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133-571: The Duchy of Brunswick and Lüneburg ( German : Herzogtum Braunschweig und Lüneburg ), commonly known as the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg or Brunswick-Lüneburg , was an imperial principality of the Holy Roman Empire in the territory of present day Lower Saxony . In 1235, Otto I was enfeoffed with the newly founded Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg at the Court of Mainz . It was based on

266-647: A coalition government . An uprising in Braunschweig in 1919, led by the communist Spartacus League , was defeated when Freikorps troops under Georg Ludwig Rudolf Maercker took over the city on order of the German Minister of Defence, Gustav Noske . An MSPD-led government was subsequently established; in December 1921, a new constitution was approved for the Free State of Brunswick , now

399-465: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it

532-745: A parliamentary republic within the Weimar Republic , again with Braunschweig as its capital. After the Landtag election of 1930, Brunswick became the second state in Germany where the Nazis participated in government, when the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) formed a coalition government with several conservative and right-wing parties. With the support of Dietrich Klagges , Brunswick's minister of

665-402: A second language , and 75–100   million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220   million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90   million people, or 16% of

798-704: A socialist workers' council forced Duke Ernest Augustus to abdicate. On 10 November, the council proclaimed the Socialist Republic of Brunswick under one-party government by the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD); however, the subsequent Landtag election on 22 December 1918 was won by the Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany (MSPD), and the USPD and MSPD formed

931-612: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become

1064-544: A 15 kilometer radius. Braunschweig's urban area makes it a bigger city compared to others with a similar size e.g. Aachen , Wiesbaden or Gelsenkirchen , and since the urban area is not significantly smaller than Hanover , it makes itself an important and major city in Lower Saxony . Companies like New Yorker , Salzgitter AG , Jägermeister , Siemens , Bosch , Volkswagen , Nordzucker , Continental , Kosatec  [ de ] and others are headquartered or have

1197-482: A branch in this area. Information about the Urban Agglomeration in 2024 : Population : 401,234 Area size: 585.16 Density : 698 per square Kilometer Migration background percentage : 44.7% Largest cities, districts and towns : Braunschweig , Salzgitter , Kreis Wolfenbüttel , Lehrte , Kreis Cremlingen , Kreis Gifhorn , Vechelde , Lengede The population of the urban area with

1330-518: A combination of the name Bruno and Low German wik (related to the Latin vicus ), a place where merchants rested and stored their goods. The town's name, therefore, may indicate a resting place, consistent with its location by a ford across the Oker River. An alternative explanation of the city's name is that it comes from Brand , or burning, indicating a place which developed after the landscape

1463-559: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from

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1596-574: A migration background is 178,998 in 2023, making it 44.7% of the population. This makes the agglomeration one of the most diverse in Germany and the most in Lower Saxony. The city is unique because unlike most cities with migrant populations concentrated inside the city itself, higher number of migrant populations are also found in surrounding areas. Braunschweig's urban agglomeration has a higher migration percentage compared to its city due to industrialization and other major factors since 2011. One of

1729-458: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained

1862-556: A particular religious bias toward a Protestant ruler, from the childless ruling Queen Anne ( House of Stuart ), it passed the provisions of the Act of Settlement 1701 to Sophia of Hanover , granddaughter of James I . Sophia predeceased Queen Anne by a few weeks, but her son and heir, George I, succeeded as King of Great Britain when Anne, his second cousin, died in August 1714. Great Britain and Hanover remained united in personal union until

1995-696: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In

2128-483: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it

2261-422: A statutory body representing the estates, which was to supervise the treaty. However, 1373–1388 would be the only period in which a Brunswick-Luneburg land was not ruled by a Welf: In the wake of his death, Elector Wenceslas appointed Bernard, his brother-in-law, as co-regent involved him in the government. But his younger brother Henry did not agree with this ruling, and after vain attempts to reach an agreement,

2394-632: Is 9.9 °C (49.8 °F). The average annual rainfall is 614.8 mm (24.20 in) with July as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in July, at around 18.7 °C (65.7 °F), and lowest in January, at around 1.8 °C (35.2 °F). The Braunschweig weather station has recorded the following extreme values: Parks and gardens in the city include the botanical garden Botanischer Garten der Technischen Universität Braunschweig , founded in 1840 by Johann Heinrich Blasius ,

