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In the present article Bernhard Schwaiger, a Latin language teacher at a school in Thüringen, treats some aspects of the greater or lesser importance of some objects of study, in this case of the foreign languages, importance that is usually determined aleatorily. The article becomes a pleading for the study of the Romanian language as one of the most interesting Romance languages, the Romanian culture being complex and the tourist landscape from Romania very interesting as well. The conclusion of the article is that it is very important for pupils on their way to identity construction to know all the cultural components of Europe, to submit to a critical analysis any object defined „from the outside” as important, because the European continent consists not solely of important countries and languages (such as France, Spain, England, Italy) but also of a multitude of other languages and cultures.
The paper analyzes the handling of sources in the historic and ethnographic literature about Roma. In it a tradition of copying can be found without sufficient acknowledgement of sources, the unchecked assumpti on of foreign statements and inadmissible generalization. These characteristic features are integrated into a pejorative structure. The historic and ethnographic literature is characterized by a moralizing condemnation of those referred to as „gypsies” whereas the social realities remain largely hidden. It is based on only a few sources, in which statements about Roma in the Transylvanian area take a key role. Texts from the 17th to the 19th century are referred to in context of this aspect and are analyzed on their contents.
Zum Quellenwert deutscher Sprachzeugnisse aus Südosteuropa für die Sprachgeschichte des Deutschen
(2010)
The history of the German language is not described adequately by the classification into Old, Middle High, Early New and New High German. Looking at regional varieties shows the simultaneous existence of older and newer manifestations in the language. Examples of older Transsylvanian writings and Danube-Swabian dialects from Romania and Hungary show how German varieties of South-Eastern Europe can be used for a more profound understanding of the history of the entire German language.
Wortbildungen, die im Siebenbürgisch-Sächsischen aufgrund von lateinischen Lexemen entstanden sind
(2018)
As the Reformation took place in the first half of the 16th century in Transylvania and the Germanspeaking mother regions alike, the schooling systems were restructured. Instruction in Latin language was mandatory for attendees of teachers' training institutions. Latin texts were read, Latin grammar was practiced and exercises to that effect were completed. Up to the mid of the 19th century, schools methodically practised high German in writing and reading, but oddly, not in speaking. The spoken language was the vernacular. Consequently student language developed curious constructions based on Latin vocabulary. The vernacular examples chosen are taken from the Transylvanian-Saxon Dictionary, and from vernacular and specialist literature.
The importance of Transylvanian records of court proceedings from the end of the 17th century relies, in terms of content, on preserving the day by day life of ordinary people in Transylvania such as craftsmen, tradesmen, and peasants. Regarding linguistics, they are challenging due to the specific tension between feigned orality and literacy, when historical “spoken” language is documented. The research question pertains to describe, from a qualitative point of view, the complex sentences structure. Thereby, we look upon the different ways to construct complex sentences and their specific use according to the communicative functions of text parts: Which is the proportion between hypotaxis and parataxis in combining clauses? How deep is the hierarchy of subordinate clauses? Which subordinate clause functions are most used? Which composition types are relevant for complex sentence structure?
After the First World War and the Danube Monarchy, Transylvania became a part of the Kingdom of Romania on December 1, 1918. The desired minority rights played an important role for the Transylvanian Saxons. The relationships with Hungary and Romania were reflected in the media coverage by the Transylvanian newspaper Siebenbürgisch-Deutsches Tageblatt. The authors created awareness on their concerns by using ideological vocabulary. Such political lexis acts as an appeal to the recipients. There is a clearly identifiable dichotomy: On the one side, negatively connoted lexis arises for the former political conditions in the Dual Monarchy. On the other side, positively connoted lexis appears for the needs and for the behavior of the Transylvanian Saxons and for the concepts of new political conditions that were published in the newspaper. This dichotomy consists of ideological vocabulary and lexis in common language.
Intermarriages in Transylvania are a topic that is still to little scientifically explored. Saxons and Romanians in Transylvania each married in their own circles in accordance with the times they lived.The Second World War, the establishment of communism, deportation and nationalization have changed relations between the Transylvanian Saxons and Romanians. The number of mixed marriages has begun to grow and cultural proximity has become real. Life in Communism has become a collective destiny. At the base of this study are 25 questionnaires filled in by people coming from mixed marriages. The following aspects were analyzed: the name and identity attributed thereto, spoken languages, confession, family life, identity positioning.
This article aims to trace different hypostases of alterity as they occur in the novel Vaterlandstage (Days at Home) by contemporary Romanian-born German author Dieter Schlesak. The paper draws on the distinction suggested by Volker Barth between the concepts “das Fremde” (i.e. “the stranger” that remains unknowable and impossible to control) and “das Andere” (i.e. “the other” which is excluded as a result of othering). The analysis of the way in which these two forms of alterity are represented in the novel shows that they go beyond the ethnic and cultural meaning of the terms and are closely linked to Schlesak’s antimimetic poetics, his identity concept based on estrangement and not-belonging as well as to his rejection of a materialist view of the world.
The German minority emigrated massively from Romania after the fall of the communist regime in 1989, so the void left by it had to be filled with representatives of Romanian ethnicity. The main actors for the relations between the Saxons and the Romanians in Transylvania are the children who study in schools with German as a mother tongue. They will carry on the cultural heritage left by the Saxons. But how can we reach out for these children? The answer is given to us by the writer Anne Junesch in her book „Das Amenchen. Mäuseleben”, published in 2019. An attempt is being made to sensitize young readers to Transylvanian culture. With the help of a story centered around a fortified church and a main character from Germany, a world full of secrets and of the unknown is revealed to us. With small steps, an incursion is thus made into the almost lost world of the Transylvanian Saxons.
The novel written by the priest Schlattner, a Romanian born citizen of German origin, caught the attention of the German speaking world in 1998, the year of its publication. This novel describes the Saxon nation in Transylvania before World War II with its way of living, education, church, preachers and teachers, traditions and habits. The action takes place on August 23, 1944 when Romania turns against Germany. The story-teller, a teenager, remembers aspects of his family, which are the same with those of the whole community. The family stands for the whole community. Three generations are living under the same roof, which is typical for the middle class. Grandparents, parents and children are members of the same community, but they do not share the same beliefs. These characters are representatives of their own history and of the period of time when they lived. The grandparents had the opportunity to live in Hungary and also in Italy, but they chose to return to Transylvania. The parents are very different one from another. The mother stays at home and looks after the children. The father is a business man who has to support the family, but also to survive with his small family business on an insecure market. He is a typical example of an open-minded man without prejudices. The five children are of different ages, therefore with different preoccupations. Felix, the story-teller, is quite interesting for the reader. He tries to live in a community full of traditions, but also wants to stand up to the demands of the time. He works as a horde leader in the local Hitler-organization, but he fails. The servants also live in the same house, but they do not belong to the family. Nobody knows their last names, but without them the family wouldn’t be able to live properly. The essay ends with a conclusion about the narrator’s family, which can be seen as a model. Such families actually existed in small towns. Schlattner wrote this story in order to inform the next generations about their history and to reinforce the idea that the Saxon world as we knew does no longer exist.