Johann Martin Schleyer
Johann Martin Schleyer (born July 18, 1831 in Oberlauda ; † August 16, 1912 in Konstanz ) was a Catholic priest , poet and philanthropist . He invented the planned language Volapük around 1880 and was the movement's first cifal .
biography
parents
Johann Martin Schleyer was born in Oberlauda in 1831 as the son of a teacher. In the Volapük Almanac (" Lekaled Volapüka ") for 1888, Sigmund Spielmann, board member of the Scientific World Language Association "Volapük" in Vienna writes:
“The author of the Volapük, Johann Martin Schleyer, was born on July 18, 1831 (a Sunday) in Oberlauda in Baden as the fourth of five siblings. His father, Johann Philip Schleyer, who saw the light of day in Neckargerach near Mosbach on July 18, 1802, was Oberlauda's main teacher for 42 years and, despite his 85 years of age, still writes with seldom vigor every day for his son, with whom he lives .
Johann M. Schleyer's mother, Katharina Elisabeth b. Veith died on September 2, 1877; Unfortunately, the good woman was not destined to experience and enjoy the epoch-making success of her son's work. "
education
Johann Martin Schleyer's parents did not plan to let their son study. It is thanks to his uncle, the main teacher Franz Martin Schleyer from Königheim , that he got the opportunity. He stayed with his uncle for four years, up to the age of 15, to prepare for high school.
He attended grammar school in Tauberbischofsheim and practiced music and poetry in the house of the Medical Council in Metz. Adam Hönninger, the pastor of Lauda, made his classic library available to him. Schleyer then studied at the Lyceum in Karlsruhe , attended lectures in chemistry and at the polytechnic . His versatility was shown by the fact that he received a prize for drawing and was allowed to sing in the Protestant court church of the Grand Duke .
From 1852 Schleyer studied at the University of Freiburg , where he studied Catholic theology , philology, philosophy, history and medicine for one semester until 1855 . In addition, he continued to practice poetry and music, so that he could eventually play seven different musical instruments. He was an organist at the university church and a harmonium player at the hospital. On August 5, 1856 Schleyer received by Archbishop Hermann von Vicari the priesthood and was a chaplain in Sinzheim (1856), Baden-Baden (1857), Kronau (1858) and Wertheim (1860).
In Wertheim Schleyer had contact with Dom Miguel , the exiled ex-king of Portugal, and the prince Löwenstein . His liberal outlook was shown by the fact that he kept the register of the Israelite community and associated with Jews and Protestants.
Employment
Schleyer occupied his first pastor's post in Messkirch in 1862 , and from 1867 in Krumbach (today part of the Sauldorf community ). During this time he communicated with the abbot Maurus Wolter von Beuron and created a tactile alphabet for the deaf-blind.
During the Kulturkampf he was arrested for a critical sermon in 1875 and taken to Rastatt for four months . He attacked the "scourges" of his time with numerous incendiary speeches, namely communists , atheists , Old Catholics and mixed marriages .
After his release from prison, Schleyer became a pastor in Litzelstetten near Konstanz on December 17, 1875 . There he devoted himself almost exclusively to the study of foreign languages: Besides ancient Greek and Latin, he also learned French, English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Romanian, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Romansh, Hungarian, Croatian, Czech, Slovenian, Serbian, Modern Greek, Turkish, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, Chinese, Sanskrit , Prakrit and other languages.
These were the preliminary studies for Volapük, which he presented to the public at the beginning of 1879. The 1st edition of his Weltsprach-Grammar appeared in an edition of 1000 copies and was sold out within five months.
retirement
In 1885 Schleyer retired for health reasons. Johann Martin Schleyer remained a simple village pastor throughout his entire professional life. It was only during his time as a pensioner that Pope Leo XIII received him in 1894 . appointed papal house prelate .
Schleyer kept a diary from 1863 until his death. From 1876 to 1884 he was editor of the "Sionsharfe - magazine for Catholic poetry". In 1879 he published the internationally standardized planned language Volapük and in 1887 founded a Volapük academy to monitor linguistic development. Until his death he worked on the Volapük dictionary, especially on the new version from 1894.
Although he received the last unction for the first time in 1888 due to health concerns, he did not die in Constance until 1912 and is buried in the main cemetery in Constance .
Schleyer as a linguist
According to his own statements, Johann Martin Schleyer dealt intensively with 80 languages and dialects and was introduced to the Pope by the Archbishop of Freiburg as a German mezzofanti . According to his own admission, Schleyer spoke 50 foreign languages. What is certain is that he wrote sayings in 22 languages and edited grammars and dictionaries in 25 languages. His language studies spanned 88 languages and dialects.