2527-551: Is Thorsten Kornblum of the Social Democratic Party (SPD); he has been mayor since 2021. The most recent mayoral election was held on 12 September 2021, with a runoff held on 26 September, and the results were as follows: The Braunschweig city council governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 12 September 2021, and the results were as follows: Braunschweig's city centre

2660-601: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as

2793-612: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German

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2926-558: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic

3059-478: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German

3192-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25   million speak it as

3325-535: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in

3458-611: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as

3591-565: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are

3724-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and

3857-597: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as

3990-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German

4123-525: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c.  1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period

Brunswick–Lüneburg - Misplaced Pages Continue

4256-596: Is the 2nd largest city in Lower Saxony . Braunschweig is considered as one of the oldest cities in Germany, founded in 1031 by Henry the Lion . Braunschweig first reached its peak of over 100,000 in 1890. In the 1960s and 1970s industrialization boomed in Braunschweig due to automobile and other companies coming to Braunschweig and surrounding cities like Wolfsburg and Salzgitter . Braunschweig's population reached its highest peak of population in 1975 with population of about 273,000. Braunschweig's population started to decline in

4389-467: Is the case today, even among the peasantry of the Holy Roman Empire, for the contemporary salic inheritance laws encouraged the practice of retaining control of lands and benefits. The seats of power moved in the meantime from Brunswick and Lüneburg to Celle and Wolfenbüttel as the towns asserted their independence. The subsequent history of the dukedom and its subordinate principalities

4522-776: Is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and the Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ),

4655-578: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish

4788-485: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers

4921-542: Is unknown. Piera Sonnino (1922–1999), an Italian author, writes of her imprisonment in Braunschweig in her book, This Has Happened , published in English in 2006 by MacMillan Palgrave. The Allied air raid on October 15, 1944, destroyed most of the city's churches, and the Altstadt (old town), the largest homogeneous ensemble of half-timbered houses in Germany. 100 out of 800 half-timbered houses survived as well as

5054-689: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to

5187-639: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as

5320-814: The Bürgerpark , the Löwenwall with an obelisk from 1825, the Prinz-Albrecht-Park , and the Inselwallpark . Other parks and recreation areas are Stadtpark , Westpark , Theaterpark , Museumpark , Heidbergsee , Südsee , Ölpersee , the zoological garden Arche Noah Zoo Braunschweig and the nearby Essehof Zoo . Braunschweig is made up of 19 boroughs (German: Stadtbezirke ), which themselves may consist of several quarters (German: Stadtteile ) each. The 19 boroughs, with their official numbers, are: The current mayor of Braunschweig

5453-558: The Congress of Vienna at the war's end. After the fall of Napoleon, George III regained his lands plus lands from Prussia as King of Hanover , whilst giving up some other smaller scattered territories. The Wolfenbüttel Line retained its independence, except from 1807 to 1813, when it and Hanover were merged into the Napoleonic Kingdom of Westphalia . The Congress of Vienna of 1815 turned it into an independent state under

Brunswick–Lüneburg - Misplaced Pages Continue

5586-537: The Congress of Vienna in 1815, Brunswick was made capital of the re-established independent Duchy of Brunswick , later a constituent state of the German Empire from 1871. In the aftermath of the July Revolution in 1830, in Brunswick duke Charles II was forced to abdicate. His absolutist governing style had previously alienated the nobility and bourgeoisie , while the lower classes were disaffected by

5719-647: The Crown Prince's son to the Emperor's only daughter , and Wilhelm II, German Emperor , allowed his son-in-law to assume rule in 1913 (his father having renounced his own right). After their death, rule of the Principality was to revert to the Ascanians. In order to underpin the agreement, in 1374 Albert of Saxe-Lüneburg married Catharina, the widow of Magnus II. The treaty also envisaged the creation of

5852-568: The Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German

5985-546: The Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg found himself in the line of succession for the British crown, later confirmed in 1707 by the Act of Union , which he subsequently inherited, thereby creating a personal union of the two crowns on 20 October 1714. After a little over a decade, the matter of the disputed electorate was settled upon the heir, and the new Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (acceded as duke on 23 January 1698), George I Louis ,

