Language 1: Preserve the German among our youth (Part 1 of 2)

      Although I have blogged several times regarding the loss of the German language among Missouri Synod Lutherans, another article came to my attention from an unknown author to Der Lutheraner in 1854 that made me pause and reflect even more on this tragedy.  When I correspond with Germans, I invariably let them know how much I envy them because… they know German! … and I don't.  And the following article again points out just how much the American Lutherans have lost in the loss of this language, so much so that it can bring tears to my eyes. — From Der Lutheraner, vol 11, no. 5 (Oct. 24, 1854), p. 34-35: 

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What can we do to preserve the German language among our youth? 

 

Whatever the various opinions and expectations of the future of the German language in America, it is agreed among us that we, German Lutherans, should make every effort to preserve the mother tongue for our children and grandchildren. While the fear of the gradual extinction of German may not be without reason, and the writer of these lines himself shares this fear, we are undoubtedly agreed that we who are alive now must do everything in our power to postpone this calamitous epoch into as distant a future as possible. If there were no other reason for this, it would already be sufficient, because the German language indisputably contains the greatest treasures of Christian, healthy literature [Page 35] that only a people of recent times has to show. I am not, of course, thinking of the German literature of more recent times, which, under God's heavy judgments, has become a canal of apostasy and wickedness of recent times, and should we speak of this, we should only wish that it had never found its way across the sea to America. We have rather in mind the German literature of the old age, namely of the Reformation, to which no other of European Christianity can be placed side by side. What are all the English ascetic writings of [Thomas] Goodwin, [Richard] Baxter, [John] Bunyan, etc., against such a book as Luther's House- and Church Postils or [Christian] Scriver's Treasure of Souls [Seelenschatz]? or what is all the hymnological literature of England against a single old hymnal of the Lutheran Church? If our children forget their mother tongue, the English language in which the Lutheran Church at present has almost no literature, offers them not the poorest substitute for it. And where did the decline of the Lutheran Church in America come from? Did it not come largely from ignorance of the German language, whereby the rising generation fell into the hands of the English churches? The writer of this has heard it himself from the mouth of a grandson of one of the first German Lutheran preachers in America that ignorance of the German language became the cause of his joining the English Episcopal Church.

But what can we do? Without a doubt, we must start with our youth and lay the foundation in school. German Lutheran parents should never speak other than good German with their children in their family circle. Unfortunately, many Germans are the foolish monkeys of foreigners; they think that nothing is decent and distinguished enough if it is not put on an English footing. Understanding Germans should also show a manly sobriety in this and, although far from pedantic German pomposity, should not be ashamed of their German origin, especially in the language. Furthermore, the German language should be cultivated in our congregational schools with even greater care than is necessary in the old fatherland, so that a student learns to speak and write it with ease and the greatest possible elegance and correctness. Of course, a half-stumbling learning of German cannot arouse a preference for German. Furthermore, our pupils should be familiarized at an early age with good samples of German writers of old and new times in a suitable selection. The introduction of good German reading books for schools serves this purpose. I would remind you of Wackernagel's and Sartorius's excellent reading books, as well as the reading book edited by the North German Association, one or the other of which should not be lacking in sufficient supply in any of our schools. In order to acquire a taste for the German language, as well as a skill in reading, it is not sufficient to use only the Bible or Hübner's Histories as reading books. Finally, each of our schools should, wherever possible, have a small, selected school library, from which students could take home a book every week as a reward for their diligence and good behavior. It is hard to believe how happy children are about this, how eagerly they read, how much idleness and spoiling they are protected from, how much their older brothers and sisters, even their parents, enjoy having the beautiful children's stories read to them during the long winter evenings, and how this promotes a close, intimate family life. Praise God! The newer times are becoming richer and richer in good children's writings that can be safely given to children. Some of Schmidt's, Barth's, Stöber's, Schubart's, and above all Redenbacher's writings provide excellent material for a school library; this would gradually be expanded by good travel descriptions, such as the older ones by Harnisch and the newer ones by Grube, or by children's writings on natural history, world history and church history. The children would gladly contribute their cents, which they otherwise easily spend on candy, if they have the prospect of soon getting another new book to read. Attention cannot be drawn seriously enough to the establishment of such school libraries. If there are some passages in some of these books for young people that do not contain proofs, a Christian teacher will know how to make them harmless by correcting them in time and thereby awaken and exercise the gift of examination in the young Christians.

But over and above this, it seems to us that the least means of not extinguishing the love of the German language in our youth is to give them at the same time the most ample opportunity to learn the English language from the bottom up. If one were to try to keep the English language away from the child's field of vision, one would produce the direct opposite of love for the mother tongue. The more unreservedly the children are introduced to the English language, the more soberly they will naturally weigh both languages, and the more thoroughly they become acquainted with both languages, the more joyfully they will prefer the originality of the German language to the English language, which is colorfully adorned with foreign writings [Federn].

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      Concordia Publishing House may be both credited and blamed for the language situation.  It has produced several English translations of Old German Lutheran writings, but it has been culpable for the lack of the same in many cases. When I was born in 1952, the language transformation was largely over and I heard very little of German speaking in our congregation and among my own older relatives.

      The world will point to the great loss of life in the two World Wars of the 20th Century, but I point to the loss of the German language among the Lutherans of America as their greatest lost.  — And that is one of the main reasons for this blog, to bring back the German writings of the fathers of the Old Missouri Synod, from the time before English became dominant.  For it is they, the Missourian German Lutherans, who can be credited for taking us Back To Luther. — In the next Part 2, we hear another exhortation in the same volume (p. 103), but this time it was for the English language.