Martin Luther’s contribution to the development of the German language
We would like to invite you to our exhibition opening, Here I Stand! 500 years of Reformation – Martin Luther, at the Goethe-Institut Glasgow.
Due to health issues, the original talk by Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Solms on the 4th of October has unfortunately been cancelled.
Instead the Luther-exhibition at the Goethe-Institut Glasgow will open with a talk by Dr. Hartmut Günther (University of Cologne) and a panel discussion about Martin Luther’s contribution to the development of the German language, which will be held in German. It will feature Prof. em. Dr. Hartmut Günther (University of Cologne) in conversation with Prof. Paul Bishop (University of Glasgow) and Thomas Jantzen (the German Speaking Congregation).
Today, it can be considered an established fact that the German language would not exist in its current form without the powerfully eloquent influence of Martin Luther. However, his impact on the common speech was not, for him, an end in itself. Rather, Luther regarded his turning towards the vernacular as a logical consequence of his new theology, for which the language of the common people was indispensable. It therefore comes as no surprise that, wherever Luther’s concepts of Reformation were taken up, a new vernacular translation of the Bible was also established (among others by William Tyndale in English, Mikael Agricola in Finnish, Olaus Petri and Laurentius Andrae in Swedish, Christian II of Denmark in Danish and Primož Trubar in Slovenian). Yet this linguistic accessibility alone does not explain the immediate and enormous effect of the Reformation in Germany. Its success was substantially down to the eloquence of the Reformer, which he demonstrated most powerfully in his translation of the Bible. So it was that Luther’s Bible translation substantially paved the way for a unified German language. The path to that end would not be linear, but crooked and fractured in many and varied ways. It is no coincidence that so also was the path to the implementation of the Reformation and ultimately even to the development of a German nation in the 19th century.
The poster exhibition itself will be in English and displayed from the 5th of October 2017 until the 31st of October 2017 at the Goethe-Institut Glasgow.
The panel discussion will be held in German.
Please note that the event at the Goethe-Institut is free but booking is appreciated.
EVENTBRITE: Talk by PROF. DR. HANS-JOACHIM SOLMS
Back
