Sorbian school system

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Overview of Sorbian educational institutions and institutions with Sorbian language in Lusatia
B schools in Brandenburg (1954/55)
A and B schools in Saxony (1954/55)

As Sorbian schools is referred to those educational institutions in the Lausitz , in addition to the German predominantly or partially one of the two standard varieties he Sorbian language used for teaching mediation.

history

The history of Sorbian-language teaching in Lusatia has been subject to many changes over the past centuries, most of which can be traced back to upheavals in German policy towards the Sorbs . Since the late Middle Ages it was mainly clergy who taught the Sorbian language. The first regulated and official Sorbian lessons took place in Saxony , but Sorbian was usually only used as the language of instruction in religious instruction. In addition, it served - also in Lower Lusatia - in the lower classes as an auxiliary language for learning German, which was regarded as the actual educational goal in the Sorbian areas in the course of the desired Germanization . At the time of the Empire, Sorbian lessons were forbidden, especially in Prussia. Nevertheless, there were some teachers and intellectuals who taught their students in the Sorbian language. B. Fryco Rocha taught the children in Tauer in Wendish from 1891 to 1915 . In many cases, however, it was also Sorbian teachers who forbade their students to speak their mother tongue in school.

time of the nationalsocialism

The Sorbian language was also banned in schools under National Socialism, and from 1937 onwards, all publications in Sorbian were banned. As a result of the change in school districts, children from the Sorbian core area came to German elementary schools where they could not speak their language; Sorbian teachers were transferred from Lausitz to other, non-Sorbian areas of the German Empire and replaced by German teachers. In some places, however, the remaining Sorbian teachers found ways to circumvent the language ban. In Klix , for example, the teacher and author Jan Meschgang , who was able to teach until 1944, had his students collect Sorbian field names under the pretext of rural customs.

Sorbian schools after 1945

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After the Second World War , Sorbian schools were set up in the whole of Lusatia for the first time and a Sorbian teacher training institute was opened. With the aim of "making Lusatia bilingual ", attempts were made in the GDR to give the Sorbian language a higher priority in everyday life and, above all, in the regional economy . A legal basis for the establishment of two types of schools was created through the “Instruction to regulate school conditions in the Sorbian language areas of the states of Saxony and Brandenburg” of April 9, 1952 by the Ministry of National Education. In type A schools, lessons were held in Sorbian, while Sorbian had the status of a foreign language in type B schools. In addition, the training of Sorbian-speaking teachers, the printing of school books and the establishment of Sorbian-speaking kindergartens have now been promoted.

In the 1950s, however, there were protests against the establishment of Sorbian schools by the German population and refugees from the East, as well as industrial workers who had moved there. Due to the lack of identification with the Sorbian language, there was hardly any willingness on their part to send their children to at least a B-school. German schools were preferred.

In some Sorbian families, too, there were reservations about sending their children to Sorbian schools due to the long-standing suppression of their own language and culture. In the Lower Lusatia and Upper Lusatian Heide in particular , Sorbian was of little importance. In addition, there was the fear of the parents that their children would not learn the German language properly. In Lower Lusatia there was also the problem that the Lower Sorbian lessons were mostly carried out by Upper Sorbs.

In the years from 1954 to 1955 there were 22 type B schools and one Lower Sorbian high school (now a grammar school) in Niederlausitz. In the same period there were 73 B-schools, 11 type A schools and one Upper Sorbian high school (again today also a grammar school) in Upper Lusatia. In addition, there were plans for the schools in Hoyerswerda , Groß Särchen , Kotten , Wittichenau , Sdier , Storcha , Runde , Döbbrick , Dissen and Drachhausen to convert the existing B schools into A schools. However, this failed due to the lack of teachers and premises.

number 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955
bilingual primary schools 14th 24 39 68 69 78 70 a 72 72 81 95
Sorbian schools (A schools) 9 9 11 11
bilingual teacher approx. 75 b 82 112 142 188 211 244 258 271 290 290
a The reduction is due to the merging of smaller village schools
bNovember 1945: Dismissal of several Sorbian "old teachers" in the course of denazification
Number of students 1956/57 1957/58 1959/60
Bautzen district 9,569 10,049 11,326
Kamenz district 764 799 1.004
Niesky district 768 833 827
District of Hoyerswerda 2,955 2,944 3,320
Weißwasser district 1,381 1,171 1,420
cottbus 309 277 1,739
Cottbus-Land district 1,638 1,804 1,949
Calau district 32 25th 850
Forest district 74 74
District of Guben 106 332
Lübben district 92
Entire Lausitz 17,688 18.308 22,435

State support for Sorbian-language teaching was gradually withdrawn as early as the end of the 1950s. The slogan that Lusatia would become bilingual disappeared as early as 1958 when Fred Oelßner resigned . After the GDR government had spoken out in favor of “ Lusatia becoming socialist ”, Sorbian lessons were stopped at many schools or hindered by legislative measures. The "instruction to improve science and Sorbian lessons at the twelve-class general polytechnic secondary schools and secondary schools with Sorbian language lessons of October 2, 1962" resulted in a substantial displacement of Sorbian from mathematics and science lessons. Two years later, under pressure from newcomers, with the 7th implementing provision for the People's Education Act of April 30, 1964, Sorbian lessons at B schools were declared optional. Children who learned Sorbian now had more lessons per week than the other children; in addition, they were placed unfavorably (mostly in the late afternoon). This resulted in a drastic drop in the number of Sorbian students from 12,000 to 3,000 within a year. It was not until the mid-1970s that, thanks to committed teachers and parents, the number of participants in Sorbian classes increased again to an average of 6,000 students a year.

