Low German is a school subject in the northern German states Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Bremen. In these states, it is part of Compulsory elective area, but in Bremen only as part of a pilot project. In Lower Saxony, Low German is partly integrated into the teaching of other subjects, there is no separate school subject. In North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt, the northern parts of which belong to the Low German language area, there are voluntary Low German courses, mainly in the form of working groups. Low German is not taught across the board in any of the federal states; it is only offered at individual schools in the northern German states. In the Netherlands Low German is not generally given as a school subject, though the law gives the opportunity to teach in Low German alongside Standard Dutch. Occasionally Low German might be mentioned or being basically taught primarily on primary school and high school, especially during school subjects handling culture.
Low German has only been taught as a school subject for a few years, after the language had rapidly lost importance and was threatened with extinction. As the passing on of Low German as a mother tongue in the parental homes has now almost completely ceased, schools are now seen as the place where the language can be preserved. A decisive trigger for the establishment of Low German as a school subject was the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which was ratified by the Federal Republic of Germany in 1998 and came into force in 1999. In addition to the languages of national minorities (Danish, Sorbian, Frisian and Romanes), Low German was also included in the group of Charter languages as a regional language. The Language Charter forms the international legal framework for language policy in Germany. The signatory states commit themselves to protect and promote regional and minority languages. The concrete measures agreed include, for example, making it possible to teach and study the respective language at university. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein, the protection and promotion of Low German has also had constitutional status since 1993 and 1998 respectively. The constitution of the state of Schleswig-Holstein also expressly provides for the teaching of Low German in public schools.
Hamburg was the first federal state to introduce Low German as a regular school subject at individual elementary school in 2010, followed by Schleswig-Holstein and Bremen in 2014 and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 2016. Since 2017, Low German has been an oral and written examination subject in the Abitur recognized by the Kultusministerkonferenz. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is the only state so far to have introduced corresponding lessons at upper secondary level.
General conditions Distribution and status of Low German
Starting in the cities in the 16th century, Early New High German gradually replaced Low German as the school language and educational language, church language, chancery language and written language in northern Germany. This process was largely complete by the 17th century. Standard German was increasingly used in public and official oral communication, but Low German remained the spoken folk language and everyday language. This resulted in bilingualism, with speakers switching between Low German and High German depending on the situation.Renate Herrmann-Winter: Niederdeutsch als Sprache des Unterrichts und der Unterrichtsmittel in pommerschen Schulen vom 16. bis 20. Jahrhundert, in: Kindheit und Jugend in der Neuzeit 1500–1900, Stuttgart 2000, p. 55. A fluent transition to the standard language, as is typical of many dialects, was hardly pronounced. There was also a social differentiation between Low German and High German, which had a higher social prestige.
Today, Low German is spoken in the northern German states of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Bremen and Lower Saxony, as well as in the northern parts of North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg. Platt is spoken more frequently on the coasts and in smaller towns than in the cities and in the south of the region.Wolfgang Wildgen: Niederdeutsch in Schule und Gesellschaft, Studien zur Regionalsprache und Regionalkultur Heft 1, 2000, p. 72.
Today, just under half of the people living in the region say they understand Low German well or very well; only around 15% say they can speak it well or very well.Status und Gebrauch des Niederdeutschen 2016 (Memento des Originals vom 13. März 2018 im Internet Archive) published by the Institut für Deutsche Sprache and the Institut für niederdeutsche Sprache, editors: Astrid Adler, Christiane Ehlers, Reinhard Goltz, Andrea Kleene, Albrecht Plewnia, Mannheim 2016. In 1984, these figures were still 66% and 35% respectively in the north-western German states. In Schleswig-Holstein, 24.5% of respondents still speak Plattdeutsch well or very well, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania 20.7%, in Bremen 17.6%, in Lower Saxony 17.4% and in Hamburg 9.5%.
While the proportion of those who speak Low German well or very well is still more than half among the over-80s, it is less than one percent among the under-20s. 44% of active speakers stated that they learned Low German from their parents, 41% from their grandparents. However, today's generation of parents can no longer pass on the language, as only 4% of the 30-39 age group still speak Plattdeutsch well or very well. Only 5.5% of Low German speakers named school as the place or a place where they had learned Low German.
