113-726: The Ottendorfer Public Library and Stuyvesant Polyclinic Hospital are a pair of historic buildings at 135 and 137 Second Avenue in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City . The buildings house the Ottendorfer Branch of the New York Public Library , as well as the women's workspace The Wing within the former Stuyvesant Polyclinic hospital. The buildings were jointly designed by German-born architect William Schickel in
226-461: A coved ceiling above. The center section of the second floor contains a fireplace with a pink marble mantel , as well as bookshelves. The back section was separated from the front and center sections by a glass partition, and was raised above the rest of the second floor by two steps. A sign at the back section's entrance contained the words Zur lese Halle für Fräuen , translating to "to the women's reading room". The Ottendorfer Library contained
339-465: 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
452-402: 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
565-612: 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
678-615: A 2-story annex to the clinic on Seventh Street. A year later, the German Hospital began plans to build a dispensary uptown, which was closer to both the main hospital and to the Yorkville neighborhood's growing German population. It sold 137 Second Avenue in 1906 to another medical charity, the German Polyklinik . The hospital's name was changed to Stuyvesant Polyclinic following the anti-German sentiment connected with
791-626: A German immigrant and publisher of the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung , the city's largest German-language newspaper, and his wife Anna Ottendorfer had acquired the land for the buildings in 1883. Initially, only the clinic was proposed to be built on the site. However, the clinic would occupy only part of the Ottendorfer plot, so Anna Ottendorfer proposed building a branch of the NYFCL on the additional plot, retaining ownership of
904-603: A New York City landmark in 1976. The Ottendorfer Library's exterior was designated a New York City landmark in 1977, while its first- and second-floor interior was designated as a city landmark in 1981. Both buildings were jointly added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Second Avenue (Manhattan) Second Avenue is located on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan extending from Houston Street at its south end to
1017-569: A gap in the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway . Second Avenue passes through a number of Manhattan neighborhoods including (from south to north) the Lower East Side , the East Village , Stuyvesant Square , Kips Bay , Tudor City , Turtle Bay , East Midtown , Lenox Hill , Yorkville and Spanish Harlem . Downtown Second Avenue in the Lower East Side was the home to many Yiddish theatre productions during
1130-559: 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
1243-486: A librarian's residence on the third floor, one of 32 such residences in the New York Public Library (NYPL) system. The librarian's penthouse had wooden doors, stone fireplaces, and wall trimmings. One critic in the Real Estate Record and Guide called the buildings' compositions "entirely commonplace". The unnamed critic stated that the clinic's porch was "a very unschooled and uncouth piece of work" and that
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#17327903731391356-458: 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
1469-696: 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
1582-501: A relatively new building material to New York at the time of the buildings' construction. The terracotta was manufactured by the Perth Amboy Terra Cotta Company . The library building at 135 Second Avenue has a frontage of 20 feet (6.1 m) along Second Avenue, while the former hospital at 137 Second Avenue has 50 feet (15 m) of frontage; both structures are 67.6 feet (20.6 m) deep. A laboratory
1695-484: A result of the explosion, and Con Ed turned off the gas to the area. A few residents were allowed to return to some of the vacated buildings several days later. The M15 local serves the entirety of Second Avenue south of East 126th Street. The M15 Select Bus Service , the Select Bus Service equivalent of the local M15 bus, provides bus rapid transit service along Second Avenue southbound. These two are
1808-483: 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
1921-717: Is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It 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
2034-407: Is a narrow room that served as the main reading room. As arranged, the second floor contained a children's room in the front (facing Second Avenue), a reading area in the center, and a women's reading room in the back. The window openings on each wall contain elaborate surrounds. A Lincrusta Walton wall covering was used in place of wood wainscoting, and a wide molding is at the top of the walls, with
2147-601: 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
2260-612: 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
2373-558: 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
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#17327903731392486-478: 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
2599-430: 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
2712-535: 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
2825-611: 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
2938-565: 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
3051-435: 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
3164-597: 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
3277-401: 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
3390-525: 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
3503-578: 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
