Language Research

As of early 1994, approximately 6.8 million registered foreigners resided in Germany. Turks made up the largest group (1.9 million), followed by immigrants from the former Yugoslavia (930,000), Italians (565,000), Greeks (350,000), Poles (260,000), and Austrians (185,000). About 25% of these foreign residents, most of who were born in Germany is under the age of eighteen. Because of the higher birth rate of foreigners, one of every ten births in Germany is to a foreigner. However, because recruiting of Gastarbeiter stopped in 1973 at the onset of a worldwide recession, most foreign workers are middle-aged and have lived in Germany for several decades.

Although no longer recruited abroad, Germany's foreign residents remain vital to the economy, parts of which would shut down if they were to depart. They also contribute to the country's welfare and social insurance programs by paying twice as much in taxes and insurance premiums as they receive in benefits. In the long term, their presence may be seen as vital because they have a positive birth rate. The birth rate among native Germans is so low that some studies have estimated that Germany will require approximately 200,000 immigrants a year to maintain its population into the next century and to support its array of social welfare benefits.

According to the foreigner's law that came into effect in mid-1993, foreigners living in Germany for fifteen years may become German citizens if they have no criminal record and renounce their original citizenship. Young foreigners who have resided eight years in Germany may become citizens if they have attended German schools for six years and apply for citizenship between the ages of sixteen and twenty-three. Usually, however, German citizenship depends not on where one is born (ius solis) but on the nationality of the father or, since 1974, on the mother (ius sanguinis). Thus, to many, German citizenship depends on being born German and cannot rightfully be acquired through a legal process. This notion makes it practically impossible for naturalized citizens or their children to be considered German. Some reformers advocate eliminating the concept of German blood in the 1913 law regulating citizenship, but the issue is an emotional one, and such a change has little popular support.

Article 16/2 of West Germany's Basic Law offers liberal asylum rights to those suffering political persecution. Whilst only about 5% of requests for asylum are approved, slow processing and appeals mean that many refugees remain in Germany for years. Asylum-seekers are no longer admitted into Germany if they apply from a third country.

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Updated (February 2002)

FRISIAN

The Frisian Council (Friesenrat) organized an intensive "interfrisian" language course to help Frisians from the different linguistic Frisian communities in Germany and the Netherlands to understand each other's linguistic varieties. The aim of the course was to learn North Frisians from Schleswig-Holstein in Germany to understand West Frisian, Frisian from the Netherlands, and vice versa. By organizing the course the Frisian Council hoped to achieve a situation where Frisians from the north, east and west feel comfortable to speak and understand Frisian during the meetings and exchange programs. At present, Frisians from the Netherlands and Germany usually speak German when they meet, because the Frisian varieties are too different to be mutually intelligible.

The Frisian linguistic communities in the Netherlands and the German regions of Niedersachsen and Schleswig-Holstein were never a linguistic or political unity. In the early Middle Ages Friesland was an independent Kingdom, which stretched along the coast from the area of river Rhine to river Weser in Germany. More than one thousand years ago Frisian settlers moved across the North Sea to North Friesland, close to the Danish border. Over the centuries North Frisian and West Frisian grew apart, although both languages still share many characteristics.

Nowadays West Frisian is a standardized language with some estimated 400,000 speakers in Friesland. North Frisian on the other hand has no standard and counts as many as 9 distinctive dialects for some 10,000 speakers. Until recently speakers of the different dialects preferred to speak Low German (Plattdeutsch) to understand each other, instead of Frisian. Young people have no difficulties in crossing the linguistic borders within North Friesland. In East Friesland (Niedersachsen) Frisian perished in the 19th century, except for the small linguistic island of Saterland, which developed its own variety over the centuries. Nowadays some 2000 people speak Sater Frisian.

The need for a language course became apparent in recent years, because of more intense contacts between Frisians from the Netherlands and Germany. The Frisian councils regularly organize interfrisian exchanges for farmers, students, teachers and local politicians. Every year, the West Frisian Youth Movement FYK travels 550 kilometers to attend the main North Frisian event Biikebrennen. The popular Frisian singer Piter Wilkens will tour in North Friesland in February and sing a few songs in North Frisian. If the result is satisfactory Wilkens plans to sing both North- and West Frisian on his next CD. Some North Frisians see West Friesland as a good example, because of the radio and television in Frisian and many other linguistic facilities which the North Frisians still lack. Frisian university students in Kiel and Flensburg learn West Frisian as a part of their study program.

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Updated (June 2002)

Eurolang looked at the campaign programs of the German political parties before the federal elections on September 22, 2002. Though the German Minister of Interior, Otto Schily, promised future support to the Sorbian minority, only one party explicitly mentioned national minorities in its electoral campaign.

In May 2002, Mr. Schily visited the Sorbian minority in Easter Germany. This Slavic-speaking minority has 60,000 members. Schily promised continued federal support and pointed out that the governing social democrat-green coalition had supported minorities annually (8,1 million Euro) in spite of general cutbacks elsewhere.

