Maximilian office language

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Maximilian I after Albrecht Dürer

The Maximilian chancellery language was an early New High German form of written language, which was introduced into the imperial administration on the initiative of Emperor Maximilian I and thus replaced older forms of writing that were still close to Middle High German . Shortly after Maximilian's death, however, Martin Luther's translation of the Bible into the Saxon chancellery language created a linguistic competition standard. Nevertheless, the top German embossed Maximillian firm language was used until the late 17th century by the imperial law firms and is therefore Reich language called.

Characteristic and distribution

Maximilian I carried out extensive reforms in the administration of his Austrian hereditary lands and, as emperor, also created a well-organized government and chancellery throughout the empire. Through his Burgundian possessions and stays in the Netherlands, Maximilian I got to know the vernacular literary production that was flourishing there and now, for his part, switched the imperial offices from using Latin to the vernacular. Of all the imperial chancelleries, the court chancellery was the most important and together with the emperor it resided mostly in southern Germany and Austria and from 1490 often in Tyrol . The writing style of his officials was based clearly on Upper German language habits and sometimes even had a southern Bavarian character. Linguistically, this is noticeable through the typical Tyrolean spelling of aspirated / k /, as in khern , or ackher, and also in the use of nit for not .

Due to the correspondence of the court chancellery, the use of this writing style quickly spread to other southern German regions, especially in Bavaria, but also in Swabia and in also Habsburg Front Austria and thus became the writing standard in the administration. The Augsburg printer Hans Schönsberger (also Johann Schönsperger) also used this writing style for his German-language prints and thereby introduced it into literature. In the 16th century, numerous literary works such as the Catholic Bible translations into Upper German (especially the Eck Bible ), which began shortly after Luther, or early Baroque literature such as Aegidius Albertinus , Hans Sachs and Melchior Pfintzing in this style with a distinct Bavarian-Upper German coloration, were created . The places of origin of these works were not only limited to Austria and Bavaria, but the printers as far as Nuremberg in the north and Strasbourg in the west were also based on this orthography.

However, since the Maximilian chancellery was also the legal language and had to be clearly defined from a legal point of view, it had a conservative tendency from the start and did not dynamically adapt to changing speaking habits. In this way, Middle High German forms were also preserved in the script, some of which already had an archaic effect on contemporaries outside the Alpine region, while Saxon Luther German became increasingly important in Central and Northern Germany.

In the 16th century, the Maximilian chancellery language was initially still the non-denominational language of the imperial administration. For example, his great-grandson Maximilian II , Emperor from 1564 to 1576, himself tended to Protestantism, and it was only the beginning of the Counter-Reformation under Rudolf II that led to confessional polarization, also on the linguistic level.

In the Protestant countries, the Saxon chancellery language , in which Luther had written his translation of the Bible, increasingly became a supraregional high-level language and in the north even supplanted the written language of Middle Low German , both as the administrative language of the chancelleries and as a literary language. In the Catholic South, especially in Bavaria and Austria, on the other hand, the Upper German writing language emerged from the Maximilian chancellery in literature and in the printing industry in the 17th century .

The German-speaking area was thus divided into two religiously and linguistically hostile camps. In the Protestant north, people wrote according to the East Central German spelling, from which modern New High German would later emerge, while in the Catholic south they cultivated their own Upper German written language. The officials of the imperial administration, on the other hand, stayed with the Maximilian chancellery language, which was already antiquated at that time, until the late 17th century. Only in the late baroque period was this language conflict to be ended in favor of the East Central German script standard.

Bible translations

Shortly after the publication of the Luther Bible (1522 New Testament, 1534 Old and New Testament), several Catholic translations of the Bible into the vernacular were made in southern Germany, with the authors using the writing conventions of the Maximilian chancellery language.

  • Hieronymus Emser : The New Testament So by L. Emser saeligen v (er) teutscht and the high-born princes and gentlemen Georgen moved here to Sachssen c. Regiment and privilege went out in Anno . Dresden 1527 (with illustrations by Lucas Cranach )
  • Johannes Eck : Old and New Testament, according to the text used in the hailigen kirchen, by doctor Johan. Corners, with diligence, interpreted at Hohteutsch. Ingolstadt 1537

Anabaptist literature

Some prominent texts of the Anabaptist movement were also printed in a very Upper German language , which, in addition to the Netherlands and Switzerland, had a regional focus in Swabia, Bavaria and Austria at least in the early 16th century. Above all, the first edition of the Ausbund , an Anabaptist hymn book containing texts by Sebastian Franck , Leonhard Schiemer , Hans Hut and Jörg Blaurock , was printed in 1564 in the Maximilian chancellery language. This book is still used in worship by the Mennonites and Amish in America, but today in a version adapted to New High German .

Text examples

Wikisource has a number of documents in the Maximilian chancellery language that give a good impression of the printed language of the time. Here are some examples:

literature

  • Hans Moser: The Chancellery of Emperor Maximilian I. Graphematics of a Writer (Innsbruck Contributions to Cultural Studies: German Series 5), Innsbruck 1977, ISBN 3-85124-063-4

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ viaLibri: Hieronymus Emser ( Memento of the original dated December 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vialibri.net
  2. ↑ Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz:  EMSER, Jerome. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 1508-1509.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )