Language Purification Attempts during the German Empire: The „Allgemeiner Deutscher Sprachverein‪“‬

The year 1871 brought Germany a victory over France, concluding the Franco-
Prussian War, and ended with the founding of the “Deutsches Reich“, the German
Empire. As a result of the nationalistic elation felt all through society Herman Riegel,
museum curator and art historian in Mannheim, published his Ein Hauptstück von
unserer Mutterprache, a text that established him as the foremost agitator in a
widespread campaign against the adoption of foreign words into the German
language. Riegel then called for the formation of a German language association
responsible for the purification of the German dictionary from words borrowed from
other languages, most notably French, and occasionally English. In 1885, supported
by similar-minded academics and politicians nationwide such als gymnasium
professor Hermann Dunger, Riegel presided over the establisment of the
“Allgemeiner Deutscher Sprachverein,” the universal German Language Association
(ADSV). It’s objectives were laid down as follows:
1. Projects advancing the purification of the German language, cleansing it from
„unneccessary foreign particles“,
2. Preservation and renovation of „the real spirit und unique character“ of the German
language,
3. Strengthening the „general and overall national awareness“ of all Germans, not
only concerning language, but also concerning „German-ness“ in general.
The following essay will concentrate on the main ADSV projects from 1885 until the
start of the First World War in 1914, on its project successes and failures, especially concerning the incorporation of foreign words via translation, and on the inevitability
of massive problems during the transferral of general linguistic principles into the
language actually used outside academic circles.