The four recognized national minorities in Germany - Sorbians, Frisians, Danes and Roma, are not overtly mentioned in the draft social democrat program of the electoral campaign. "Minorities have to be able to more intensely identify with arts and everyday culture. This deepens the social cohesion," is the only sentence in the program, where minorities are mentioned.

The governing Green Party Coalition included minorities in its program, especially those in Eastern Germany. However, they are mentioned in the context of defense against racism and rightwing extremism and thus it is held on a general level. Another renewing request in its program is a demand to the European Union to recognize Roma, Sinti and Ashkali as a European nation. However neither the German Roma and Sinti, nor the other minorities are mentioned.

Concerning the opposition, one party openly mentions minorities in its program - the socialist PDS. With its roots in Eastern Germany, home to the well-known Sorbian minority, PDS requires "policies for and with the Sorbian, Danish, Frisian and Sinti&Roma minority, who have been living here for centuries." PDS requests federal constitutional protection of the four recognized minorities in order to fulfill international agreements on minority protection. "Only if the national identity is recognized all over the federal republic and the support by the federal authorities is guaranteed, the members of the national minorities can maintain their language, culture and traditions and ensure their future."

The federal party FDP, on the contrary does not consider minority protection to be an issue in Germany. According to its program constitutional state guarantees freedom and security with equal opportunities for everyone. The Danish and Sorbian minorities are protected by special agreements, and there is no discontent reported from these groups. In the Foreign Policy part of the program, however; FDP mentions minorities several times. It requests further international debate about minority questions such as non-discriminatory access to education and public service.

The conservative CDU/CSU does not mention national minorities in Germany but German minorities abroad. In its visions about EU enlargement it describes the German minorities in Central and Eastern Europe as a bridge for German cooperation with the states.

Source: Eurolang, http://www.eurolang.net/, Copenhagen, May 24, 2002, by Brigitte Alfter

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Updated (October 2004)

GERMAN NATIONAL MINORITIES ESTABLISHED A MINORITY COUNCIL

On September 9, 2004 representatives of the four German autochthonous national minorities — the Danes, Sinti and Roma, Lusatian Sorbs and the Frisians signed an agreement to launch a common minority council.

Ingwer Nommensen, the Chairman of Frasche Rädj (the Council of Frisians), was elected a spokesperson of the board. This position will be changed annually in rotation.

The role of the minority council will be to represent interests of the national minorities before the German Federal Government and the Parliament (Bundestag). With formalization of a long-standing partnership, the minority council offers parliamentarians a competent associate to solve any minority issue.

Since the beginning of the nineties there has been a close collaboration among the representatives of the four minority umbrella organizations (Danish Sydslesvigsk Forening, the Central Council of Sinti and Roma, Domowina (the Union of Lusatian Sorbs) and the Frasche Rädj).

According to Bernhard Ziesch, the Director of Domowina, for years they have been striving for a permanent representation in the Parliament. At the meeting with the President of Bundestag and other parliamentarians, set on November 2004 in Berlin, the very problem will be discussed. The minority council also plans to mention a recently approved position of the Secretary of German minority in the Danish Parliament.

Source: Eurolang News, Göttingen, September 29, 2004, by Simone Klinge, http://www.eurolang.net/news.asp?id=4761

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Updated (March 2005)

PROBLEMS IN THE NORTHERNMOST PROVINCE OF GERMANY

A barrage of verbal attacks has been launched against the Danish-Frisian minority party (SSW) in Schleswig-Holstein¹. The Minority Commissioner of the German federal government, Hans-Peter Kemper, even had to call upon opponents to stop such discrimination.

The German Federal Constitutional Court has only recently confirmed the Electoral Law of the province of Schleswig-Holstein, which guarantees certain privileges to parties representing the Danish minority. The SSW was granted an exemption from the five percent minimum clause. Thus this party, even though it lost slightly in the last elections², currently holds a key position in the appointment of a new government, when the two groupings (the current red-green government coalition on one side, and the liberal-conservative opposition on the other) are almost equal in size.

According to Mr. Kemper, the comments made by various politicians within the opposition are an embarrassing attempt to discredit the Danes and the Frisians.

Source: Eurolang News, Brussels, March 5, 2005, by Brigitte Alfter, http://www.eurolang.net/news.asp?id=4960.

1. garbage sent by post to Danish minority politicians; the Danish flag being spat upon; Germans threatening to boycott Denmark as a holiday country; a written death threat to the leader of the Danish party, Anke Spoorendonk

2. The election was held on February 20, 2005 and the party’s votes dropped from 4.1 percent to 3.6 percent (two seats).

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Updated (April 2005)

50^th ANNIVERSARY OF THE BONN-COPENHAGEN DECLARATIONS

On March 29, 2005 Germany and Denmark celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Bonn-Copenhagen Declarations. One of the outcomes of the celebration was a joint statement issued by the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, and the Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, in which they praised the Declarations as a source of inspiration for handling minority issues in Europe and elsewhere in the world.

