Harald Neubauer (born 3 December 1951 in Hamburg ; died 29 December 2021) was a German politician and journalist from the far right scene. He was a Member of the European Parliament from 1989 to 1994.
94-679: The Republicans ( German : Die Republikaner , REP ) is a national-conservative political party in Germany . The primary plank of the programme is opposition to immigration . The party tends to attract protest voters who think that the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) are not sufficiently conservative. It was founded in 1983 by former CSU members Franz Handlos and Ekkehard Voigt , and Franz Schönhuber
188-539: A Rechtsabspaltung (right-wing splinter) of the CSU. In its early years, the party was able to profit from dissatisfaction with the CSU due to its alleged abuse of power, patronage and limited internal democracy. Similar to what CSU-leader Strauss had long threatened the sister party CDU with, Handlos wanted to make the Republicans into a bundesweite (federal) right-wing conservative party that would contest elections in
282-465: 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
376-402: 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
470-612: 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
564-460: A "party with partially extreme-right tendencies". Disgruntled by the poor showings in the 1994 "super election year", Schönhuber to much surprise agreed to establish cooperations with the DVU , a party that had always been denounced as "extreme-right" by the Republicans. The Republican leadership in turn hastily convened and dismissed Schönhuber as party leader, replacing him with Schlierer. The mid-1990s
658-559: 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
752-458: 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
846-696: 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
940-483: 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
1034-601: 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
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#17327768164221128-612: 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
1222-558: 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
1316-478: 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
1410-430: 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
1504-535: 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
1598-611: 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
1692-565: 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
1786-399: Is mainly characterised by nationalism, although the party itself rejects such a label, instead regarding itself as "national" or "patriotic". From its outset, the party saw German reunification as its foremost goal. The party welcomed the reunification when it occurred in 1990, but considered it to only be a "small reunification" of West Germany and "Central Germany", as the party considered
1880-435: 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
1974-597: 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
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#17327768164222068-401: 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
2162-525: 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
2256-722: 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 ),
2350-578: 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
2444-485: 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
2538-689: 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
2632-506: The Ostpolitik led to much criticism initially. Finally, in 1983, in complete breach of the party's long-term opposition to measures that could stabilize the economy of East Germany (GDR), CSU leader Franz Josef Strauss supported a credit of more than ten billion Deutsche Mark to the country. This led several members of the CSU to leave the party, including Members of Parliament Franz Handlos and Ekkehard Voigt . The Republicans
2726-639: 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
2820-568: 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
2914-547: The Die Republikaner and in January 1991 they regrouped under the title Deutsche Allianz-Vereinigte Rechte , which was renamed German League for People and Homeland later that year. The new group had the declared aim of uniting the many factions on the far-right under a single banner and initially had some success, attracting two other Republikaner MEPs and the support of the influential Nation Europa journal. He
The Republicans (Germany) - Misplaced Pages Continue
3008-537: 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
3102-417: 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
3196-587: The German People's Union , editing Frey's newspaper Deutschen Anzeigers (1975–1983). In 1983 he joined Die Republikaner and became press advisor of party founder Franz Schönhuber the following year. He backed Schönhuber in his subsequent power struggle with Franz Handlos and as such when Schönhuber became chairman in 1985 he appointed Neubauer as secretary. He soon added the roles of regional chairman in Bavaria , federal vice-chairman and Member of
3290-522: 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
3384-746: 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
3478-666: 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
3572-676: 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
3666-550: 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
3760-513: 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
3854-469: 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
The Republicans (Germany) - Misplaced Pages Continue
3948-480: The welfare state , expelling all foreigners and returning to Germany's 1937 borders. The latter included campaigning for the unification of the then-existing West and East Germany, which helped boost the party's popularity in the late 1980s. The party also attacked the European Union as an infringement of German sovereignty following the enactment of the Maastricht Treaty . The ideology of the Republicans
4042-606: The AfD had largely adopted the same program as the Republicans. In 2018, several members of the AfD in Saarland switched to the Republicans due to concerns that the AfD was shifting too far to the right. Defunct Defunct Initially, the Republicans was a conservative party close to the CSU, with a moderate nationalist approach. When Schönhuber became leader of the party, it radicalised and became increasingly nationalist. His positions included abolishing trade unions , reducing
4136-500: The Bavarian state election with 4.9% of the vote). Internal strife led the leadership of two state branches of the party to be collectively discharged in 1989, and in 1990, open conflict erupted between the 'moderate' Schönhuber and 'extremist' Neubauer. Schönhuber briefly resigned as party leader, until he was reinstated two months later by a majority of the party delegates. After this, the extremists, including Neubauer, were purged from