6118-537: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share

6251-417: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language

6384-455: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout

6517-669: The Grüne Moschee in Wolfenbüttel, Fatih Moschee Salzgitter and the Albanischer-Kulturverein in Gifhorn. A total of 84,994 of Braunschweig's residents, including citizens with second passport , had a migration background in 2023 (31.2% of the total population). Weststadt has the highest migration percentage being 63%. Among those, 39,785 were non-German citizens (15%); the following table lists up

6650-695: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in

6783-539: The House of Stuart —and subsequently formed a personal union on August 1st, 1714 between the British crown and the duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg (electorate of Hanover), which would last until well after the end of the Napoleonic wars more than a century later—including even through the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and the rise of a new successor kingdom. In that manner, the "Electorate of Hanover" (the core duchy)

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6916-479: The Iron Curtain . The city lost its historically strong economic ties to what was then East Germany ; for decades, economic growth remained, on average, below the rest of the country while unemployment was above-average for West Germany. On 28 February 1974, as part of a district reform in Lower Saxony, the rural district of Braunschweig , which had surrounded the city, was disestablished. The major part of

7049-412: The List of Reichstag participants (1792) , the following four subdivisions of Brunswick-Lüneburg had recognized representation: By 1705 only two Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg survived, one ruling Calenberg, Lüneburg and other possessions, and the other ruling Wolfenbüttel. One of the dynastic lines was that of the princes of Lüneburg , which, in 1635, acquired Calenberg for George , a junior member of

7182-439: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c.  765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in

7315-414: The Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1269–1432, 1754–1807, and 1813–1814), the Duchy of Brunswick (1814–1918), and the Free State of Brunswick (1918–1946). Today, Brunswick is the second-largest city in Lower Saxony and a major centre of scientific research and development. The date and circumstances of the town's foundation are unknown. Tradition maintains that Brunswick was created through

7448-427: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung

7581-422: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit.   ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this

7714-400: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and   Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German

7847-408: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from

7980-462: The 1980s. In the 1990s - after the German reunification - it began to grow again as many East Germans moved there due to its close close proximity to former East Germany . Currently, Braunschweig has a strong focus on research and development. According to 2019 data, it has the highest R&D intensity (ratio of R&D expenditure to GDP ) in the entire EU and over 4% of all employed people are R&D personnel. In 2015, 91,785 people (or 36.3% of

8113-449: The BraWo Park's parking lot is today, held about 800 male prisoners, who were forced to work in the arms production at Büssing-NAG . After about 300 had died due to disease, hunger, and maltreatment over the course of just a few months, a further 200 were transferred to the infirmary of a nearby subcamp in early January 1945 in order to reduce the number of deaths. However, this was only effective to some degree, as another 80 bodies landed in

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8246-401: The Calenberg Line, acquired the right to be a prince-elector as the Prince-Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg . Colloquially, the Electorate was also known as the Electorate of Hanover or as Kurhannover . In 1814, it was succeeded by the Kingdom of Hanover . The Principality of Lüneburg emerged alongside the Principality of Brunswick in 1269 when the inheritance of the Duchy was divided. After

8379-403: The Duke of Calenberg, though the actual dynastic union of the territories did not occur until 1705 under his son George I Louis, and the Electorate was not officially approved by the Imperial Diet until 1708. The resulting state was known under many different names: Brunswick-Lüneburg, Calenberg, Calenberg-Celle; its ruler was often known as the " Elector of Hanover ". Coincidentally, in 1701,

8512-399: The Electorate. The southernmost principality in the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg stretched from Münden in the south down the River Weser to Holzminden . In the east it ran through Göttingen along the River Leine via Northeim to Einbeck . It emerged in 1345 as the result of a division of the Principality of Brunswick and was united in 1495 with Calenberg. From 1291 to 1596, Grubenhagen

8645-614: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In

8778-414: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of

8911-417: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of

9044-399: The German states; the invention of the printing press c.  1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of

9177-623: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by

9310-409: The Holy Roman Empire in 1708. His possessions were enlarged in 1706 when the hereditary lands of the Calenberg branch of the Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg merged with the lands of the Lüneburg-Celle branch to form the Electorate of Hanover. Subsequently, George I was referred to as Elector of Hanover. In 1700 and 1701, when the English Parliament had addressed the question of an orderly succession, with

