Chapter 8: Weaving the Linguistic Fabric of a Nation: Schools and Bidialectalism in Germany, 1960-2004

The present investigation focuses on the debate over methods for nativelanguage instruction in primary and secondary schools in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) between 1960 and 2004.¹ During the post-war period, many Germans adopted the view that an inclusive national identity could only be achieved if the majority of citizens had equal linguistic access to social, economic, and political institutions. At first, regional or local varieties of German were considered stumbling blocks along the path to this goal; more extreme views regarded them as liabilities to be overcome through eradication. In time, however, it was decided that providing citizens with linguistic flexibility through effective, innovative native-language instruction would be a more realistic plan of action. The emphasis of scholarship was on the search for the method that best suited the needs of dialect-speaking children struggling to master formal German, and during the years in question, linguists, quarreling over this issue, divided themselves into various camps.