The Forum Deutsche Sprache in Mannheim

“The Forum is designed for the general public – not merely to inform and educate, but to actively engage visitors in working with language, for example through language games. It will explore the role of language in society and its political significance in the world. With permanent and rotating exhibitions, language workshops and lecture series, the Forum aims to rekindle enthusiasm for the German language.”

These are the words of Jutta Limbach, former president of the Goethe-Institut, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Leibniz Institute for the German Language (IDS) in Mannheim in 2014. Limbach had proposed the idea of a House of the German Language to the Deutscher Sprachrat (German Language Council), of which IDS is a member. However, realising the plan proved difficult, and it was not until 2012 that the city of Mannheim agreed to provide the IDS with a plot of land on the banks of the Neckar River for the purpose. The IDS has been documenting and researching contemporary German language on behalf of the federal and state governments since 1964.

In the meantime, a partnership had also been formed with the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, a foundation established by one of the founders of the software company SAP. The foundation issued a formal declaration of intent to finance and construct a building in 2018, and in 2021, following an architectural competition, the final design was selected. The foundation stone was laid on 18 March 2026, and completion is scheduled for spring 2028, with the opening planned for later that year.

What is the objective of the Forum Deutsche Sprache?

The Forum Deutsche Sprache has five core aims. First, it seeks to make the German language tangibly accessible through a compelling permanent exhibition, special shows and guided tours. Second, it will systematically document contemporary language use – through language donations gathered in a dedicated workshop, participatory experiments and surveys and decentralised language data collection apps. Third, the Forum will offer deeper insights into linguistic research, helping to strengthen public trust in science and research more broadly, through citizen science projects or public events open to all. Fourth, guided by the principle “Strong language – strong community”, the Forum will ask what moves society, how we communicate and how language reflects our social coexistence and the issues that matter to us. Through discussion events and partnerships with other institutions, the Forum will function as a platform and networked hub. Finally, the Forum will host language performances – music, literature, rap and art – that reach us directly. Readings, slams, exhibitions and concerts will illuminate aspects of language that scientific explanation alone cannot capture.

Why do we need the Forum Deutsche Sprache?

A shared language is a central element of any society’s cultural ecosystem. It shapes norms, values and assumptions through which people within a community understand the world. Language occupies a special position because only through the medium of language can we formulate explanations and arguments or give form to the abstract, the hypothetical and the future. Over centuries, the German language has developed into a highly effective instrument for precisely this purpose. As such, it has become the foundation for a society grounded in the force of the better argument: a democratic polity.

Today, these linguistic achievements are too often taken for granted. The answer, however, is not a simplistic form of “language preservation”. Rather, the Forum Deutsche Sprache aims to highlight the significance of German in society – fostering language awareness and supporting language development – while documenting and engaging with the language as it is actually used and lived today. This is best done with those who know it best: the Forum’s visitors – young and old, long-established residents and recent immigrants, people of every educational background.

In the 19th century and well into the 20th century, when the idea of the nation reached its peak with the formation of nation-states, political theory was broadly governed by what became known as the principle of nationality. According to this view, a state’s territorial boundaries should coincide with the settlement area of all people who share a common language and see themselves as part of a shared culture and history. British historian Eric Hobsbawm demonstrated, however, that no nation-state actually emerged on the basis of these factors alone. Rather, a shared language, culture and history were themselves constructed in the course of nation-state formation – as national culture, national history and national language. For Hobsbawm, the principle of nationality was not the starting point for the creation of nation-states, but a direct route to state nationalism, with an escalating potential for radicalisation built in from the outset. Germany took this trajectory to its most extreme conclusion.

I am convinced that present-day Germany is best understood as a post-national state, as part of a broader German-speaking region, with a society shaped by people who represent a wide variety of languages, cultures and histories. Together, these constitute a pluralistic reality in which we are free to live and engage with one another openly. Today, we can no longer justify society and state, as was done in the 19th century, by appealing to a shared language, culture or history. The principle of nationality is not fulfilled in contemporary Germany; it neither can nor seeks to serve as the country’s foundation. The German language is therefore not suited to function as a nationalist anchor of identity.

But what, then, is it?

I believe that this post-national Germany can be grounded in two things: the German Basic Law (Grundgesetz) and the shared use of the German language. After the Second World War, the Basic Law gave people in Germany a meaningful and positive way to identify with their state – what has become known as “constitutional patriotism”. The German language, in turn, is the bond that connects us across differences of origin, culture, history and religion. Other languages matter deeply to us too, but German – the language that unites us – takes many forms in many settings: on the streets, in theatres, on construction sites, in rap music and in stadiums. It is the language we use, the one we continually choose; familiar to us, entrusted to us, yet carrying no nationalist charge. In Mannheim, this shared and living bond finds a physical home in the Forum Deutsche Sprache – a house for the invisible thread that connects us as we discuss, debate and simply live together.