Esperanto Association in the Kulturbund of the GDR

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The Esperanto Association in the Kulturbund of the GDR ( Esperanto-Asocio de GDR , GDREA) was founded in 1981 as a continuation of the “Central Esperanto Working Group”.

From 1949 to 1961 Esperanto associations were banned in the GDR , the Esperantists were allowed to speak Esperanto, but meetings or obtaining foreign publications were already in a gray area and attracted the attention of the state repression apparatus.

In 1965, a "Central Esperanto Working Group " (ZAK Esperanto, Centra Laborrondo Esperanto, CLE) was founded in the Kulturbund . Working groups were formed under his umbrella at the district and district level. The central working group saw it as its task at the time, a. To establish contacts with Esperantists in the “socialist countries” and with “progressive” Esperantists in the West and to unmask the “West German revenge policy”. The pre-1933 worker Esperantist tradition was particularly emphasized.

In 1976 the working group joined the Esperanto World Federation as a connecting member. The international contacts were rather low, also in comparison with Hungary or Poland. In 1981 the “Esperanto Association in the Cultural Association of the GDR” was founded out of the working group.

The linguist Detlev Blanke was the association's secretary for many years . The diplomat Rudi Graetz was one of the chairmen .

After German reunification , the association merged with the German Esperanto Federation in 1991 at the German Esperanto Congress in Munich . The library and archive have been transferred to the Federal Archives (SAPMO).

literature

  • Detlev Blanke : Sketch of the history of the Esperanto Association in the German Democratic Republic. Edited by the Esperanto Association in the Kulturbund e. V. Translated from Esperanto into German by Ino Kolbe. Berlin 1991, DNB 930304039 (original title: Sketcho de la historio de GDREA; reproduced as a manuscript).
  • Marcus Sikosek (Ziko van Dijk): The neutral language. A political history of the Esperanto World Federation. Skonpres, Bydgoszcz 2006, ISBN 83-89962-03-9 , pp. 259-265, 360-3365 (Zugl .: Utrecht, Universität, Diss., 2006).