Inventor of the planned language Volapük
He created his planned language Volapük after a sleepless night on March 31, 1879, which he describes as follows:
"In a way that was puzzling to me, even mysterious, in the dark of night, in the rectory in Litzelstetten, in the corner room on the 2nd floor, which looks out into the parish garden, when I was thinking about so many grievances, ailments and miseries of our time, it suddenly stood Building my world language in front of my mind's eye. I owe the whole system of the world language Volapük to my good genius. "
This was preceded by his work on a world alphabet that should be uniform for all languages. The reason for this project, in turn, was the complaint of a farmer who told him that the letters to his son who had emigrated to the USA were not delivered because no one could read his writing. This was particularly bad for him because he was dependent on financial support from his son. That night God spoke to him in a dream and suggested that he should create a world auxiliary language instead of a world alphabet.
In his description of the origin and development of Volapük "The first decade of the world language Volapük" ("Yebalsüp balid volapüka") Rupert Kniele wrote in 1889:
“It is well known that when Pastor Johann Martin Schleyer exhibited his world language system, which he called Volapük, he had no idea that for more than 200 years men of outstanding intellectual stature, headed by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz , had been trying to do this , of course with negative results. In Schleyer, the thought that there should only be one script and perhaps also one language of correspondence for communication between all peoples on earth first dawned in the mid-1970s when a neighbor of his in his Krumbach parish complained that the Letters which he wrote to his son in America did not get to their address there, and the pastor then discovered that this was due to the incorrect spelling, which deviated from the English orthography.
The first fruit of this experience was the attempt to construct a mixed language from German, English, French, Italian, Spanish and Russian, i.e. the 6 main cultural languages, which he wanted to call 'Völkerdelmetsch'. But because a common understanding among the different peoples presupposes a common spelling, Schleyer first tried to set up a 'world alphabet' (January 18, 1878). "
He simplified the word stems to one syllable, deleted double consonants, abolished the "R" in favor of the Chinese language and only wrote the words as they were spoken.
Volapük was the first planned language to have a large following internationally, even if it was not easy to speak. He lived in his house at Schottenstrasse 37 in Konstanz from 1889 to 1912. He referred to it as the “Weltsprache-Zentralbüro” and from there sent his Weltspracheblatt (until 1908), textbooks and dictionaries, religious poetry and collected wisdom all over the world .
Schleyer as a musician
In addition to his talent for foreign languages, Schleyer was also a talented musician. He played 16 different musical instruments and earned some extra money during his studies by organist services and music lessons. On his 50th birthday he received a golden harp from employees of his magazine Sionsharfe.
Schleyer as a man of letters
Johann Martin Schleyer came out with his own poems, which earned him a certain reputation and secured a place in contemporary literary histories and anthologies:
- Philalethes (1864),
- Love in a Hundred Forms (1873).
As an example of his poetry, the beginning of his poem Die Die Martyrliebe (Brother Bennat and the Paris Communists) is quoted:
“The revolvers in the fist
storm
the Communes in the house of furious devotion, spreading madness
and horror in rings.
Brother Bennat steps up
to the pack of tigers calmly . -
'Swear: God is a fairy tale!'
It echoes like hell around his ear. "
Schleyer also published biblical dramas, psalms, epics, epistles and health guides such as
- Universal remedies, which can save the doctor, pharmacist, time and a lot of pain or
- Three dozen remedies for the cough and
- 50 travel rules from a well-traveled traveler .
In his Litzelstetter time he published the monthly Sionsharfe - magazine for Catholic poetry (1876-1884). Most of the content came from himself.
personality
Schleyer's personal appearance is described by the Austrian captain on the General Staff, Karl Nosek, as follows:
“A high forehead arches over sharp glasses, through which a faint look penetrates from his overexcited, increasingly weaker eyes, which always lie in the depths of a dark, shadowy ring. Despite his 56 years of age, an abundance of gray hair and an exceptional beard frame his face. If there were no other necessity for growing the beard, the seconds of time would have to compel him to do what he needed for shaving and which would be robbed of his working hours; and time is of the essence when you step on the declining branch of your life! Schleyer's demeanor, his essence, the affability, the embodied, pure love of humanity. - That is the picture of this interesting man, whose features, once seen, are so vivid that one would be able to draw them quickly with a few strong lines and strokes. "
relationship
Schleyer was the great-uncle of the future German employer president Hanns Martin Schleyer , who was kidnapped and killed by the RAF in 1977.
