German Historical Linguistics 2026, 4: Baroque Language Battles (Nadine Buchmann)

Overview

Nadine Buchmann traces the German language battles of roughly 1730–1770 as a struggle over whether Saxon-Meissen German or southern Upper German should define a shared standard. Johann Christoph Gottsched’s influence, rival claims from Johann Jakob Bodmer and Johann Balthasar Antesperg, and Maria Theresa’s language policies show how religious, regional, and political identities shaped standardization; Johann Peter Hebel’s Alemannic poetry offers a final challenge to the dismissal of dialect writing.

Key takeaways

Eighteenth-century German standardization was a contest between Gottsched’s prestigious Meissen variety and Upper German alternatives, not a simple, uncontested process of choosing one dialect.
Claims about correct German drew on more than grammar: writers appealed to chancery practice, celebrated authors, regional purity, religious history, and political institutions.
Antesperg’s case for an imperial grammar treated spelling as consequential in law, arguing that errors could obstruct justice and endanger property and rights.
Bodmer’s criticism of Luther shows that Reformation-era religious divisions continued to shape eighteenth-century arguments about language and regional authority.
Maria Theresa’s appointment of Popowitsch and the parallel teaching of his Austrian grammar and Gottsched’s work show that competing standards could coexist within state education.
Hebel’s Alemannic poetry demonstrates that dialect writing could sustain sophisticated literary expression even as advocates promoted a supraregional standard.

Chapters

0:00 Introducing German Language and Identity at Oxford

Henrike Lähnemann introduces Nadine Buchmann and frames the lecture around German language, identity, and early modern writing.
The opening connects the subject to Oxford collections on German literature and women’s writing.

2:20 The 1730–1770 Language Debate Across Saxony, Austria, and Switzerland

Buchmann focuses mainly on the decades from 1730 to 1770, using authors’ prefaces and contemporary reviews as evidence.
The geographical frame includes Saxony, Austria, and Switzerland, whose writers disputed what counted as authoritative German.

5:00 Enlightenment Arguments for German’s Prestige and History

Enlightenment ideals of reason and education encouraged arguments for strengthening German as a language of public life.
Writers invoked Charlemagne, Frederick Barbarossa, and Habsburg rulers to portray German as an ancient language fit for official and international use.
An Austrian Catholic author ranked German above Latin, reflecting a Catholic Enlightenment that could also be critical of Jesuit influence.

10:00 Chanceries, Luther, and the Formation of Written German

Royal and legal chanceries produced records, letters, and official documents, with early written conventions often reflecting scribes’ regional dialects.
Habsburg administrators in Vienna could write about Viennese affairs in Alemannic because some scribes came from Swiss-ruled districts.
The Meissen chancery tradition helped shape written German, while Martin Luther adapted chancery conventions in letters to his wife.

14:00 Analogists, Anomalists, and Competing Ideas of Correct German

The analogist position treated language as a rule-governed system grounded in principles such as regular word formation and etymology.
The anomalist position treated language as changeable and judged varieties by actual use and prestige; its proponents promoted the Meissen dialect.
Scholar Verena Zawada’s framework of auto-, hetero-, and meta-stereotypes helps distinguish group self-images, views of rivals, and assumptions about how rivals see them.

20:00 Antesperg’s Imperial Grammar and the Search for a Shared Authority

Austrian lawyer Johann Balthasar Antesperg argued that spelling errors could cause confusion, obstruct justice, and threaten people’s property and rights.
His grammar supplied lists of easily confused words and reading exercises, making language instruction a practical concern as well as a scholarly one.
A contemporary reviewer questioned what made a grammar “imperial”; the title could present the imperial throne as a neutral authority acceptable to both Gottsched’s Saxons and southern writers.

26:00 Bodmer Challenges Luther’s Authority and Saxon German

Zurich scholar Johann Jakob Bodmer argued that Swiss and Catholic regions had not simply adopted Luther’s language or religious authority.
Bodmer criticized Luther’s Bible translation for not using the language of imperial courts and for relying on usage and Latin scholarship.
The dispute shows how religious divisions became arguments about which regional variety deserved to count as German.

33:00 Gottsched, Bodmer, and Popowitsch Battle Over Literary Rules

Johann Christoph Gottsched, appointed professor of poetry at Leipzig in 1730, favored French classicist rules and more controlled theatrical writing.
Bodmer and Johann Jakob Breitinger defended imaginative freedom and revived medieval literature, anticipating Romantic ideas.
Gottsched’s wife, Luise Adelgunde Victorie Gottsched, wrote plays that quietly challenged his rules and presented a history of the French Academy to Maria Theresa.
Maria Theresa appointed the Slovenian-born Johann Siegmund Popowitsch professor of German in Vienna; his Austrian grammar was taught alongside Gottsched’s, despite Gottsched’s attempt to have it censored.

38:00 Why Saxon German Prevailed Over Upper German

Upper German advocates praised southern dialects as pure and unmixed, and appealed to respected authors, Austrian usage, and imperial chancery traditions.
Gottsched’s Meissen variety ultimately gained influence as Saxon usage spread and Maria Theresa promoted German-language instruction in Austria.
A contemporary image of Upper German as an old woman and Meissen German as a young woman captures the polemical claim that the Saxon variety was fresher and more modern.

43:00 Hebel’s Alemannic Poetry Rehabilitates Dialect Writing

Buchmann reads Johann Peter Hebel’s Alemannic poem “Das Hexlein” to demonstrate the literary qualities of a variety often sidelined in standardization debates.
The poem initially sounds as if a young man has been bewitched, but its details reveal lovesickness after an encounter with a young woman.
Hebel’s poetry book received a favorable review from Gottsched in a letter dated 1804, complicating the opposition between dialect writing and linguistic authority.

Summary, takeaways, and chapters were generated by AI from the video's transcript and may contain errors. The video belongs to its creator, Henrike Lähnemann.