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3616-485: 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
3729-689: 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
3842-479: The Q train. Phase 1 opened on January 1, 2017. Phase 2, which would extend the line to East Harlem at 125th Street and Lexington Avenue, is expected to be completed between 2027 and 2029. When the whole Second Avenue subway line is completed, it is projected to serve about 560,000 daily riders. There is a bicycle lane along the avenue south of 125th St. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] )
3955-639: 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
4068-546: The Corinthian style, with ornamented terracotta voussoirs above each window pairing. The pediment of the portico is supported by two pairs of brick piers with vermiculated blocks, topped by Corinthian capitals . An entrance arch is inside the portico. Above the arch is a decorative composition with two inscribed dates: 1857 (representing the year the German Dispensary was founded) and 1883 (representing
4181-537: 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
4294-417: 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
4407-522: 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
4520-557: The Harlem River Drive at 128th Street at its north end. A one-way street, vehicular traffic on Second Avenue runs southbound (downtown) only, except for a one-block segment of the avenue in Harlem . South of Houston Street, the roadway continues as Chrystie Street south to Canal Street . A bicycle lane runs in the leftmost lane of Second Avenue from 125th to Houston Streets. The section from 55th to 34th Streets closes
4633-746: 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
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4746-476: The National Register of Historic Places in 1979. In the late 19th century, the modern East Village and the Lower East Side neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan collectively became known as " Little Germany " (German: Kleindeutschland ) because of the large concentration of German immigrants in the neighborhoods. The German Dispensary was founded on the Lower East Side in 1857. The German Dispensary
4859-683: The New York Free Circulating Library , while the hospital was affiliated with the German Hospital uptown, now Lenox Hill Hospital . Both structures served the Little Germany enclave of Lower Manhattan. The hospital was sold in 1906 to another medical charity, the German Polyklinik ; the name was changed to Stuyvesant Polyclinic in the 1910s. The buildings were restored numerous times in their history. The structures received three separate New York City landmark designations in 1976, 1977, and 1981, and were added to
4972-538: The New York Supreme Court . Ultimately, the library's interior received city landmark status in 1981. The interior of the clinic underwent a $ 200,000 renovation three years later. The library was closed in October 1998 for a renovation that was slated to cost $ 2.1 million, which was funded by $ 1.6 million in city funding and a $ 0.5 million grant from Scherman Foundation . The renovation
5085-666: 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
5198-676: 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
5311-550: 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
5424-720: The Upper East Side . The city also had numerous private libraries, such as the Astor Library and Lenox Library , but few libraries for the general public, especially for immigrants and the poor. One of the first general-public libraries to be established in New York City was the New York Free Circulating Library (NYFCL), having been incorporated in 1880, with its first branch opening on Bond Street in Lower Manhattan that year. Oswald Ottendorfer ,
5537-513: 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
5650-582: The dropped ceilings , and added a sprinkler system. Christopher Gray of The New York Times characterized the exterior as "neglected and forlorn", having not been renovated since the mid-20th century. The library celebrated its 125th anniversary upon the completion of the renovation in December 2009. At the time, only 30 books remained from the German collection. The Ottendorfer branch was closed for another set of renovations between August 2018 and March 2019;
5763-410: The neo-Italian Renaissance style . Both structures are three stories tall with a facade of Philadelphia pressed brick facades ornamented in terracotta . The hospital building features terracotta busts of several notable medical professionals. The structures were erected in 1883–84 following a donation by philanthropists Oswald Ottendorfer and Anna Ottendorfer . The library was the second branch of
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#17327903731395876-469: 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
5989-615: The Avenue. Isolated 1970s-era segments of the line, built without any infrastructure, exist between Pell and Canal Streets, and between 99th–105th and 110th–120th Streets. Construction on Phase 1, which will eventually extend from 125th Street to the Financial District via the T service, began on April 12, 2007. Phase 1 connects the BMT 63rd Street Line with the new line north to stations at 72nd , 86th , and 96th Streets, serving
6102-723: 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
6215-748: 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
6328-417: 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
6441-399: 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
6554-623: 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
6667-547: 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
6780-644: 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 ), 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
6893-408: 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