The Bonn-Copenhagen Declarations are a series of agreements which secured the rights of minorities in the German-Danish border region (around 50,000 Danes living in the northern German region of Schleswig-Holstein and some 15,000 Germans living in Soenderjylland in southern Denmark). The treaties were signed by the Danish leader, H.C. Hansen, and his German counterpart, Konrad Adenauer, on March 29, 1955 and still serve as a European model both for respectful treatment of minorities and for a conflict resolution.

However, this year’s celebration of the 50^th anniversary took place within a somewhat tense and strained political atmosphere. This relative aggravation was mainly caused by the results in the recent elections in the Land of Schleswig-Holstein (Update, March 2005). The party representing the Danish and North Frisian minorities (SSW), despite having only 3.6 percent of the votes and two parliamentary seats, by its decision to support the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Green Party kept these two in power for another term, although the Christian Democrats (CDU) won the most votes. This caused a storm of outrage in Germany and the Danish minority's so-called "privileged political status¹" has been criticized.

As the Youth of European Nationalities (YEN) reported, some politicians said that a “party of Danes” should not interfere in German politics and a large conservative newspaper demanded cancellation of this special right for the minorities in Schleswig-Holstein.

Source: Mercator News, March 2005, http://www.ciemen.org/mercator/index-gb.htm

1. The statement that political parties representing minorities are exempt from having to win a minimum 5 percent of votes to secure seats in the regional parliament was established by the Bonn-Copenhagen Declarations and recently confirmed by the Federal Constitutional Court.

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Updated (February 2006)

THE DANISH MINORITY INN GERMANY CELEBRATES THE LANGUAGE DAY

The Danish language day was celebrated on February 9, 2006 in the German region of Schleswig-Holstein. During the celebration, Anke Spoorendonk, the president of the minor political party SSW (South Schleswig Voter Federation) explained that the command of German and Danish is essential for the people living in this region so that they can work and live closer together. Moreover, it is a key to a cultural understanding between the German majority and the Danish minority. She also added that the lack of knowledge of Danish in the German side prevents a better co-operation and more transcendent development across borders.

Similarly, the president of the Schleswig-Holstein Green Party said that the language is the requisite element for an understanding between the communities, for more work mobility and economic integration. As the number of Germans speaking Danish is lower than that of Danish German-speakers, she proposed to promote the teaching of Danish in the regional schools as part of their curriculum.

Source: Mercator News, February 2006, http://www.ciemen.org/mercator/index-gb.htm

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Updated (April 2006)

BARE FACED CHEEK FOR LOW GERMAN

The organization "Oostfreeske Taal" has launched a new campaign with a poster showing a naked male backside labeled "Made in East Friesland". The campaign is aimed at youngsters to spark pride in their native language - the Low-German dialect called Plattdeutsch. According to the organization, only around twenty to twenty-five percent of young East Frisians speak the language these days and about fifty percent understand it. The initiative "Made in East Friesland" wants that to change.

Speaking to the press, the managing committee of the campaign said that the future of Low German is uncertain and the next ten years would determine if the language survives. They added that young people, who still speak this language, have to pass it on to their children. This will only happen if they use Low German on a daily basis and if they do not associate the language only with their grandparents' generation and heritage foundations.

The campaign utilizes three different types of posters and advertisements in cinemas and on the Internet as well. Moreover, the posters are hung in schools, discothèques and youth centers.

The Internet address www.maakt-in-oostfreesland.de is another forward thinking initiative. The site supplies users with free download of icons and Low-German ring tones for their mobile phones. The ring tones aim to help non-speakers to pick up a few handy phrases.

Source: Eurolang News, April 8, 2006 by Davyth Hicks http://www.eurolang.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2586&Itemid=1&lang=en

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Updated (February 2008)

NEW WEB PORTAL FOR ETHNIC GERMAN MINORITIES

On 17 January 2008, the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) and the German Ministry of Interior launched a new web portal with detailed information on the situation of German ethnic minorities throughout Europe.

The site currently documents only German minorities, but the organizers say they want to expand the online platform to include other European minorities as well. The organizers also say they will focus on very specific issues such as education, political participation and religion in the near future.

Christoph Bergner, German Commissioner for National Minorities, said he sees such web sites as increasingly important for ethnic minorities to maintain their own cultural identity, to keep in touch and discuss issues related to their legal status, which differs from nation to nation.

According to FUEN's President, Heinrich Hansen, this kind of project can also help increase dialogue and lower tension between ethnic groups with negative views of each other. Frank Nickelsen, FUEN's general-secretary and the person responsible for compiling much of the Web-based material, added that they hope the site will help connect minority communities across Europe and help them build a support network for themselves.

Source: Deutsche Welle, News, January 21, 2008 http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3076977,00.html

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