Commemoration
At the rectory in Konstanz- Litzelstetten in Martin-Schleyer-Str. 18 a plaque commemorates the inventor of Volapük: "Menade bal - püki bal" - "One (actually: one) humanity - one language". A memorial plaque can be found on Schleyer's former home in Constance at Schottenstrasse 37, where the “Weltsprach-Zentralbüro” was located from 1889 to 1912. Schleyer's grave is located in the main cemetery in Konstanz , Riesenbergweg in the Petershausen district, Grabfeld 12, row 11. In Konstanz there is the Schleyerweg in Petershausen. In Sauldorf the Johann-Martin-Schleyer-Straße. The grammar school in Lauda was named after Johann Martin Schleyer (Martin-Schleyer-Gymnasium Lauda).
In 2001 an international beatification committee was established . The pastor of Villingen proposed the two Freiburg diocesan priests Johann Martin Schleyer and Max Josef Metzger to the Archbishop of Freiburg for beatification. Metzger, a committed Esperantist, was executed in 1944 for making suggestions for a fresh start after the German defeat.
Works
- Johann Martin Schleyer: Simplification and relief of musical notation. A suggestion ; Reprint d. Konstanz edition 1902; with an afterword by Nikolaus Breyer. Edition Iltis 2002; ISBN 3-932807-29-4
- Johann Martin Schleyer: Philaletes. Poems ; with an afterword by Reinhard Hauptenthal. Edition Iltis 2002; ISBN 3-932807-30-8
- Johann Martin Schleyer: Two Litzelstetter prayers;: ed. and with an afterword by Reinhard Hauptenthal; Edition Iltis 2002; ISBN 3-932807-33-2
literature
- Aloisia Billinger: Johann Martin Schleyer (1831-1912). A philanthropist and acts of heroic love . With an afterword by Reinhard Hauptenthal. Edition Iltis 2002; ISBN 3-932807-25-1
- Philipp Engert and Leonard Schwägerl (eds.): Schleyer and Volapük - history and linguistics. Seminar course 2012/2013 Martin-Schleyer-Gymnasium, Lauda-Königshofen. Tredition GmbH publishing house, Hamburg 2013; ISBN 978-3-8495-7238-9
- Reinhard Hauptenthal: From country pastor to inventor of a world language. In: Konstanzer Almanach, XXIX. Year, Konstanz 1993, p. 63.
- Reinhard Hauptenthal: Johann Martin Schleyer (1831–1912), pastor of Litzelstetten (1875–1885). Lecture given on June 29, 2002 on the occasion of the patronage of the parish of St. Peter and Paul ; Konstanz-Litzelstetten: Edition Iltis 2002; ISBN 3-932807-32-4
- Hans-Dieter Kuhn: The planned languages Volapük and Esperanto in Constance. History and local events ; Hartung-Gorre Verlag Konstanz 2010; ISBN 978-3-86628-357-2
- Jürgen Oellers: Language confusion in Friedrichshafen. The first Volapük Congress in 1884. In: Leben am See. Yearbook, year unknown, pp. 26–37.
- Heike Thissen: Schleyer memorial plaque. Volapük - One language for the world. In: Eva-Maria Bast, Heike Thissen: Secrets of the homeland: 50 exciting stories from Constance. Südkurier Konstanz, 2011. ISBN 978-3-00-035899-9 . Pp. 40-42.
Web links
- Literature by and about Johann Martin Schleyer in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by and about Johann Martin Schleyer in the German Digital Library
- Literature by and about Johann Martin Schleyer in the Austrian National Library
- Collection for planned languages of the ONB
- Johann Martin Schleyer in Bayer. State Library
- Virtual exhibition: Constructed languages of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
- Catholic parishes on the Bodanrück: Pastor Johann Martin Schleyer
- Archdiocese of Freiburg: biography Johann Martin Schleyer
- Dossier with newspaper articles on the languages Volapük and Esperanto
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Volapük-Almanach_für_1888
- ↑ http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Das_erste_jahrzehnt_der_Weltsprache_Volapük
- ↑ Heike Thissen: Schleyer memorial plaque. Volapük - One language for the world. In: Eva-Maria Bast, Heike Thissen: Secrets of the homeland: 50 exciting stories from Constance. Südkurier Konstanz, 2011. ISBN 978-3-00-035899-9 . Pp. 40-42.
- ↑ http://www.hanebuechlein.de/literatur/barock/schleyer.php ( Memento from September 26, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Volapük-Almanach_für_1888
- ^ Lutz Hachmeister: Schleyer. A German story, Munich: Beck 2004, p. 40.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schleyer, Johann Martin |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Catholic priest, poet, inventor of the artificial language Volapük |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 18, 1831 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Oberlauda |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 16, 1912 |
| Place of death | Constancy |