Linguistic Social History 1933 - 1945

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Heidrun Kämper
• Subject Area: Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics
• Term: from 2018 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 395389330

Although the German language at the time of National Socialism 1933 to 1945 has been investigated comprehensively in many aspects, there is nonetheless a research gap. Excellent studies exist with respect to the subject referred to as National Socialist Language (NS-Sprache) or Language of National Socialism (Sprache des Nationalsozialismus). Particularly lexical and rhetorical aspects of this subject area have been described almost exhaustively. The gap in the existing research concerns knowledge in two regards: firstly, there has been no description of patterns of thinking on which the actions of National Socialists were based and which influenced their argumentation, their categories, and their language use as representations of these patterns. Secondly, we have little knowledge of language use of all those who did not belong to the regime and its public, of linguistic traces of what they thought, wanted and intended. This project aims to fill these gaps in the history of the German language in the 20th century.Under the condition that discourses are a structure of acts performed by different actors, this actor-related description of language use in the National Socialist era presumes the community of discourse communicators exists in heterogeneous sub-communities with a specific self-image, which determines their language use. Actors in the sense of the project are the National Socialist regime (NS-Apparat), the integrated society (integrierte Gesellschaft), and the excluded (Ausgeschlossene). An actor group resistance (Widerstand) is presupposed as a phenomenon generated by all social strata. This groups linguistic forms of resistance are the subject of Britt-Marie Schusters project. Resistance in a strict sense is therefore not the subject of the present application, but it is included in the sense of everyday dissidence. It is evident that there are interfaces and transitions, on which the two applicants will focus. The project focuses on linguistic strategies of inclusion / exclusion, which are typical for the National Socialist era. They will be described as a representation of a guiding idea of modern societies. Particularly, inclusion / exclusion is an essential characteristic of the closed societies of 1933 to 1945. It is not only represented in racisms and nationalisms, but also in demarcating linguistic movements of the integrated society, and of the excluded. For the projects purpose, inclusion / exclusion is understood as a societal principle of action. Its linguistic representations are thus core elements of a linguistic history of 1933 to 1945. The project describes concrete representations of this principle, such as concepts of self / other, space and time. Methodologically, the project structure designates a cultural-linguistic approach. The realization of this approach concerns both the essential idea of a differentiation of actors as well as linguistic strategies of inclusion / exclusion.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Cooperation Partners: Professorin Dr. Britt-Marie Schuster; Professor Dr. Peter Steinbach; Professor Dr. Willibald Steinmetz