Current situation

The right to learn the Sorbian language and to be taught in the Sorbian language in specified subjects and grades is guaranteed for students in the Sorbian settlement area by both Saxon (§2 SächsSchulG) and the Brandenburg School Act (§5 BbgSchulG). In 1991, the Sorbian School Association was brought into being by teachers, educators and parents. As a professional association, it represents Sorbian interests in education and serves as a point of contact.

From 2001, the strict division into native and non-native speakers (A and B classes) in Sorbian schools was lifted and increasingly replaced by a concept of bilingual Sorbian-German teaching. The aim of the “2plus” concept is to achieve a native speaker level, both in German and in Sorbian, through bilingual subject-specific teaching in individual subjects and intensive Sorbian lessons.

The Sorbian school network is better developed in Saxony than in Brandenburg. In total there are around 25 primary schools in Lusatia today , where Sorbian is a compulsory subject. In Saxony there are currently four secondary schools with Sorbian as the teaching language in Bautzen , Räckelwitz , Ralbitz and Radibor , as well as one secondary school with bilingual teaching in a loop . In addition, Sorbian is taught as a foreign language in three other Saxon high schools. (As of 2009)

February 18, 2008 was the first day of classes at the Sorbian School and Meeting Center in Bautzen. The building on List-Straße in Bautzen was completely renovated. In the Sorbian School and Meeting Center, elementary school, high school and grammar school now work under one roof. In addition to the Sorbian grammar school in Bautzen , where Sorbian is used as the language of instruction, Sorbian can be learned as a foreign language at two grammar schools in Hoyerswerda in Saxony .

The Lower Sorbian grammar school in Cottbus is located in Brandenburg .

Problems and Perspectives

Former Sorbian Middle School in Panschwitz-Kuckau .

Like other schools, the Sorbian educational institutions have recently been threatened and affected by school closings as a result of demographic change. In 1999, the Saxon Ministry of Education and Culture announced orally that the existence of Sorbian elementary schools was guaranteed even if the number of pupils fell below the minimum, but secondary Sorbian schools enjoy no special protection. For the schools of the minority - unlike in many other areas of Europe - the same minimum number of pupils apply as for schools of the German majority population - a practice that is heavily criticized because of the great importance that schools have for the preservation of minority languages. In the Sorbian-Catholic core area (city triangle: Bautzen - Kamenz - Hoyerswerda ), two middle schools closed due to the decline in the birth rate: In 2003, despite major protests and collections of signatures supported by Sorbs and non-Sorbs, the Sorbian middle school in Crostwitz was closed . At the end of the 2006/2007 school year, the Sorbian secondary school in Panschwitz-Kuckau was also closed. The pupils now have to attend more distant Sorbian schools or less distant German schools.

It is noteworthy that despite the decline in the birth rate in Lusatia, the number of Sorbian schoolchildren has increased overall again since 2004. This is particularly due to the increasing number of elementary school students in Brandenburg who are learning Sorbian as a second or foreign language.

Witaj concept logo

Early language learning in kindergartens plays an essential role in securing a stable Sorbian school network in the long term. In order to achieve the highest possible language quality in teaching, the Sorbische Schulverein e. V. considers it desirable that children from German and non-Sorbian parents in particular are linguistically prepared for school through early contact with the Sorbian language in kindergarten as part of the Witaj project.

See also

literature

  • Ludmila Budar (ed.): 10 lět modelowy projekt Witaj. Jubilejne wudaće. 10 years of the Witaj model project. Anniversary edition. Sorbian School Association V., Bautzen 2008.
  • Ludmila Budar (ed.): Witaj a 2plus - wužadanje za přichod / Witaj and 2plus - a challenge for the future. Sorbian School Association V., Bautzen 2009.
  • Ludwig Elle: On the development of the Sorbian school system in the GDR. Contributions from the Department of Education at the University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg, 1993.3.
  • Peter Kunze : Sorbian school system. Documentation on the Sorbian elementary school system in the Saxon Upper Lusatia of the 18th and 19th centuries. Century. Domowina-Verlag, Bautzen 2002, ISBN 3-7420-1914-7 .
  • Edmund Pech : The Sorbian Policy of the GDR 1949-1970: Claim and Reality. Domowina-Verlag, Bautzen 1999, ISBN 3-7420-1807-8 .
  • Sonja Wölke : Current problems of the language culture in Sorbian. In: Jürgen Scharnhorst (Ed.): Language situation and language culture in international comparison. Current language problems in Europe. Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1995, pp. 183–196.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sonja Wölke: Current problems of the language culture in Sorbian. In: Jürgen Scharnhorst (Ed.): Language situation and language culture in international comparison. Current language problems in Europe. Peter Lang Verlag Frankfurt am Main 1995, p. 187.
  2. ^ Sonja Wölke: Current problems of the language culture in Sorbian. In: Jürgen Scharnhorst (Ed.): Language situation and language culture in international comparison. Current language problems in Europe. Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1995, p. 187.
  3. ↑ Peter Kunze: Brief history of the Sorbs: a cultural-historical overview in 10 chapters. Saxon State Center for Political Education, Dresden 1995, ISBN 3-7420-1633-4 , p. 70. (Edition taken over by the Saxon State Center for Political Education from Domowina-Verlag, Bautzen)

Web links

Commons : Sorbian Schools  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files