9443-547: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are

9576-518: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c.  thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c.  1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy

9709-575: The Old, Middle and New Houses of Lüneburg. The number of simultaneously reigning dynastic lines varied from two to five. In 1269, the Principality of Brunswick was formed following the first division of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg. In 1432, as a result of increasing tensions with the townsfolk of Brunswick , the Brunswick Line moved their Residence to Wolfenbüttel , into the water castle , which

9842-642: The Welfs and the Ascanians was concluded, the treaty of 1374 was abolished, and the Principality was secured for the Welfs. Circles est. 1500: Bavarian , Swabian , Upper Rhenish , Lower Rhenish–Westphalian , Franconian , (Lower) Saxon German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It

9975-560: The Wolfenbüttel Line. In 1634, as a result of inheritance distributions, it went to the House of Lüneburg, before becoming an independent principality again in 1635, when it was given to George , younger brother of Prince Ernest II of Lüneburg , who chose Hanover as his Residenz . New territory was added in 1665 in the vicinity of Grubenhagen and in 1705 around the Principality of Lüneburg. In 1692, Duke Ernest Augustus from

10108-518: The accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. George I was followed by his son George II and then his great-grandson George III , the latter retaining the position of elector even after the Holy Roman Empire was abolished by its last emperor in 1806. George III contested the validity of the dissolution of the Empire and maintained separate consular offices and staff for the Electorate of Hanover until

10241-910: The acquiescence of the state government. After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, several state institutions were placed in Braunschweig, including the Luftfahrtforschungsanstalt in Völkenrode , the Hitler Youth Academy for Youth Leadership , and the SS - Junkerschule Braunschweig . With the Reichswerke Hermann Göring in Salzgitter and the Stadt des KdF-Wagens , as well as several factories in

10374-403: The bad economic situation. During the night of 7–8 September 1830, the ducal palace in Brunswick was stormed by an angry mob, set on fire, and destroyed completely. Charles was succeeded by his brother William VIII . During William's reign, liberal reforms were made and Brunswick's parliament was strengthened. During the 19th century, industrialisation caused a rapid growth of population in

10507-482: The capital of his state (which, from 1156 on, also included the Duchy of Bavaria ). He turned Dankwarderode Castle, the residence of the counts of Brunswick , into his own Pfalz and developed the city further to represent his authority. Under Henry's rule, the Cathedral of St. Blasius was built and he also had the statue of a lion, his heraldic animal, erected in front of the castle. The lion subsequently became

10640-664: The city itself (including Büssing and the Volkswagenwerk Braunschweig ), the Braunschweig region became one of the centres of the German arms industry . During the Second World War , Braunschweig was a sub-area headquarters of Wehrkreis XI (one of Germany's military districts), and was the garrison city of the 31st Infantry Division that took part in the invasions of Poland, Belgium, and France, largely being destroyed during its retreat following

10773-637: The city's crematory until the subcamp's closing in March 1945, when Büssing-NAG had to halt production due to severe bombing damages. Today the Gedenkstätte Schillstraße , located very close to the former premises of the subcamp, documents Braunschweig's history during the Third Reich . Büssing-NAG also had another subcamp in the nearby Vechelde , which held a further 400 male prisoners. The subcamp SS-Reitschule , named so as it

10906-616: The city's landmark. Henry the Lion became so powerful that he dared to refuse military aid to the Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa , which led to his banishment in 1182. Henry went into exile in England. He had previously established ties to the English crown in 1168, through his marriage to King Henry II of England 's daughter Matilda , sister of Richard the Lionheart . However, Henry's son Otto , who regained influence and

11039-614: The city, eventually causing Brunswick to be for the first time significantly enlarged beyond its medieval fortifications and the River Oker. On 1 December 1838, the first section of the Brunswick–Bad Harzburg railway line connecting Brunswick and Wolfenbüttel opened as the first railway line in Northern Germany, operated by the Duchy of Brunswick State Railway . On 8 November 1918, at the end of World War I ,

11172-649: The city. Emilia Galotti by Lessing and Goethe 's Faust were performed for the first time in Brunswick. In 1806, the city was captured by the French during the Napoleonic Wars and became part of the short-lived Napoleonic Kingdom of Westphalia in 1807. The exiled Duke Frederick William raised a volunteer corps, the Black Brunswickers , who fought the French in several battles. After

