German language maintenance office
The German Language Maintenance Office was founded in 1935 for the 50th anniversary of the General German Language Association in Dresden . It was the official counterpart to the German Academy in Munich and the German Language Association .
The tasks of the office were the supervision of the language in its written and oral expressions, in personal and public life, especially in the radio and in the press. It should have an impact with reprimands, but also with praise. In addition, the public should always be made aware of the need to maintain high-level language and dialects. The office saw a further task in the fight against damage to vocabulary and word usage, foreign words, buzzwords, abbreviations and in strengthening the linguistic connection with Germanness beyond the borders.
Together with Erich Gierach, Ewald Geißler contributed to the establishment of the German Language Maintenance Office in the National Socialist sense. Chief officer was finally Rudolf Buttmann , scientific director Otto Basler . Both did their work on a voluntary basis. Premises were made available to the office free of charge by the Reichsschrifttumskammer in Berlin . Shortly after starting work, it became apparent that the office had little government support, which was also reflected in the office's budget. The language maintenance office was only able to survive thanks to financial and other support from the Bibliographical Institute .
After a speech given by Joseph Goebbels on the occasion of May Day celebrations in 1937, in which he spoke out clearly against language maintenance, the office lost even more of its state support. It no longer had any noticeable influence on language maintenance. In 1940, foreign word Germanization was even banned (see also German language purism ). It continued to exist with a modest state budget until it was closed in 1944.
literature
- Peter von Polenz : German language history from the late Middle Ages to the present . Volume 3, 19th and 20th centuries. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1999. In particular, p. 284 f.
- Eckard Michels : From the German Academy to the Goethe Institute. Language and foreign cultural policy, 1923–1960 . Studies on contemporary history 50. Munich: Oldenbourg, 2005.
- Gerd Simon : 'Language maintenance in the Third Reich'. In: Ehlich, Konrad (ed.). Language in fascism . 3. Edition. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1989. pp. 58-86.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mother tongue. Journal of the German Language Association , No. 2, vol. 50/1935, p. 61.
- ↑ Polenz, Peter von: German language history from the late Middle Ages to the present. Volume 3, 19th and 20th centuries. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1999. p. 284.