History of Esperanto
The history of Esperanto sums up the development of the Esperanto language community since the publication of the Basics of Esperanto in 1887.
Language history
The actual language history of Esperanto deals with the developments in grammar, vocabulary and style. In addition, the scope and distribution are to be dealt with in a language history; In Esperanto, this quickly transitions into the history of the language community or organizations.
The history of the Esperanto language begins atypically, as natural languages were first spoken before they were recorded in writing. In Esperanto, July 26, 1887 can be described as the birthday, since the first publication on Esperanto appeared on this day. However, since Esperanto uses stems from already existing languages, the history of the language could also be started earlier, and the language founder Zamenhof had already developed two projects.
Linguistic history means not only the development but also the codification of a language. On the one hand, Esperanto has grown through new words, for example for things that did not exist in 1887: televido (television), komputilo (computer, literally: arithmetic instrument ), aidoso (AIDS), modemo (modem). On the other hand, the grammar of the language was described in more and more detail. Zamenhof began in 1887 with a brief basic grammar of 16 rules; later grammars like those of Kalocsay / Waringhien or Wennergren are thick books. However, this is only about the description of language; Depending on the purpose, such a description can vary in detail.
Esperanto is considered to be very stable. One of the great concerns of the language founder was that Esperanto could break down into dialects if its followers quarrel. Much of the stability is due to the fact that Esperanto had a script from the start.
Made in 1887
At the beginning of Esperanto was Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof, who saw himself as the initiator of the language. Zamenhof grew up in the multilingual city of Białystok , then part of the Russian Empire and now part of Poland , where he experienced violent clashes between the various ethnic groups. Since he saw the lack of a common language as a reason for such conflicts, he began as a schoolboy to work out a language suitable for this role. This should - in comparison with ethnic languages, be more neutral and easier to learn and therefore acceptable as a second language for everyone - in addition to the previous languages. He presented a first version to his friends in 1879. Improved versions followed. After several years of testing, Zamenhof finally published his language project in 1887 with the support of his wife Klara Samenhof , which he called Lingvo internacia (international language). After his pseudonym Doktoro Esperanto (Doctor Hoffender), the language itself was soon referred to as the "Esperanto language" and then briefly as "Esperanto".
History up to the First World War
In 1887, Zamenhof published a first brochure on Esperanto ( International Language ), first in Russian , then in Polish , German , French and English . A Dua Libro (second book) followed in 1888 , which is why the first brochure is now called Unua Libro (first book).
The first adherents of the language were connected mainly through the magazine La Esperantisto , which was published in Nuremberg from September 1889 to June 1895. Initially, the Nuremberg Esperanto Group, a former Volapük association, was active as a publisher. From October 1890 Ludwik Zamenhof took over the publication of the magazine himself. All copies were printed by the W. Tümmels publishing house in Nuremberg.
In February 1895 the magazine contained a translated article by Tolstoy entitled " Reason and Faith ". This prompted the censors of Tsarist Russia to impose an import ban on the magazine. As a result, La Esperantisto lost sixty percent of its subscribers and had to be discontinued shortly afterwards. At this point the magazine had 717 subscribers and was published monthly. Leo Tolstoy tried in vain to influence the censorship. In addition, Zamenhof had financial problems to keep the magazine going. Part of their role was taken over by Lingvo Internacia , which was published from December 1895 by the Esperanto group from Uppsala ( Sweden ).
It was not until 1900 that Esperanto made progress in Western Europe, especially in France. The first supraregional Esperanto association was established there in 1898 by Louis de Beaufront . The Swiss National Association was founded in 1903. In quick succession there were groups and regional associations all over Europe and in some cases beyond. B. was founded in 1906 the German Esperanto Association , created an internal organization in 1909 and turned to the VI. German Esperanto Congress after its completion to spread. In the same year, the Koethener Polytechnikum was the first German university to introduce Esperanto for commercial engineers as a compulsory examination subject in the written and optional in the oral pre- examination . In 1905 the first Esperanto World Congress took place. This congress confirmed the Fundamento de Esperanto , a document that defines the basics of the language. In 1908 the Universala Esperanto-Asocio (Esperanto World Federation) was founded.
From 1907 a group of Esperanto followers from Neutral Moresnet (today Kelmis in the German-speaking Community in Belgium ) tried to create an Esperanto state called Amikejo (Esperanto for Place of Friends). Wilhelm Molly , chief physician of the ore mine there, ultimately tried in vain to proclaim the first Esperanto state in the world in Neutral Moresnet.