Although the absolute number of active speakers is still over two million, Low German is considered to be the most endangered of the recognized and protected minority and regional languages in Germany in view of this age structure, the fact that it is no longer taught in parents' homes and the fact that it has not been mainstreamed in schools for a long time.Hartmut Koschyk: Tätigkeitsbericht Tätigkeitsbericht 2017 (Januar bis Oktober 2017) als damaliger Beauftragter der Bundesregierung für Aussiedlerfragen und nationale Minderheiten, o. O., 2018, p. 50.
The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
The Language Charter forms the international law framework for language policy in Germany. It has the status of a Federal Act.Bundesministerium des Innern: Sechster Bericht der Bundesrepublik Deutschland gemäß Artikel 15 Absatz 1 der Europäischen Charta der Regional- oder Minderheitensprachen, 2017. However, the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages does not include the possibility of suing for language rights at the European Court of Human Rights or the Court of Justice of the European Union. Rather, it is dependent on incorporation into the legislation of the states. In Germany, Legislation in the area of education and language policy falls within the competence of the federal states.
The Charter specifies how and with what measures the Charter languages are to be promoted. The federal states protect Low German in accordance with either Part II or Part III of the Charter, taking into account the extent to which the language is spoken. Bremen, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Lower Saxony offer protection under Part III, which is much more comprehensive than Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony-Anhalt, which have each signed Part II of the Charter. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe recommended making Low German a regular school subject, developing curricula, ensuring the continuity of teaching at all educational levels from pre-school to school-leaving certificate and training a sufficient number of teachers. The legal scholar Stefan Oeter, Chairman of the Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on the European Language Charter, emphasizes that the Charter includes an obligation to teach the respective protected regional or minority language in a separate subject.Aus europäischer Sicht: Die Regional- und Minderheitensprachen und ihr Platz in den deutschen Schulsystemen, in: Mit den Regional- und Minderheitensprachen auf dem Weg nach Europa, Schriften des Instituts für niederdeutsche Sprache 43, edited by Reinhard Goltz, Ulf-Thomas Lesle and Frerk Möller, Verlag Schuster, Leer 2009, p. 52. This obligation is set out in Part III, Art. 8 Para. 1 b.Europäische Charta der Regional- oder Minderheitensprachen III, Art 8 Abs. 1 b.
The activities of the Council of Europe and the European Union to preserve cultural and linguistic diversity have given regional and minority languages a European dimension. The Charter has so far been ratified by 26 Council of Europe member states.Unterschriften und Ratifikationsstand des Vertrags 148. Europäische Charta der Regional- oder Minderheitensprachen (as of March 26, 2018) 21 Council of Europe countries, including several EU countries such as France, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Greece have not yet taken this step.
Low German in state constitutions The protection and promotion of Low German has constitutional status in two federal states. Since 1993, Article 16 (2) of the Constitution of the State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern states: The state protects and promotes the cultivation of Low German.landesrecht-mv.de: Verfassung des Landes Mecklenburg-Vorpommern vom 23. Mai 1993 In 1998, the Constitution of the State of Schleswig-Holstein adopted this passage in Article 13 (2) with the same wording.gesetze-rechtsprechung.sh.juris.de: Verfassung des Landes Schleswig-Holstein in der Fassung vom 2. Dezember 2014 In addition, Article 12 (6) of Schleswig-Holstein's constitution states: The state protects and promotes the teaching of Frisian and Low German in public schools.
Supervisory bodies and interest groups In the opinion of the Council of Europe, a supervisory body is necessary to monitor the implementation of the obligations arising from the Language Charter. This function is performed at federal level by the Federal Government Commissioner for Ethnic German Issues and National Minorities and an advisory committee for issues relating to the Low German language group at the Ministry of the Interior. At state level, Schleswig-Holstein, for example, has an Advisory Council for Low German at the state parliament and the Minister President's Minority Commissioner, who is also the Low German Commissioner. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has appointed a state commissioner for Low German,regierung-mv.de: Neuer Landesbeauftragter für Niederdeutsch bestellt, Press release no. 175-16 of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of November 16, 2016. The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture also has an advisory board for local history and Low German.bildung-mv.de: Beirat für Heimatpflege und Niederdeutsch
Low German as a regular school subject Introduction of Low German as a school subject and recognition as an Abitur subject
The Language Charter was a turning point, as it called for the promotion of regional and minority languages under international law. In 2007, the Federal Council for Dutch, as the language policy representative of Low German speakers, published the "Schwerin Theses" with the central demand that Low German be anchored as a regular subject in the education plans of the federal states and thus fulfill the obligations arising from the Language Charter.niederdeutschsekretariat.de: Schweriner Thesen zur Bildungspolitik, 2007.