15 June to 9 September 2012

 

Under this title the Bavarian State Library will be organising an exhibition in June 2012 and invites you to a symposium. These in-house events will be supplemented by an accompanying book and a virtual exhibition on the internet pages of the Bavarian State Library.

 

We shall be marking two jubilees in the following manner:
In 2012 there will be the 100th anniversary of the death of the prelate Johann Martin Schleyer, the author of the planned language Volapük.
The more successful planned language Esperanto will be 125 years old. The first textbook of the “Internacia Lingvo” (International Language) by Lazar Ludvig Zamenhof appeared in 1887.

 

Both languages were created with the aim of facilitating intercultural understanding, which had intensified due to the technology of long-distance travel and goods transport as well as mass-media communication. Instead of having to learn several foreign languages, everybody would communicate in a single language that was new to them. Connected with the wish to spread these languages was the hope that a language felt to be “neutral” could promote peace between nations, as everyone would meet in a language that was for all equally “foreign”.

 

But people were authors of languages prior to the 19th century. Already in the middle ages and the early modern period there are examples of invented languages with various aims. For this reason constructed languages are not only linguistic phenomena, but also social and historical. As such they will be illuminated in the exhibition and discussed during the symposium. The accompanying book will contain illustrations of the exhibits and present the contributions to the symposium. Through these events and publications the Bavarian State Library is contributing to the current debate on a lingua franca in the context of international scientific communication and stimulating acceleration of interlinguistic research.

 

The Bavarian State Library is able to utilise its valuable stock on the complex subjects of interlinguistics and planned languages for the exhibition and in addition make use of two generous donations:

Both gifts are permanently at the disposal of the public and researchers by the Bavarian State Library each as a corpus separatum.

 

Support welcome

The Bavarian State Library provides the opportunity for firms, organisations and private persons to support the preparation and realisation of the exhibition and the symposium, as well as the publication of the accompanying book.

 

Recognition of sponsors

We publicly thank our sponsors for their support by publishing their logo or mentioning their name

 

Financial support is accepted with thanks by

Verein Förderer und Freunde der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek e. V.
(Bavarian State Library Supporters‘ Association Inc.)
Bayerische Landesbank München
Account no. 59391 – BLZ 700 500 000

 http://foerder.bsb-muenchen.de

 

Leaflet (in German language) as a pdf document  here.

 

 

At your disposal for queries:

Dr. Andrea Pia Kölbl
Project leader
Tel.: +49 (0)89 28638 2823

 koelbl@bsb-muenchen.de

 

Peter Schnitzlein

Press and public relations

Tel.: +49 (0)89 28638 2429

 peter.schnitzlein@bsb-muenchen.de