The German Question, Part Fifty-Nine

"Bismarck" Part Five/D "Bismarck as Chancellor & A Treaty With 'Contentious Relatives' "
"Ethnic Minorities in Bismarckian Germany/"East/North Addendum"

I found some very good information about minorities in Germany since I published the last few articles on this subject as part of this series. The info is from a census from December 1900, which is a bit ahead of our story, but I would certainly believe it gives a pretty good representation of what things were like in Germany a couple of decades prior. It is a breakdown of minorities by "language," not by what people considered themselves to be ethnically. In some cases, I believe this might skew the numbers. How? Let's say your parents came to America from country "XYZ." They wanted their kids to grow up being purely Americans, so you don't really speak the language of "XYZ,"....ah..."XYZan," I'll call it. When the census is taken and one of the questions is often about your ethnic background, you check "XYZ." Under the system in this German census, you would not be counted as a minority, because you don't speak "XYZan." Now, if that's not as clear as mud, I can try again. (What's that loud "No" I hear? Just because you can't speak "XYZan," no need to get hostile!)

So here are some numbers for minorities already covered in the last few articles: there were more than 3 million Polish speakers in Germany; most would have been in the far eastern areas, although some in the Ruhr (which is in the west), as industrial workers. "Masurisch" and "Kassubisch" (Masurian and Kashubian) had 142,000 and 100,000, respectively.* Danish speakers accounted for 141,000, almost all in Schleswig. Lithuanian speakers, 106,000, in the (then) far northeastern corner of  Germany. Wendish (also called "Sorbian") speakers, 93,000, in the "Lausitz" region, down near and along the modern Czech border. There were 100,000 speakers of Czech and Moravian, I would believe mainly in the Silesia region (again, near the modern Czech border).** (A Word History is below the notes)

* Masurian is a Slavic language closely related to Polish that was spoken in the eastern areas of Prussia, also known as "East Prussia." The speakers of Masurian were mainly Protestant Poles (most Poles remained staunchly Catholic), and they fit in nicely with the mainly Protestant German population in the area. Eventually, most came to consider themselves as "Germans." Kashubian is another Slavic language (or Polish dialect, depending upon point of view) that was spoken along the Baltic Sea coast, including the area in and around Danzig (Gdansk, in Polish). A majority of Kashubians were Catholic, which brought them into conflict with Bismarck, although as far as I am aware, they all spoke German, too, and probably some even  spoke Low German, as that was common in that area. Further, their predominant religion and close linguistic relationship with Polish made many Kashubians "suspect" in the eyes of German nationalists. Many Kashubians never fully integrated into "German society." Their homeland has been a part of Poland since the end of World War Two. The Kashubians figured somewhat in the rather famous novel "The Tin Drum" ("Die Blechtrommel") by German author Günter Grass, as the novel is set most often in and around Danzig. Grass was part Kashubian from his mother's side. 

** Moravian is a dialect of Czech.

WORD HISTORY:
Leber/Liver-"Wurst" was covered earlier, as was "Brat," so here is "Leber," as in Leberwurst, or liverwurst. As you can already see, "Leber" and "liver" are closely related. They go back to the Indo European root "leip," which had the notion of "adhere, stick, be sticky," with references to blood and to fat." Indo European "leip" is also the ancient ancestor of "live," which in German is "leben."^ In ancient times, many people believed the liver produced blood, probably due to its reddish-brown color; thus the tie to "live" and also "life," the related word in German is "Leib," which tends to mean "(living) body," as opposed to dead body/corpse, "Leiche." The Indo European root gave Old Germanic "libra/libera." This then gave Old English "lifer" and Old High German "lebara." The Old English form then became "lyver(e)," before the modern form. There are various forms throughout the Germanic languages: standard German "Leber," Low (Saxon) German has "Lebber," West Frisian, Dutch, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian all have "lever," Icelandic has "lifur," and Luxemburgisch (a German dialect to some, a language to others) has "Liewer."

^ Liver is also distantly related to "lipo," when it refers to "fat," as in "liposuction." "Lipo" is from Greek.