Working word
| Working word
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|---|---|
| description | German specialist journal |
| First edition | 1950 |
| founder | Leo Weisgerber |
| Frequency of publication | quarterly |
| Sold edition | 1200 copies |
| Web link | Publishing site |
| ISSN (print) | 0935-879X |
The journal Wirkendes Wort ( WW for short ) was founded in 1950 by Leo Weisgerber , one of the leading linguists at the time, and several employees as one of the first Germanistic journals in Germany after the war. It encompassed the entire spectrum of university German studies and German as a school subject, and in this form - which still exists today - it is unique in the meanwhile broad field of Germanistic journals.
The active word appeared in the first decades of its existence with six issues each, since 1988 with three issues a year. It offers scientific essays, critical contributions and reviews from the areas of the German language, literature from the Middle Ages to the present day as well as the didactics of German language and literature. It is edited by Lothar Bluhm (Gfr. Editor since 2002) and Heinz Rölleke .
At the beginning the emphasis was on the field of linguistics and didactics, but it has now shifted to that of literary studies . Changes in the emphasis also signal the changes in the subtitle: Until 1968 German language work in teaching and life (again in 1970); since 1969 German language in research and teaching and since 1988 German language and literature in research and teaching . The Schwann-Pagel-Verlag was in charge of the magazine until 1987, then the Bouvier-Verlag until 1999 and the Wissenschaftliche Verlag Trier since 2000 .
In the first decades of its existence, the magazine was particularly influenced by the dominant figure of Leo Weisgerber, whose so-called content-related grammar is still reflected in the terminology of the magazine's title. In the 1980s, the active word acquired an unmistakably philological profile that continues to shape the magazine today.
The publication organ is considered to be one of the most renowned specialist journals and the most widespread Germanistic journal. According to the publisher, it has a print run of 1200 copies (as of 2008).