11305-541: The conditions of payment to the Wolfenbüttel heirs (Chief of the House), together with the guarantee that only his descendants would inherit this senior principality of Wolfenbüttel. Not until 1753/1754 was the Residence moved back to Brunswick, into the newly built Brunswick Palace . Following the Congress of Vienna and territorial adjustments the principality formed the basis of the new Duchy of Brunswick . In 1432,

11438-481: The death of Duke George William of Brunswick-Lüneburg in 1705, King George I inherited the state of Lüneburg, being both the benefactor of Georges William's 1658 renunciation in favour of his younger brother Ernest Augustus and the husband of the Duke's morganatic daughter, Sophie Dorothea , later known as the "Princess of Ahlden". It was united with the Principality of Calenberg, which had been elevated in 1692 into

11571-482: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with

11704-404: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in

11837-519: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of

11970-621: The estates gained by the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel between the Deister and Leine split away as the Principality of Calenberg. To the north, this new state bordered on the County of Hoya near Nienburg and extended from there in a narrow, winding strip southwards up the River Leine through Wunstorf and Hanover where it reached the Principality of Wolfenbüttel. In 1495, it was expanded around Göttingen . In 1584, it returned to

12103-488: The family who set up residence in the city of Hanover . His son Christian Louis , and his brothers inherited Celle in 1648 and thereafter shared it and Calenberg between themselves; a closely related branch of the family ruled separately in Wolfenbüttel. The territories of Calenberg and Lüneburg-Celle were made an Electorate by the Emperor Leopold I in 1692 in expectation of the imminent inheritance of Celle by

12236-402: The fight flared up again in the spring of 1388. Elector Wenceslas had to assemble an army without the help of Bernard, supported by the town of Lüneburg. From Winsen an der Aller , he wanted to attack Celle , which was held by Henry and his mother. During the preparations Elector Wenceslas fell seriously ill and died shortly thereafter. According to legend, he was poisoned. Lüneburg continued

12369-551: The former district was incorporated into the city of Braunschweig, increasing its population by roughly 52,000 people. In the 1990s, efforts increased to reconstruct historic buildings that had been destroyed in the air raid. The façade of the Braunschweiger Schloss was rebuilt, and buildings such as the Alte Waage (originally built in 1534) now stand again. Braunschweig has a population of 250,000 and

12502-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,

12635-481: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of

12768-511: The interior, the NSDAP organized a large SA rally in Braunschweig. On 17–18 October 1931, 100,000 SA stormtroopers marched through the city; street fights between Nazis, socialists, and communists left several dead or injured. On 25 February 1932, the state of Brunswick granted Adolf Hitler German citizenship to allow him to run in the 1932 German presidential election . In Braunschweig, Nazis carried out several attacks on political enemies, with

12901-581: The invasion of Russia. In this period, thousands of Eastern workers were brought to the city as forced labor , and in the 1943–1945 period at least 360 children taken away from such workers died in the Entbindungsheim für Ostarbeiterinnen ("Maternity Ward for Eastern Workers"). In 1944, two subcamps of the Neuengamme concentration camp were established in Braunschweig. The subcamp Schillstraße or Büssing-NAG/Schillstraße , located where

13034-409: The largest Vietnamese, Cameroonian and Tunisian populations in Germany are located in the surroundings and within Braunschweig. These are the biggest nationalities in the urban area ( these include the citizens with a migration background and a second passport ): Braunschweig's climate is classified as oceanic ( Köppen : Cfb ; Trewartha : Dobk ). The average annual temperature in Braunschweig

13167-471: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Braunschweig A powerful and influential centre of commerce in medieval Germany, Brunswick was a member of the Hanseatic League from the 13th until the 17th century. It was the capital city of three successive states:

13300-561: The largest minority groups, including citizens with a migration background from a specific nation or region: The estimated migration population in 2025 is 95,961 (35% of 274,233). The urban agglomeration area of Braunschweig is approximately 400,000 in 2024, making it one of the largest regiopolis after Mannheim and Bonn in Germany and the largest one in Lower Saxony . This area includes Wolfenbüttel , Meine , Salzgitter-Thiede , Salzgitter-Lebenstedt , Weddel , Sickte , Timmerlah , Lengede and other towns and regions within

