Einige Bemerkungen über die deutsche Sprache zu Beginn des Dritten Jahrtausends im In- und Ausland

Abstract

Some remarks on the German language at home and abroad at the beginning of the third millennium

The aim of this article is to thoroughly examine the "German - Language of Ideas" campaign launched in 2010 as a project of the Federal Foreign Office together with its partners (Goethe Institute, German Academic Exchange Service, Central Office for Schools Abroad, Deutsche Welle, Institute for Foreign Relations and Pedagogical Exchange Service). A discussion of the reasons, causes and goals of this central focus of German foreign cultural and educational policy is presented and analyzed in this paper.
The variety of language-promoting facilities allows us to look positively to the future. In my opinion it is important that they are aware that these efforts must be long-term and comprehensive so that interest in the German language can at least remains at the level attained, if not even grows.
German is no longer a world language like it was in the 19th century, and that can no longer be undone. It was the most important scientific language, but in Eastern Europe it still seems to be one of the most popular foreign languages and it can be observed that it is also an important cultural language. Klaus Reichert, President of the German Academy for Language and Poetry, stated in his interview that in Germany itself there is an increasing number of brilliant German authors who have a Turkish, Arabic, Serbian, Croatian, Spanish or Italian background. When asked why they chose German, they have answered that there are opportunities in German that they don't have in their languages. It is also an interesting phenomenon that of the 20 authors who were on the list for the German Book Prize, nine had a background in other languages, and that it was Melinda Nadj Abonji, a Serbian-Hungarian who lives in Switzerland, who received the book award. According to Klaus Reichert, these are phenomena that show us that our assumptions and perceptions are right. If one dares to make a prediction, that German will also change as a result in the long term, these authors would of course bring a different language competency into the bring Germans in. The paper tackled among other aspects issues in relation to Language purism, language maintenance, and language promotion, the German language, and the educational policy adopted for Deutsch development.