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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.
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.
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.
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?
The following essay illustrates the extraordinary love story between Clemens Rescher and Rodica Neagoie. These key characters are representative figures for the nation they belong to. Clemens is a Transylvanian Saxon and Rodica a Romanian. Despite all contradictions, they fall in love, spend time together, travel to the Black Sea and plan their future. Even though they are bound to each other by strong feelings, this love cannot overcome all the preset cultural, ethnic and social obstacles. Clemens and Rodica become the victims of the world they live in.
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.
Transylvania was not exempt from the witch hunt of the 17th century; the city of Sibiu itself witnessed a series of trials and death sentences. While the phenomenon itself has been widely studied and written about in Western Europe, it has been scarcely mentioned in Romanian history works. The original documents from the Transylvanian archives, written down in German, have not been translated and presented to the Romanian public. The present paper intends to present aspects of the witch hunt in Sibiu during the 17th century starting from the case of a midwife judged and condemned to death by burning in 1692. This case will be presented through the original documents of the trial, found in the National Archives of Sibiu and containing the depositions of witnesses, of the accused herself, as well as the sentence passed. We hope that this will be the starting point for a selection and translation into Romanian of the German written documents, in order to make them available to the Romanian speaking public.
Auf Wolke Siebenbürgen … : eine Kindheit voller Gefahren. Die „Deportation“ und Rettung der Mutter
(2017)
Transylvania is a region that frequently appears in the texts of the German speaking writers from Romania. Walther Gottfried Seidner‘s story makes no exception. In the center is the narrator, a kindergarten child, who explores the history of Europe experienced from a subjective point of view. His attention is directed especially to the mother, who is in danger of being deported to the Soviet Union. The red thread of the narrative is interrupted by retrospectives, which complete the image of Transylvania at the beginning of the year 1945. This analysis refers to several aspects within the original text: the Cibin River and its significance to the community of Sibiu, the Christian cross and the swastika, the German National Socialism and the Communism, the deportation of the German minority.
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.