel enriched themselves at the association, the members were rendered underage and Riegel angered many friends of the ADSV with his malicious and derisive personal attacks. The conflict finally escalated after a warning was sent to the Berlin branch and Riegel threatened to resign, and after a turbulent general meeting in 1893 led to the exclusion of the Berlin branch. Nonetheless, after Riegel had won this dispute and criticized Reuleaux again in an open letter, he resigned at the end of 1893 and was immediately made an honorary member of the ADSV.

Further development

The association, which was called Deutscher Sprachverein from 1923, later only Sprachverein, was able to further increase its membership numbers under the new chairmen Max Jähns and Otto Sarrazin , experienced a heyday in the First World War , which was followed by a dry spell in the Weimar Republic . The Nazism was the ADSV, now as " SA , joyfully welcomed understand our native language", but it was believed to agree with the new rulers. However, the work of the ADSV was characterized by naivety. The ADSV suggested using the word “ sterilization ” instead of “ sterilization ” and thereby misunderstood the euphemistic use of the word intended by the National Socialists .

The end of the ADSV

The ADSV, which occasionally cautiously criticized Adolf Hitler's use of foreign words , apparently soon became a nuisance to the National Socialist rulers. On November 19, 1940, a decree by Hitler effectively put an end to the association. In it it said:

"The Führer does not want such violent Germanization and does not approve of the artificial replacement of foreign words that have long been naturalized into German by words that are usually only incomplete from the spirit of the German language and the meaning of the foreign words."

The language association was not prohibited, but its work was considerably restricted. In 1943 the magazine was discontinued due to a lack of paper, which gave the impression from the outside that the association had stopped its work. Nevertheless, the language counseling in the Berlin branch was continued and the last official work report of the association appeared in January 1945. It also mentions the evacuation of the association's library. At least on paper, the Frankfurt branch still existed a few years after the end of the war.

The association's legal successor was the Society for the German Language , founded in Lüneburg in 1947 and now based in Wiesbaden , which has retained the name of the association's journal (mother tongue) to this day.

See also

literature

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Riegel's writings

(in selection):

  • A major part of our mother tongue. Reminder to all nationally minded Germans. Leipzig 1883.
  • The General German Language Association, as a supplement to its writing: A main part of our mother tongue, a warning to all nationally minded Germans. Heilbronn 1885.
  • A major part of our mother tongue, the general German language association and the establishment of a Reichsanstalt for the German language. Reminder to all nationally minded Germans. 2nd, revised and very enlarged edition. Brunswick 1888.
  • Privy Councilor Professor Franz Reuleaux and his activities in the general German language association. Brunswick 1893.

Publications of the ADSV

(in selection)

  • Statutes of the ADSV, o. O. 1886; Statutes and rules of procedure of the ADSV. Resolved by the general meeting in Berlin on December 2nd and 3rd, 1893.
  • Journal of the general German language association.
  • Scientific supplements to the journal of the general German language association.
  • German translation books of the general German language association. Volume 2, Braunschweig 1888ff.

Other sources

  • Anonymous: The gagged language club and its veiled administration. In: Berlin Foreign Journal. May 14, 1892. Second sheet (No. 112).
  • Carl Bardt et al. a .: Explanation. In: Prussian year books. 63, 1889, pp. 312f. ( Online in Google Book Search - USA )
  • Hans Delbrück : The language cleaning, Prince Bismarck and Heinrich v. Treitschke. Untitled, untitled (= special print from the "Prussian Yearbooks", edited by Hans Delbrück, Volume 156, Issue 2).
  • Hans Delbrück: The justification of foreign words. By Gustav Rümelin [review], In: Prussian year books. 59, 1887, pp. 395f. ( Online in Google Book Search - USA )
  • Hermann Dunger: The German language movement and the General German Language Association 1885-1910. Festschrift for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the General German Language Association, September 10, 1910. Berlin 1910.
  • Gustav Rümelin: About the authorization of foreign words. Speech on the academic award of prizes on November 6, 1886. In: Gustav Rümelin (Ed.): The justification of foreign words. 2nd Edition. Freiburg im Breisgau 1887, pp. 1–38.
  • Paul Zimmermann: Herman Riegel †. In: Braunschweigisches Magazin. 23, 1900, pp. 177-189.