One problem faced by the young language community was efforts to reform the language. After a first big dispute in 1894, the "Ido crisis" of 1907/1908 should be mentioned above all. Two French scholars wanted to select one of the existing planned language projects and then propagate it, but finally a “reformed Esperanto” was presented. It was named " Ido " after the pseudonym of the author . Only a part of the Esperantists joined this reformed Esperanto, about five to ten percent (but a fifth of the Esperanto language committee).
Time of the world wars 1914 to 1945
During the First World War, most of the Esperanto associations in the warring countries had to limit or stop their activities. The World Esperanto Federation mediated correspondence between these countries.
"The Germans now put Esperanto first in the service of the fatherland [...] Therefore, at the end of August 1914, the official reports of the German, Austro-Hungarian and Turkish general staff were translated into the world aid language by the Leipzig Esperantist Association and twice a week in 2,000 copies each Sent to 650 recipients in 28 countries around the world. "
After the war, further groups and regional associations were founded, and there was also improved cooperation at the international level. In 1933/1934 the regional associations of the Universala Esperanto-Asocio joined. The aim of the collaboration was to jointly promote public relations and documentation on an international level.
In addition to this politically and religiously neutral Esperanto movement, Esperanto associations of workers were formed. The international organization Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda , the worldwide union of the nationless, dates from 1921 and has its seat in Paris .
Disabilities, Prohibitions and Persecution
Since the early 1930s, Esperanto has been subject to disabilities and prohibitions in a dozen countries. a. in Spain, Portugal and in East Asia. The Esperanto movement suffered severe setbacks under Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin . In 1935 there was a decree forbidding Esperanto lessons in schools: "The maintenance of artificially created auxiliary languages such as the Esperanto language has no place in the National Socialist state." In 1936, all associations that advocated "artificial languages" were dissolved, including that of one NSDAP member led the German Esperanto Association and endeavored to bring it into line, and the New German Esperanto Movement, which had been Nazi-oriented since its foundation in 1931 . The private use of Esperanto was not prohibited, although Esperanto speakers were occasionally subjected to interrogation as a result. The suppression lasted until the end of the National Socialist dictatorship in 1945.
In the Soviet Union the documents were secret. However, it is z. B. received an order from the People's Commissar for Interior of the Lithuanian SSR, Guzevičius, dated November 28, 1940, according to which all “anti-Soviet and alien elements” had to be registered; In one of the categories the Esperantists are listed next to stamp collectors; after the lists were completed, the arrests began. In many cases the accusation was stereotyped: "You are an active member of an international espionage organization that is hiding on the territory of the USSR under the name 'Association of Soviet Esperantists'". It is assumed that several thousand Esperanto speakers in the Soviet Union were subjected to persecution - arrested and then shot or locked in camps for years. Lins describes the persecution under Stalin as more serious than during the Nazi dictatorship.
During the Cold War 1945 to 1989
Even after the Second World War, there were still countries in which Esperanto was suppressed, such as the Soviet Union and, in some cases, Spain and Portugal. After a short period of bloom, the Eastern European associations were made inactive in late Stalinism around 1949. It was only after Stalin's death in 1953 that the associations were gradually able to work there again and, for example, join the World Federation - first the Polish one in 1955, and the Soviet one last in 1989.
In the GDR from 1949 to 1965 the formation of Esperanto associations was forbidden. Local Esperanto groups and courses were partially tolerated. In 1965 it was possible to set up a Central Esperanto Working Group and in 1981 an Esperanto Association (GDREA) in the Kulturbund of the GDR . The condition for this was that the leading role of the SED was recognized and the GDR was presented positively abroad.
Esperanto already received a certain amount of recognition through the League of Nations , when in 1922 the deputy general secretary Nitobe Inazō presented his official report on Esperanto. In 1954, UNESCO supported Esperanto through a resolution, repeated in 1985, in which it called on member states to investigate the possibility of using the language. It is not known whether even a single state followed this recommendation.
In 1980, during the Congress of World Esperanto Youth ( TEJO ) in Rauma (Finland), a manifesto was published which subsequently sparked many internal discussions about the goals of the Esperanto movement and whose endorsement is now referred to as " Raumism " after the venue becomes. The point was not to speak so much of a movement as of a language community.
Since 1989
The period from 1989 to 1991 also marked a significant transition for the Esperanto language community - especially with a view to Eastern Europe . There, associations that were fed and supervised by the state became free associations of citizens.
The first Esperanto association with an email address was the World Federation in February 1992. In 2001 the Esperanto Wikipedia was founded.
In 2005 the Universala Esperanto-Asocio had national associations on all five continents and members in 117 countries. It had 6,107 individual members and an additional 12,253 "affiliate members" through the associated state associations. Since 1989 this means a loss of well over half of the membership, which in 1989 was 42,000. Two thirds of the members of the Esperanto World Federation live in Europe.