13433-412: The merger of two settlements, one founded by Brun(o) , a Saxon count who died in 880, on one side of the River Oker – the legend gives the year 861 for the foundation – and the other the settlement of a legendary Count Dankward , after whom Dankwarderode Castle (the "Castle of Dankward's clearing"), which was reconstructed in the 19th century, is named. The town's original name of Brunswik may be

13566-450: The most important places and streets, preserved in 5 areas of the old town. The city's cathedral, which had been converted to a Nationale Weihestätte (national shrine) by the Nazi government, still stood. About 10% of the inner city survived Allied bombing and remain to represent its distinctive architecture. The cathedral was restored to its function as a Protestant church. Outside

13699-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted

13832-480: The name Duchy of Brunswick . The Duchy remained independent and joined first the North German Confederation and then the German Empire in 1871. When the Wolfenbüttel Line became extinct in 1884, the German government withheld the rightful heir, the Crown Prince of Hanover , from taking control, instead installing a regency. Decades later, the families were reconciled by the marriage of

13965-653: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from

14098-634: The old town city centre large historic quarters remain like Östliches Ringgebiet with its Gründerzeit architecture. Politically, after the war, the Free State of Brunswick was dissolved by the Allied occupying authorities , Braunschweig ceased to be a capital, and most of its lands were incorporated in the newly formed state of Lower Saxony . During the Cold War , Braunschweig, then part of West Germany , suffered economically due to its proximity to

14231-501: The overall possession of the House of Welf until 1512 and 1671 respectively. In 1571 the Amt of Calvörde became an exclave of the Duchy. The various parts of the duchy were further divided and re-united over the centuries, all of them being ruled by the Welf or Guelph dynasty, who maintained close relations with one another—not infrequently by marrying cousins—a practice far more common than

14364-610: The philosophy of the Enlightenment , dukes like Anthony Ulrich and Charles I became patrons of the arts and sciences. In 1745, Charles I founded the Collegium Carolinum , predecessor of the Brunswick University of Technology , and in 1753 he moved the ducal residence back to Brunswick. With this he attracted poets and thinkers such as Lessing , Leisewitz , and Jakob Mauvillon to his court and

14497-469: The population) were Protestant and 34,604 (13.7%) people were Roman Catholic ; 126,379 people (50.0%) either adhered to other denominations or followed no religion. Roughly 17,000 Muslims (6.2% of the population) live in Braunschweig. Mosques like DMK Moschee , Fatih Moschee Braunschweig and cultural clubs are present throughout the city but mosque buildings with minerates have not been built in Braunschweig but can be seen in its urban area for example

14630-522: The preparations, formed an alliance with the Prince-Bishop of Minden and Count of Schaumburg and set up his own army. On 28 May 1388, battle was joined at Winsen an der Aller; it ended in victory for Henry . According to the provisions of the Treaty of Hanover from the year 1373, after the death of Wensceslas, the Principality passed to the House of Welf . In 1389, an inheritance agreement between

14763-599: The principalities. The constituent principalities existed until the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. At the Congress of Vienna , the Kingdom of Hanover and the Duchy of Brunswick were created as successor states. To this day, members of the House of Hanover call themselves Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg. When the Imperial ban was placed on Henry the Lion in 1180, he lost his titles as Duke of Saxony and Duke of Bavaria . He went into exile for several years, but

14896-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation

15029-577: The residences of the rulers of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg , a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire , Brunswick was de facto ruled independently by a powerful class of patricians and the guilds throughout much of the Late Middle Ages and the Early modern period . Because of the growing power of Brunswick's burghers , the Princes of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel , who ruled over one of

15162-546: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,

15295-421: The subdivisions of Brunswick-Lüneburg, finally moved their Residenz out of the city and to the nearby town of Wolfenbüttel in 1432. The Princes of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel did not regain control over the city until the late 17th century, when Rudolph Augustus, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg , took the city by siege. In the 18th century Brunswick was not only a political, but also a cultural centre. Influenced by