Scientific literature

  • Claus Ahlzweig: Mother tongue - fatherland. The German nation and its language. Opladen 1994.
  • Sussan Milantchi Ameri: The German national language movement in the Wilhelminian Empire. New York et al. a. 1991.
  • Stephen Barbour: "Language is a sacred bond for us". Reflections on the Role of Language in German Nationalism, Past and Present. In: John L. Flood et al. a. (Ed.): "The invisible bond of language". Studies in German Language and Linguistic History in Memory of Leslie Seiffert. Stuttgart 1993, pp. 313-332.
  • Heinrich Beck u. a. (Ed.): On the history of the equation "Germanic - German". Language and names, history and institutions. (= Supplementary volumes to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Volume 34). Berlin / New York 2004.
  • Dietz Bering: Language and Anti-Semitism in the 19th Century. In: Rainer Wimmer (Ed.): The 19th century. Linguistic roots of today's German. (= Institute for the German Language, Yearbook 1990). Berlin / New York 1991, pp. 325–354.
  • Helmut Bernsmeier: The General German Language Association in its founding phase. In: mother tongue . Vol. 87, 1977, pp. 369-395.
  • Helmut Bernsmeier: The General German Language Association in the period from 1912-1932. In: mother tongue. Vol. 90 1980, pp. 117-140.
  • Helmut Bernsmeier: The German language association in the "Third Reich". In: mother tongue. Vol. 93 1983, pp. 35-58.
  • Herbert Blume: The General German Language Association as an object of linguistic historiography. With a chapter on Hermann Riegel. In: Dieter Cherubim, Siegfried Grosse, Klaus J. Mattheier (eds.): Language and bourgeois nation. Contributions to the German and European language history of the 19th century. Berlin / New York 1998, pp. 123-147.
  • Peter Braun (Ed.): Foreign word discussion. Munich 1979.
  • Armin Burkhardt, Dieter Cherubim (Hrsg.): Language in the life of time. Contributions to the theory, analysis and criticism of the German language in the past and present. Helmut Henne on his 65th birthday. Tübingen 2001.
  • Dieter Cherubim: Language Development and Language Criticism in the 19th Century. Contributions to the constitution of a pragmatic history of language. In: Thomas Cramer (Hrsg.): Literature and language in the historical process. Lectures of the German Association of German Studies in Aachen. 1982. Volume 2: Language. Tübingen 1983, pp. 170-188.
  • Dieter Cherubim, Siegfried Grosse, Klaus J. Mattheier (eds.): Language and bourgeois nation. Contributions to the German and European language history of the 19th century. Berlin / New York 1998.
  • Dieter Cherubim: Pathologia Linguae. The "diseases" of language and their remedies. In: Armin Burkhardt, Dieter Cherubim (Hrsg.): Language in the life of time. Contributions to the theory, analysis and criticism of the German language in the past and present. Helmut Henne on his 65th birthday. Tübingen 2001, pp. 427-447.
  • Roger Chickering : Language and the Social Foundation of Radical Nationalism in Wilhelmine Era. In: Walter Pape (Ed.): 1870/71 - 1989/90. German Unifications and the Change of Literary Discourse. Berlin / New York 1993, pp. 61-78.
  • Roger Chickering: Nationalism in the Wilhelmine Empire. The example of the General German Language Association. In: Otto Dann (Ed.): The German Nation. History - Problems - Perspectives. (= Cologne contributions to national research. Volume 1). Vierow near Greifswald 1994, pp. 60-70.
  • Andreas Gardt (Ed.): Nation and Language. The discussion of their relationship in the past and present. Berlin / New York 2000.
  • Andreas Gardt: Language nationalism between 1850 and 1945. In: Andreas Gardt (Hrsg.): Nation und Sprache. The discussion of their relationship in the past and present. Berlin / New York 2000, pp. 247-271.
  • Karl-Heinz Göttert : The language cleaners. The fight against foreign words and German nationalism , Propylaen Verlag , Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-54-910009-7 .
  • Helmut Henne: Selective and political language control. To 13 editions of Gustav Wurstmann's "Sprachdummheiten". In: Journal for the German language. 21 vol., 1965, pp. 175-184.
  • Ingrid Selma Hillen: Investigations on the continuity and change of language cultivation in the German Reich, in the Federal Republic and in the GDR (1885 to the present). Dissertation . University of Bonn, 1982.
  • Hubert Ivo: mother tongue, identity, nation. Language education in the field of tension between local and foreign. Opladen 1994.
  • Michael Jeismann: The fatherland of the enemy. Studies on the national enemy concept and self-image in Germany and France 1792–1918. Stuttgart 1992.
  • Björn H. Jernudd, Michael J. Shapiro (eds.): The politics of language purism. Berlin u. a. 1989.
  • Alan Kirkness: On language cleaning in German 1789–1871. A historical documentation. 2 parts (= research reports of the Institute for German Language Mannheim. 26). Tuebingen 1975.
  • Dieter Netz: On the influence of the “General German Language Association” on the lexical norm of literary language in the 19th century. In: Academy of Sciences of the GDR, Central Institute for Linguistics (Hrsg.): Studies on the German linguistic history of the 19th century. Forms of existence of language. (= Linguistic Studies. Series, A, Arbeitsberichte Volume 66,2). Berlin 1980, pp. 68-115.