4230-455: The DVU and NPD. The strongholds for the Republicans also differ from those of the more radical right-wing parties, with the former being strongest in the relatively affluent South Germany whilst the latter have had most success in the more economically depressed Eastern Germany . In the 2009 federal elections , the Republicans received 0.4 percent of the total national vote. Its strongest showing
4324-723: 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
4418-542: The European Parliament to his accolades and was widely seen as the eventual successor to Schönhuber. The two became estranged however as Neubauer followed a more extremist path and for a while in 1990 he even forced the temporary resignation of his former mentor. Ultimately however the leader triumphed in the struggle, forcing Neubauer out of the party and replacing him as vice-chairman with Rolf Schlierer . Neubauer and many of his followers were purged from
4512-863: The European Parliament in 1989, it briefly teamed up in the European Right group with the French National Front (FN) and the Belgian Vlaams Blok . Together with the Vlaams Blok, the Republicans sought to move the FN away from the Italian Social Movement , which was in conflict with the Republicans over the territorial dispute of South Tyrol . The Republicans' alliance with these parties however ended already in 1990, when they accepted Neubauer's DVU instead of
4606-565: The European Union for taking away too much German money. The Republicans have criticised immigration since its foundation, but the initial relatively moderate discourse became increasingly radical and outspoken under Schönhuber and Neubauer, as well as becoming one of the major topics of party literature. The party highlighted the topic of asylum seekers in the 1980s, when it generally had little importance in German political debate. As
4700-748: 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
4794-483: 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
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#17327768164224888-451: 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
4982-681: 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
5076-655: 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
5170-518: 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
5264-627: The Republicans fully supported European integration , with the long-term goal of turning into a federal state. Since the signing of the Maastricht Treaty , opposition to the European Union has become one of the party's most important issues, and it turned to support a confederal state instead of a federal one. The party perceives the international community to be especially hostile towards Germany, and criticises what it considers to be certain limitations of Germany's sovereignty. The Republicans has never been particularly active in establishing relations with other parties internationally. After being elected to
5358-483: The Republicans in the European Right group. After the fall of communism in Eastern Europe , the Republicans was also briefly the inspiration for some short-lived initiatives in countries including Hungary , Ukraine , Latvia and Czechoslovakia . 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
5452-401: The Republicans started to see political success, and the year 1989 marked the party's electoral breakthrough. The party won 7.8% of the vote in the January 1989 election in West Berlin , giving it eleven local seats. In the European Parliament election in June later the same year, it won 7.1% of the vote and six seats. Its strongest showing was in Bavaria, where it won 14.6% of the vote. From
5546-426: The Republicans still was a democratic right-wing party, the majority considered that the party was part of the extreme-right. The Republicans lost its electoral gains in the 1990s as it was torn by internal strife, scandals, and failure to attract voters in former East Germany after the reunification. It contested fourteen elections between 1990 and 1991, but never surpassed the 5% threshold (although it came close in
5640-429: The Republicans were a "party with partially extreme-right tendencies" although the Republican leadership did rebuff an electoral alliance with more openly extreme-right parties such as the National Democratic Party of Germany , losing members to these more successful parties. The Republicans' strongholds tended to be in relatively affluent South Germany rather than the more economically depressed Eastern Germany where
5734-430: 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
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#17327768164225828-404: 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
5922-435: 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
6016-472: The election, it nevertheless failed to beat the 5% threshold with its 3.1% support. Outside Bavaria, the party gained less support, and ended up behind both main extreme-right parties, the NPD and the German People's Union (DVU). The Republicans chose not to contest the 1987 federal election as it considered itself too weak, and CSU leader Strauss adopted some of Schönhuber's rhetoric to win back voters. When prospects of German unification became more realistic,
6110-435: 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,
6204-425: The inclusion of all groups it considered as part of the German ethnic community, such as Austrians , South Tyroleans and Transylvanian Saxons . The economic policies of the Republicans are largely derived from those of the CSU, and its social market economy . The party additionally wants to reduce the size of bureaucracy and state subsidies. The early programmes of the party sought to protect German agriculture,
6298-417: 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
6392-452: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Harald Neubauer Neubauer was trained as an overseas buyer and undertook military service in the Bundeswehr . He was a member of the National Democratic Party of Germany from 1969 to 1972 and again from 1975 to 1981 but became associated with Gerhard Frey and
6486-400: The middle classes, as well as German small businesses from big corporations and monopolisation. From the 1990s, the party increasingly started to promote the interests of the lower classes. While it maintained a neo-liberal discourse and calls for budget cuts, it began promoting welfare chauvinism , namely only funding German interests. It also included criticising asylum seekers, immigrants and
6580-419: The more radical right-wing parties tended to do well. In the 2013 federal elections , the Republicans received only 0.2 percent of the total national vote. The CDU/CSU parties witnessed increasing dissatisfaction of their right wing in the 1980s, while at the same time the extreme-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) was in decline. The CDU/CSU policies of European integration and acceptance of