15428-500: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in

15561-458: The two castles in Brunswick and Lüneburg and the associated estate of the House of Welf . In 1269 there was a first division between the brothers Albrecht and Johann . The resulting principalities of Brunswick and Lüneburg together continued to form the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The history of the duchy and the constituent principalities was marked by further divisions and mergers of

15694-555: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during

15827-600: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching

15960-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of

16093-686: Was able to style himself the Elector of Brunswick and Lüneburg from 1708. It was not just happenstance but also religion-driven politics that brought about the circumstance that he was also put into the line of succession for the British crown by the Act of Settlement — which was written to ensure a Protestant succession to the thrones of Scotland and England at a time when anti-Catholic sentiment ran high in much of Northern Europe and much of Great Britain . In this event, George I succeeded his second cousin Anne, Queen of Great Britain —the last reigning member of

16226-480: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially

16359-652: Was an independent principality, its first ruler being Henry the Admirable , son of Albert of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel . The state lay along the northern part of the Solling hills and the River Leine near Einbeck and north of the Eichsfeld on and in the southwestern Harz . After being split in the course of the years into smaller and smaller principalities, Grubenhagen returned in 1596 to Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and

16492-459: Was ceded to the Calenberg line in 1665. Other branches that did not have full sovereignty included the states of Dannenberg, Harburg, Gifhorn , Bevern , Osterode, Herzberg, Salzderhelden, and Einbeck. While a total of about a dozen subdivisions that existed, some were only dynastic and not recognised as states of the Empire, which at one time had over 1500 such legally recognized entities. In

16625-452: Was characterised by numerous divisions and reunifications. The subordinate states that were repeatedly created, and which had the legal status of principalities, were generally named after the residence of their rulers. The estates of the different dynastic lines could be inherited by a side line when a particular family died out. For example, over the course of the centuries there were the Old, Middle and New Houses (or Lines) of Brunswick, and

16758-557: Was cleared through burning. The city was first mentioned in documents from the St. Magni Church from 1031, which give the city's name as Brunesguik . Up to the 12th century, Brunswick was ruled by the Saxon noble family of the Brunonids ; then, through marriage, the town fell to the House of Welf . In 1142, Henry the Lion of the House of Welf became duke of Saxony and made Braunschweig

16891-465: Was enlarged with the addition of other lands and became the Kingdom of Hanover in 1814 at the peace conferences ( Congress of Vienna ) settling the future shape of Europe in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars. The first Hanoverian King of Great Britain, George I of Great Britain , was the reigning Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg , and was finally made an official and recognized prince-elector of

17024-492: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which

17157-603: Was eventually crowned Holy Roman Emperor , continued to foster the city's development. During the Middle Ages , Brunswick was an important center of trade, one of the economic and political centers in Northern Europe and a member of the Hanseatic League from the 13th century to the middle of the 17th century. By the year 1600, Brunswick was the seventh largest city in Germany. Although formally one of

17290-421: Was expanded into a Schloss , whilst the town was developed into a royal seat. The name Wolfenbüttel was given to this principality. From 1546, Wolfenbüttel became the residence of the senior prince of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Henry, Duke of Brunswick-Dannenberg . With sole rights to the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, he provided a conditional sub-lease of the Principality of Lüneburg to the princes of Calenberg with

17423-484: Was formed from the estates transferred to the Emperor as well as other large areas of the imperial fisc . After his death in 1252, he was succeeded by his sons, Albert the Tall and John , who ruled the dukedom jointly. In 1269, the duchy was divided, Albert receiving the southern part of the state around Brunswick and John the northern territories in the area of Lüneburg. The towns of Lüneburg and Brunswick remained in

17556-498: Was located on the former premises of the SS-Junker School 's riding school, held approximately 800 prisoners, all female, who were tasked with clearing away rubble. This subcamp was commissioned by the city of Braunschweig. Although it was only open for two months - from December 1944 until February 1945, there were at least 17 deaths and a transfer of about 50 prisoners to a nearby subcamp's infirmary. The number of survivors

17689-407: Was then allowed to stay on the ( allodial ) estates inherited from his mother's side until the end of his life. At the Imperial Diet of 1235 in Mainz , as part of the reconciliation between the Hohenstaufen and Welf families, Henry's grandson, Otto the Child , transferred his estates to Emperor Frederick II and was enfeoffed in return with the newly created Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, which

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