See also
literature
- Peter G. Forster: The Esperanto Movement. Mouton, Den Haag et al. a. 1982, ISBN 90-279-3399-5 .
- Ivo Lapenna and others: Esperanto en perspective. UEA / CED, London / Rotterdam 1974, OCLC 840670286 .
- Ulrich Lins : The dangerous language. The persecution of the Esperantists under Hitler and Stalin . Bleicher Verlag, Gerlingen / Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-88350-023-2 .
- Marcus Sikosek (Ziko van Dijk): The neutral language. A political history of the Esperanto World Federation . Skonpres, Bydgoszcz 2006, ISBN 83-89962-03-9 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ La Esperantisto. Reprint. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 1988, ISBN 3-487-09062-7 .
- ↑ Summary of the history of the Nuremberg Esperanto group by Anny Hartwig.
- ↑ Zhu Xueli: Tolstoy and Esperanto. In: ÖkEsFo. 3rd volume, number 9, February 1993.
- ↑ Review of the year 1911. In: Germana Esperantisto - Der Deutsche Esperantist. 9th year, No. 1, p. 5.
- ↑ Germany was the first country to have reasonably reliable statistics on the development of the movement.
- ^ Peter G. Forster: The Esperanto Movement. Mouton, Den Haag et al. a. 1982, pp. 61-63.
- ↑ Detlev Blanke: Wilhelm Ostwald, Ido and Interlinguistics. In: Ulrich Becker (Hrsg.): A language for science. Contributions and materials of the Interlinguistics Colloquium for Wilhelm Ostwald on November 9, 1996 at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Berlin 1998, pp. 13–31, here p. 16. See further on the Ido crisis: Peter G. Forster: The Esperanto Movement. Mouton, Den Haag et al. a. 1982, pp. 110-144.
- ↑ On the Esperanto associations in the First World War see Marcus Sikosek: The neutral language. A political history of the Esperanto World Federation. Skonpres, Bydgoszcz 2006, pp. 79-90.
- ^ Albert Steche, Emil Stucke: Esperanto. Its history and its grammar . In: Kurt Krause (Ed.): The new adult education center (= library for modern intellectual education . Volume 4 ). Publishing house E. G. Weimann, Leipzig 1925, p. 15 .
- ↑ Ulrich Lins: The dangerous language. The persecution of the Esperantists under Hitler and Stalin . Bleicher, Gerlingen 1988, p. 104.
- ↑ On the Esperanto associations in the Third Reich see Marcus Sikosek: The neutral language. A political history of the Esperanto World Federation. Skonpres, Bydgoszcz 2006, pp. 199-205.
- ↑ Ulrich Lins: The dangerous language. The persecution of the Esperantists under Hitler and Stalin . Bleicher, Gerlingen 1988, p. 222. Category "j) People who have personal contacts and correspondence with foreign countries, with foreign embassies and consulates, Esperantists and stamp collectors."
- ↑ Ulrich Lins: The dangerous language. The persecution of the Esperantists under Hitler and Stalin . Bleicher, Gerlingen 1988, p. 220.
- ↑ "Rytjkow initially spent eight years in different camps (...) and was then banished 'forever' to Norilsk on the Arctic Circle. Thousands of Soviet Esperantists shared a similar fate." Quoted from: Ulrich Lins: The dangerous language. The persecution of the Esperantists under Hitler and Stalin . Bleicher, Gerlingen 1988, p. 220.
- ^ "Artificial language groups are to be dissolved" (§ 7) and "Esperanto language corners in the newspapers and magazines are to be closed immediately." (§ 8) Zentralverordnungsblatt No. 7, Jan. 12, 1949. Quoted from Torsten Bendias: Die Esperanto-Jugend in of the GDR: on the practice and lifeworld of social currents in state socialism. Berlin u. a. 2011, p. 47. (books.google.de)
- ↑ On the GDR association see Marcus Sikosek: The neutral language. A political history of the Esperanto World Federation. Skonpres. Bydgoszcz 2006, pp. 360-365. From the perspective of the association itself, Detlev Blanke writes: Sketch of the history of the Esperanto association in the German Democratic Republic. Berlin 1991.
- ↑ Ulrich Lins: 25 jarojn post la venko de Montevideo. In: Esperanto. Volume 72, December 1979, pp. 201-204.
- ^ Andreas Künzli: LL Zamenhof (1859–1917). : Esperanto, Hillelism (Homaranism) and the "Jewish question" in Eastern and Western Europe. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-447-06232-9 , p. 390.