  • Reinhard Olt : Against the foreign? The work of the General German Language Association in Hesse 1885–1944. With an introductory study on language cleaning and foreign language issues in Germany and France since the 16th century. (= Sources and research on Hessian history. Volume 80). Darmstadt, Marburg 1991.
  • Peter von Polenz : linguistic purism and National Socialism. The 'foreign word' question yesterday and today. In: Benno von Wiese, Rudolf Henß (ed.): Nationalism in German studies and poetry. Documentation of the German Studies Day in Munich from 17.-22. October 1966. Berlin 1967, pp. 79–112.
  • Peter Polenz: Foreign word and loan word considered linguistically. In: Peter Braun (Ed.): Foreign word discussion. Munich 1979, pp. 9-31.
  • Peter von Polenz: German language history from the late Middle Ages to the present. Volume 3: The 19th and 20th Centuries. Berlin u. a. 1999.
  • Uwe Puschner , Walter Schmitz, Justus H. Ulbricht (eds.): Handbook on the “Völkische Movement” 1871–1918. Munich u. a. 1996.
  • Uwe Puschner: The nationalist movement in the Wilhelmine Empire. Language - race - religion. Darmstadt 2001.
  • Jürgen Schiewe : The power of language. A history of language criticism from antiquity to the present. Munich 1998.
  • Christiane Schlaps: The concept of a German linguistic spirit in the history of language theory. In: Andreas Gardt (ed.): Nation and Language. The discussion of their relationship in the past and present. Berlin / New York 2000, pp. 273–347.
  • Hartmut Schmidt: The living language. To the origin of the organism concept. Berlin 1986.
  • Andreas Schumann: Völkische Tendencies in German Studies and Philology. In: Uwe Puschner, Walter Schmitz and Justus H. Ulbricht (eds.): Handbook on the “Völkische Movement” 1871–1918. Munich u. a. 1996, pp. 859-873.
  • Gerd Simon : A hundred years of “mother tongue”. A museum director's ideas and their consequences. In: German lessons. 5, 1986, pp. 83-98.
  • Gerd Simon: Mother tongue and persecution. Collective criticism between marginalia cult and readiness for violence. [Introduction and first chapter of an unfinished and unpublished book] oO, undated, online Introduction and first chapter (accessed on November 24, 2005)
  • Ottosteueragel: The effects of the German language association on the German language. In: Scientific supplements to the magazine of the German Language Association. 41, 1926, pp. 1-108.
  • Patrick Stevenson: The German Language and the Construction of National Identities. In: John L. Flood et al. a. (Ed.): "The invisible bond of language". Studies in German Language and Linguistic History in Memory of Leslie Seiffert. Stuttgart 1993, pp. 333-356.
  • Jürgen Storost: The General German Language Association. In: Richard Baum u. a. (Ed.): Lingua et traditio. History of linguistics and recent philologies. Festschrift for Hans Helmut Christmann on his 65th birthday. Tübingen 1994, pp. 827-843.
  • Anja Stukenbrock: Linguistic nationalism. Language reflection as a medium of collective identity creation in Germany (1617–1945). Berlin 2005.
  • Silke Wiechers: The Society for the German Language. Prehistory, history and work of a German language association . (Contributions to Linguistics 28.) Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Vienna: Lang, 2004.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Katja Iken: Hunt for foreign words. In: Spiegel Online . Der Spiegel , November 25, 2019, accessed on December 24, 2019 .
  2. ^ Journal of the ADSV. Volume I, No. 12, May 2, 1887, Col. 190
  3. ^ Journal of the ADSV. Volume II, No. 11, November 1, 1888, Col. 165.
  4. ^ Journal of the ADSV. 1887, col. 251.
  5. ^ Journal of the ADSV. Volume II, No. 11, November 1, 1888, Col. 161.
  6. ^ Journal of the ADSV. Volume III, No. 7, July 1, 1890, Col. 100.
  7. ^ Brockhaus' Kleines Konversations-Lexikon. 5th edition. 1906.
  8. ^ Journal of the ADSV. Volume III, No. 7, July 1, 1890, Col. 100.
  9. ↑ D [elbrück, Hans]: The authorization of foreign words. By Gustav Rümelin [review], In: Prussian year books. 4, 1887, p. 395.
  10. ^ Journal of the ADSV. Volume II, No. 1, January 2, 1889, Col. 15.
  11. ^ Journal of the ADSV. Volume II, No. 4, April 1, 1889, Col. 56.
  12. ^ Anne Fabian, Denis Fabian: The General German Language Association. A comprehensive critical examination from 1883 to 1943. GRIN Verlag, Munich 2012, p. 30.
  13. ↑ Berlin Foreign Journal. May 14, 1892, second sheet
  14. ↑ cit. n. Polenz: foreign word and loan word. P. 11.
  15. ↑ Mother tongue. 49 (1934), col. 214.
  16. ^ Decree of the Reich Minister for Science, Education and Public Education. In: German Science, Education and National Education, Official Journal. 6, 1940, p. 534.
  17. ↑ Wiechers, Silke. The Society for German Language. Prehistory, history and work of a German language association . (Contributions to Linguistics 28.) Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Vienna: Lang, 2004. pp. 55–56.
  18. ^ For further text by Simons see web links: on Alsace 1940–1944.