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#17327903731397006-410: The Stuyvesant Polyclinic because the fire escape in front of the library was deteriorated, but this proposal was dismissed as too expensive. At the time, Cabrini Medical Center owned both structures but rented out the library building to the NYPL for free. The renovation was finished by mid-2001. By mid-2005, The Villager reported that the hospital building might be converted to condominiums. While
7119-417: The bus lane away from the curb. Work on the new bus and bike lanes began that June. On March 26, 2015, a gas explosion and resulting fire in the East Village destroyed three buildings at 119, 121 and 123 Second Avenue, between East 7th Street and St. Mark's Place . At least twenty-two people were injured, four critically, and two people were initially listed as missing. Later, two men were found dead in
7232-416: The clinic as a threat to the library, especially as the NYPL was facing financial problems at the time. The clinic became an official city landmark in 1976, followed by the library the next year. When a 3-month project to replace the library's 75-year-old coal furnace was announced in 1979, the Citizens Committee group staged a protest to prevent the furnace's replacement, even producing a restraining order from
7345-459: The clinic building was sold again for $ 7 million in September 2007. By 2008, the clinic building was for sale yet again at a cost of $ 13 million, though it was marketed as a mansion. The hospital building was ultimately purchased by Lower East Side Equities who leased it to British consulting firm What If. The buildings were restored in 2009 by David Mayerfied. As part of the project, Mayerfied removed paint from columns and railings, removed
7458-440: The debris of the explosion and were confirmed to be the ones listed as missing. There had previously been an illegal tap installed into the gas line feeding 121 Second Avenue. In the days before the explosion, work was ongoing in the building for the installation of a new 4-inch gas line to service the apartments in 121, and some of the tenants had smelled gas an hour before the explosion. Eleven other buildings were evacuated as
7571-430: 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
7684-404: 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
7797-472: The door, as well as an ornately decorated transom bar above the doorway and transom window; decorated horizontal band courses with owl and globe symbols are located on either side of the transom bar. Surrounding the top of the archway is a set of terracotta egg-and-dart decorations. At the top of the first floor is the German inscription Freie Bibliothek und Lesehalle (Free Library and Reading Room) as well as an egg-and-dart molding . The articulation of
7910-460: The early part of the 20th century, and Second Avenue came to be known as the " Yiddish Theater District ", "Yiddish Broadway", or the "Jewish Rialto". Although the theaters are gone, many traces of Jewish immigrant culture remain, such as kosher delicatessens and bakeries , and the famous Second Avenue Deli (which closed in 2006, later reopening on East 33rd Street and Third Avenue). The Second Avenue Elevated train line ran above Second Avenue
8023-435: 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
8136-551: The entrance of the United States into World War I . The name was changed back to German Polyclinic in 1927, following campaigning from German-American groups. The Ladies' Auxiliary Society of the German Polyclinic held a fundraising drive to replace the hospital building in 1929, with the goal of raising $ 3 million. The initiative was supported by mayor Jimmy Walker , but ultimately did not occur. The clinic opened its rheumatism department in 1938, and an auditorium
8249-499: The former hospital building is a foyer with walls made of marble below wood paneling. From there, double doors with glass paneling lead to a square main lobby. As originally arranged, there were offices and examination rooms on either side of the lobby. There was a wide staircase on the north wall with a decorative wooden handrail, which turned at right angles as it went to the second and third floors. The second and third floors also had offices and examination rooms. When The Wing moved into
8362-435: The full length of the avenue north of 23rd Street , and stood from 1880 until service was ended on June 13, 1942. South of Second Avenue, it ran on First Avenue and then Allen and Division Street. The elevated trains were noisy and often dirty (in the 19th century they were pulled by soot-spewing steam locomotives). This depressed land values along Second Avenue during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Partially because of
8475-442: The gift and its terms on May 16, 1884. By mid-1884, the NYFCL had control of the library. The Stuyvesant Clinic was completed first, on May 25, 1884. The clinic's opening served partially a memorial for Anna Ottendorfer, its main benefactor. The Ottendorfer Library opened on December 7, 1884; the library's opening ceremony attended by visitors such as British peer Henry Edward Pellew and city planner Andrew Haswell Green . It became
8588-435: 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,
8701-481: 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
8814-520: The land. The Ottendorfers intended to construct the buildings as a gift to the city, and Anna Ottendorfer personally selected William Schickel as the architect of the buildings. Plans were filed by May 1883, with the buildings projected to cost $ 75,000. Of the couple, Oswald was more closely involved with the library, personally selecting its book collection, while Anna was more involved with the clinic. Anna Ottendorfer died in April 1884 before either project
