Language Research

Updated (May 2006)

GERMAN MINORITY IN SLOVENIA DEMANDS OFFICIAL RECOGNITION

On 10 May 2006, the Association of German Cultural Organizations in Slovenia, an umbrella organization of the German minority, sent a formal letter of request to the government demanding official recognition. Furthermore, the minority appealed for Austrian government support to achieve this objective and sent a copy of the letter to the Austrian embassy in Ljubljana.

The list of their demands includes, among other measures, collective protection against hate speech, increase of German medium education, and the use of German in public places. They also call for the participation of the German minority in EU projects involving Slovenia and for secure funding for their minority institutions and media. Another major area of concern mentioned in the letter is the preservation of Kocevje/Gottschee German, an archaic Austro-Bavarian dialect in extreme danger of extinction.

Slovenia is generally considered a model country for their minority legislation in comparison to other former communist countries. However, it has only extended minority rights to Italians and Hungarians, but not to the German minority, which is historically the largest ethnic group.

Regarding this issue, Slovenian officials argue that the number of German speakers is insufficient for official minority status. On the other hand, critics say that Slovenia has already recognized bilingualism based on linguistic heritage rather than the current percentage of minority speakers. For example, the largest official bilingual city, Koper/Capodistria, has less than 3 percent of Italian speakers left.

August Gril, the President of the Association of German Organizations in Slovenia, proposes to extend already existing legislation to the German minority as he believes that to apply current proven and tested mechanisms that Italians and Hungarians already use is the easiest way.

From the historical point of view, the German minority in Slovenia became the scapegoat for four years of Nazi occupation at the end of World War II, which led to enormous anti-German sentiment, culminating in the expropriation and expulsion of several thousand of Germans from the country. On the other hand, most of those who remained had to assimilate.

Although the mistreatment and expulsion of Germans has become a taboo issue even to present time, there are Slovene historians that are re-evaluating the post-war period and call for gestures of reconciliation.

Similarly, the expelled former Germans of Slovenia now living in Austria support the demands of the German Slovenes. They consider the recognition of German heritage in the country as an important step towards European reconciliation as well as a formal recognition of their own roots and history.

Source: Eurolang News, May 18, 2006 by Peter Josika http://www.eurolang.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2631&Itemid=1&lang=en

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