6674-402: 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
6768-653: 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
6862-606: The number of asylum seekers increased significantly in the 1990s, so did media attention on a number of controversies, and the major German parties agreed on a stricter asylum law in December 1992. The party welcomed the tightening of the rules, but continued to advocate stricter laws and criticise the still high arrival numbers of what it considered as "sham refugees". The party criticised Muslims in particular for being fundamentalist and not willing to be integrated, expanding their sub-culture all over Europe. In its first programme,
6956-544: The party failed to get reelected to the state parliament. Schlierer eventually succeeded in his goal, against most expectations, as the Republicans won 9.1% of the vote and fourteen seats. In the following years, election results for the party again dropped, and in the 1999 European Parliament election it won just 1.7% of the vote. The German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution stopped monitoring
7050-497: The party in 2006, something they had been doing since 1992. The Republican leadership rebuffed the offer of an electoral alliance with two more successful parties that were later to merge, the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) and the German People's Union (DVU), due to their openly extreme-right positions. For years and especially under Schlierer's leadership, the party has lost far-right members to
7144-542: The party leadership, and Neubauer was replaced by the moderate, national-conservative Rolf Schlierer . Although the party seemed poised to disappear in the beginning of the 1990s, it won a surprising result in the April 1992 state election in Baden-Württemberg . In the election, in which the party was headed by Schlierer, the Republicans won 10.9% of the vote and fifteen seats, and became the third largest party in
7238-462: 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
7332-514: The real East Germany to be the Ostgebiete , namely the former German territories in Poland and Russia . The party saw the 1990 reunification only as a first step towards "full reunification", which would be the return to Germany's 1937 borders. It sought to accomplish a "peaceful completion of German unity" through negotiations and treaties with these states. The party did not however strive for
7426-510: The start to the end of 1989, the membership of the Republicans increased from 8,500 to 25,000. At the same time, hundreds of editorials, articles and books were written about the party, including some that speculated that it could become the fifth party of the German party system. The party gained some support among the right-wing of the CDU/CSU, and was even considered by some as a possible future coalition partner. Although some experts argued that
7520-474: The state. The party still failed to breach the 5% threshold in subsequent elections, although it won as much as 4.8% in the 1993 Hamburg state council election. Lack of further electoral successes resulted in new strife between the party's moderates and radicals, and in December 1992, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution decided to start surveillance of the party, categorizing it as
7614-546: 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,
7708-500: 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
7802-416: The whole of (West) Germany. Schönhuber in turn wanted a more right-wing populist party inspired by the successes of the French National Front . This led to a fierce power struggle, in which Handlos accused Schönhuber of seeking to put the party on a course towards right-wing extremism. Failing in his attempt to expel Schönhuber, Handlos instead resigned from the party, followed by Voigt a year later. Schönhuber
7896-555: 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
7990-600: 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
8084-429: 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
8178-547: 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
8272-492: 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
8366-451: Was formed in a Bavarian tavern on 17 November 1983 by CSU defectors and MPs Franz Handlos and Ekkehard Voigt, and former radio journalist and television talk show host Franz Schönhuber , with a past in the NSDAP and Waffen-SS . Handlos was chosen as the party's first leader, while Voigt and Schönhuber became his deputies. The party was initially considered both by itself and by the media as
8460-414: Was in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg , in which it received 1.1 percent of the vote. In the 2013 federal elections , the Republicans received 0.2 percent of the total national vote. The Republicans has lost support to Alternative for Germany (AfD) from 2014 onwards, with former Republican leader Rolf Schlierer leaving the Republicans, expressing support for the AfD and stating
8554-688: Was marked by open conflict between the Schönhuber and Schlierer factions. While Schönhuber sought a "united right-wing" model for the party, Schlierer wanted clear distance to "extremists". Schönhuber resigned from the party altogether in 1995, and the party subsequently contested a series of unsuccessful state elections. The litmus test for Schlierer's leadership occurred in the state election in Baden-Württemberg in March 1996, for which he had stated many times that he would resign as party leader if
8648-488: Was part of a three-man leadership team with Rudolf Kendzia and Jürgen Schützinger . At the time a Member of the European Parliament , Neubauer managed to convince three of his colleagues in that institution, Johanna Grund , Peter Köhler and Hans-Günther Schodruch , to join the new movement. Former NPD chiefs Martin Mussgnug and Franz Glasauer were also given leading roles yet the new group made little impression in
8742-506: Was subsequently elected chairperson of the party in June 1985, with former NPD member Harald Neubauer as his party secretary. This strengthened media allegations that the party was right-wing extremist rather than right-wing conservative. The party's first election, the 1986 Bavarian state election, gave the party financial campaign support, which it used to strengthen its organisation; by 1987 it had chapters in all but one West German state. In
8836-489: Was the party's leader from 1985 to 1994. The party had later been led by Rolf Schlierer , until 2014. The Republicans had seats in the European Parliament between 1989 and 1994, Abgeordnetenhaus of West Berlin in 1989–1990 and in the parliament of the German state of Baden-Württemberg between 1991 and 2001. The German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution between 1992 and 2006 said that
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