8927-508: The library and the hospital. In 1901, the eleven branches of the NYFCL system, including the Ottendorfer branch, became part of the NYPL. The next year, the library began circulating Russian language books. As other immigrant groups moved to the surrounding neighborhood, the library started circulating books in other languages, such as Czech/Slovak , Chinese , French , Italian , Polish , Spanish , and Ukrainian . Few alterations were made to
9040-545: The library had an arch of the "ugly and fashionable three-centered form". The New York Times said in 1964 that, following the exodus of Little Germany and the East Village's subsequent redevelopment, the two buildings were "the last props of an era long gone", despite not having been designed for "architectural unity". The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Stuyvesant Polyclinic's exterior
9153-455: The library in 1897, which contained a series of iron stacks with thick glass floors, surrounding a central shaft. It used an open-shelf model, wherein patrons could retrieve the books themselves rather than ask librarians for help. A separate children's room was also established at the Ottendorfer branch, following the popularity of children's libraries at the NYFCL's 34th Street branch. After Oswald Ottendorfer died in 1900, he bequeathed $ 20,000 to
9266-399: The library in subsequent years. A fire-proof vault was provided in the basement for preserving valuable documents and books of the library, and for the preservation of the records and papers of importance of interested German societies. The library and clinic shared water and steam-heating systems, and the library was already lit by gaslight. In 1904, Werner & Windolph were hired to design
9379-475: The library's upper floors is similar to that of the adjacent clinic building. The second and third floors both have three narrow arched windows that are 8 feet (2.4 m) tall. The voussoirs above the windows contain decorative terracotta cartouches . A frieze with hemispheres, cartouches, and an egg-and-dart molding runs above the second floor. Another frieze runs above the third floor, decorated with wreaths, garlands, bead-and-reel, and egg-and-dart motifs. Atop
9492-454: 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
9605-653: 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
9718-458: The northbound and southbound directions. A protected bike lane on the left, or east, side of the avenue between 59th and 68th streets was completed in 2019. This, along with previous bike lane projects, gave the avenue a continuous bike lane from 125th to 43rd Street. In March 2024, the NYCDOT announced plans to widen the bike lane on Second Avenue from 59th to Houston Street, as well as relocate
9831-528: The poor population could not be trusted to take out books themselves, as in an open-shelf system. As such, the original stacks were closed to the public and only librarians could retrieve books. Nevertheless, the library circulated 95,316 volumes to 3,279 people in its first eleven months, and only lost four books in that time. The NYFCL's central bindery was installed in the Ottendorfer Library's basement in 1887. Schickel designed an expansion to
9944-508: The presence of the El, most buildings constructed during this era were working class tenements . The line was finally torn down in 1942 because it was deteriorated and obsolete, and the cost of World War II made upkeep impossible. Second Avenue maintains its modest architectural character today, despite running through a number of high income areas. Second Avenue has carried one-way traffic since June 4, 1951, before which it carried traffic in both
10057-424: The primary Second Avenue servers. Other bus routes include the following: The Q train serves Second Avenue from 96th Street to 72nd Street before turning onto 63rd Street with a stop at Lexington Avenue, which has an exit at Third Avenue. A Second Avenue Subway line has been planned since 1919, with provisions to construct it as early as 1929. Two short sections of the line have been completed over
10170-641: The project included adding sprinkler and alarm systems. Additionally, in January 2019, the women's coworking firm The Wing signed a lease for the entirety of the Stuyvesant Polyclinic for its headquarters. The company spent $ 1.7 million on workspaces and a kitchen in the Polyclinic building. The Wing moved into the space in June 2019, and the Cofinance Group bought 137 Second Avenue for $ 18 million
10283-462: 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
10396-565: The rumor was false, the clinic was already searching for a buyer for its building by then. The hospital building was ultimately sold for $ 7 million in July 2006, and the clinic moved out the following month. New plans for the clinic building were revealed in January 2007. The first floor would become condominium space, while the second and third floors would be turned into student dormitories, and three additional floors for dormitories would be built. This redevelopment proposal also did not occur, and
10509-534: The same month. After the Wing shuttered, 137 Second Avenue was placed for sale in March 2023; it was sold for $ 19 million to an unidentified buyer that August. The buildings, on the west side of Second Avenue near St. Marks Place , were designed as a pair by German-born architect William Schickel . They were designed in the neo-Italian Renaissance style , with Philadelphia pressed brick facades ornamented in terracotta ,
10622-538: The second branch of the NYFCL, after the Bond Street Library. When the Ottendorfer Library opened, it had a collection of 8,819 volumes of which 4,035 were in German and 4,784 were in English. There was space for 15,000 volumes, a main reading room, and a smaller reference room. Patrons who were at least 12 years old could borrow a single book weekly "with references". At the time, the librarians felt that
