‘Die härteste Sprachgrenze Europas?’ Negotiating the Linguistic Divide in Theatres on the German-Polish Border

Abstract

The German-Polish border is frequently referred to as ‘die härteste Sprachgrenze Europas’ (the hardest language boundary in Europe) (see Matthiesen 2002; Glante 2003: 3), not only because the two languages are so different, but also because very few Germans and Poles can speak both languages fluently. The resulting communication problems, particularly in the border region itself, only serve to exacerbate an already problematic relationship between two nations that have shared a shifting border and fought several wars over the centuries. Indeed, this problematic relationship is both the result and the cause of the widespread lack of language skills: reciprocal fears, prejudices and resentments mean that many Germans and Poles have little interest in learning the language of their neighbour — although German’s ‘prestige’ as a western, international language means that considerably more Poles learn German than vice versa — and that they use their own language ‘in the push and pull struggle to define some version of “self” over and against some “other”’ (Artega 1994: 1; see also Jaworska, this volume). Put differently, language functions as an important ‘identity marker (Blommaert and Verschueren 1998: 192) or ‘identity-constituting marker’ (Meinhof 2003b: 792), which distinguishes Germans from Poles in the border region, where the national Other is in such close, and potentially threatening, proximity (cf. Bauman 2000: 176).