The national language of the Jews or a Jewish language?

The moment when the participants – including a few women – at the first international conference on the Yiddish language, held in Czernowitz in the autumn of 1908, agreed to declare Yiddish a national language of the Jewish people is regarded as a major breakthrough in the development of Yiddish. This declaration also represents one of the high points in the debate that arose in Austria-Hungary and its neighbouring states at the beginning of the 20th century: Were the Jews a nation? Did they possess one or more national languages? Was there a Jewish national literature, and if so, in which language(s) was it written?

The interdisciplinary project is led by the chairs of literature and linguistics held by Bettina Bannasch and Alfred Wildfeuer at the University of Augsburg, in collaboration with the junior professorship for East Central European History (Maren Röger), the Bukowina Institute in Augsburg, and the Yiddish lectureship within the Department of Jewish History and Culture at LMU Munich (Evita Wiecki). Project partners include the German Studies departments at the Universities of Chernivtsi (in cooperation with the GEDANKENDACH Centre based there) and Plzeň (in cooperation with the Centre for Interregional Research based there), as well as the Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Studienwerk. The project is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

The question of Jewish languages and literature has been discussed in Yiddish, Hebrew, German and numerous other European languages. The aim of the project is to bring together the discourses on national (Jewish) languages in early 20th-century Europe, which are usually considered separately in research. This new, interdisciplinary perspective on an event in the Bukovinian capital of Chernivtsi also allows us to trace the collaboration between Yiddish- and German-speaking intellectuals in organising the conference. Key arguments and ideas in the debate also bear witness to a lively exchange of ideas across linguistic boundaries. In the literature, the multilingualism of Austria-Hungary is not merely a period or local colour, but a central theme that runs through the various languages and literary genres. A particular focus of the project is on the German- and Yiddish-language literary works of female authors who are under-represented in public debates but who, in their literary works, take a stance in a wide variety of ways and thus contribute to the discourse.

The programme includes a panel discussion, three workshops and a closing session. Auditors are welcome to attend all events.