Schenker Correspondence Project

Deutscher Sprachverein (1885–1943). Society for the purification and cultivation of the German language, established in 1885 by the art historian and museum director Hermann Riegel. The DSV’s stated objectives were:

1. to promote the purification of the German language [and rid it] of unnecessary foreign components, –
2. to cultivate the preservation and restoration of the true spirit and essential nature of the German language, and
3. to strengthen general national consciousness in the German people by this means.

The DSV had many critics, and fell foul of the Hitler regime, its activities being limited by the latter from 1940 on, and the journal ceasing publication in 1943. It was refounded in 1947 as the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache.

Schenker is presumed to have been sympathetic to its aims from the fact that in 1927 and 1928 he sent postcards to Cube with the DSV’s emblem (the double eagle) and panel of stated objectives, which reads:

“Der Deutsche Sprachverein, gegründet im Jahre 1885, zählt gegen 40.000 Mitglieder und 285 Zweigvereine. / Er will die deutsche Sprache hüten und pflegen, die Liebe zu ihr wecken, ihre Reinheit und Schönheit wahren, das Verständnis für die vertiefen, das Sprachgefuhl schärfen und dadurch dem deutschen Volkstum und der deutschen Zukunft dienen. / Der Jahresbeitrag beträgt [blank] Mk; dafür erhalten die Mitglieder die Zeitschrift. / Der Deutsche Sprachverein ist kein Gelehrtenverein. Er wendet sich an alle Deutschen, die ihre reiche, schöne Muttersprache lieben, Männer und Frauen, Gelehrte und Nichtgelehrte. / Anmeldungen nehmen die Zweigvereine entgegen, für Einzelmitglieder die Geschäftsstelle des Deutschen Sprachvereins Berlin W 30, Nollendorfstraße 13/14; Postscheckamt Berlin Nr. 20894.“

“The German Language Society, founded in 1885, numbers 40,000 members and 285 local chapters. / It is dedicated to protecting and cultivating the German language, to inspiring love for it, to preserving its purity and beauty, to deepening the understanding of it, to sharpening the feeling for language and thereby to serving the German people and the German future. / The annual subscription is [blank] Marks. For that, members receive the journal. / The German Language Society is not a learned society. It is intended for all Germans who love their rich, beautiful mother tongue, men and women, scholars and non-scholars. / The sister societies accept applications, for individual members the office of the German Language Society [is] Berlin W 30, Nollendorfstraße 13/14; postal check office Berlin No. 20894.”

Postcards with the DSV emblem and stated objectives are:

vC 11, September 27, 1927 (Schenker to Cube)

vC 18, June 9, 1928 (Schenker to Cube)

(Information from DSV website, http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allgemeiner_Deutscher_Sprachverein, and from the quoted source)