Die Deutschnationale Sprachbewegung im Wilhelminischen Reich

This interdisciplinary study critically analyzes the use of language for the creation of a German identity by the members and supporters of the Allgemeine Deutsche Sprachverein - founded 1886 - and the Zeitschrift fuer den deutschen Unterricht - founded 1887. The authors goal was to elucidate the various junctures between ideology and its institutional implementation in the search for a national German identity. Because of the shift in the latter third of the nineteenth century away from the functionalizing of literature in favor of language as a means for identity formation, the manipulation of language through rhetoric strategies and ideologically loaded language became the primary tool for the simulation of national unity. The book is written in German.