10735-428: The second level of the stacks, which form a mezzanine level and contain iron railings. Behind the stacks is a workspace with shelves and cupboards. There are eight sections of stacks on the lower level and nine sections on the upper mezzanine. The south wall contains a staircase leading to the second floor. The staircase has a railing made of dark wood, with alternating twisting and rectangular balusters. The second floor
10848-511: The space in 2019, the former offices and examination rooms were turned into communal coworking spaces. Ten rooms were turned into conference rooms named after women's educational institutions. The decorative details on the Ottendorfer Library are less elaborate compared to those on the clinic building. The main entrance is through an arched entrance with a small stoop , and contains a Queen Anne style double door under an iron-and-glass transom window . There are iron pilasters on either side of
10961-546: 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,
11074-500: 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
11187-475: The third-story frieze is a large cornice supported by terracotta brackets . Immediately inside the doorway is a circulation desk as well as a small reading room. The wall contains a vertically-ribbed wainscot wrapping around the south and north walls. The south wall contains a dumbwaiter shaft as well as bookshelves. In the rear of the library are double-height iron stacks with openwork gratings, manufactured by Hopkins & Co. There are glass floor panels on
11300-555: 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
11413-600: 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
11526-654: The year of the building's construction). The portico has four terracotta busts of classical physicians: Greek physician Hippocrates , Roman physician and author Aulus Cornelius Celsus , Greek god of medicine Asclepius , and Greek physician and philosopher Galen . Atop the building is a frieze that contains depictions of five scientists and physicians from the 17th through 19th centuries. These figures are English physician William Harvey , Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus , German explorer and scientist Alexander von Humboldt , French physicist Antoine Lavoisier , and German physician and author Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland . Inside
11639-585: The years, serving other subway services (the Grand Street station is served by the B and D trains), and others simply sitting vacant underground (such as the unused upper level at the Second Avenue station on the F and <F> trains). Portions have been leased from time to time by New York Telephone to house equipment serving the company's principal north-south communication lines which run under
11752-429: 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
11865-411: Was added to the German Polyclinic in 1941. The clinic was renamed the Stuyvesant Polyclinic again during World War II . The Stuyvesant Polyclinic continued to serve the East Village and Lower East Side, having served 6 million patients by 1954. The clinic's facade had been painted white by the 1960s. By then, the Ottendorfer Library was the oldest purpose-built library building in New York City that
11978-466: Was also attached to the hospital's rear. An annex to the library was built in subsequent years. The former hospital building's facade is subdivided into three vertical bays . The central bay has an entrance portico at the first floor, as well as three arched windows on the second and third floors, which are surrounded with terracotta ornamentation. The outer bays have pairs of arched windows on each floor, which are separated with decorated colonettes in
12091-547: 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
12204-474: Was completed, but in her will, she gave the German Hospital $ 10,000. On May 12, 1884, Oswald Ottendorfer wrote a letter to the NYFCL's trustees detailing the proposed gift to the library. The gift included $ 10,000 in 7% railroad bonds and furnishings for the branch, which was to include a reading room. An accompanying condition was that the reading material in German be maintained sufficiently, and German-speaking staff be in attendance. The NYFCL's trustees accepted
12317-473: Was conducted as part of the "Adopt-a-Branch" program, which had also renovated six other branches with a mixture of private and public funding. At the time of its closure, it was the busiest NYPL branch in Manhattan by circulation. Macrae-Gibson Architects devised a design that was evocative of the original appearance, while also adding other features such as new cables. The NYPL also considered expanding into
12430-492: 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
12543-667: Was no longer free, it was low-cost, with patients paying $ 15 to $ 29 per visit depending on their income. When the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission considered the clinic for city-landmark status in 1976, a community group called the Citizens Committee to Keep the Ottendorfer Library Open requested that the library also be considered for landmark status. The group perceived Cabrini's purchase of
12656-609: Was one of many dispensaries to be founded in New York City during the mid-19th century, and it provided free medical care to the area's German immigrants on the model of the Northern Dispensary in Greenwich Village . After the dispensary's charter was changed in 1866, the Lower East Side dispensary became a branch of the German Hospital, now the Lenox Hill Hospital , whose main location was on
12769-404: Was still operating as a library. A New York Times article in 1964 reported that up to one-quarter of the 24,000-book collection was still in German. Cabrini Medical Center took over the clinic in the 1970s, and the number of visits increased from 2,800 patients in 1978 to 34,000 in 1983. By then, it was serving a variety of ethnic groups in the East Village and Lower East Side. While the clinic
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