Eurolang 24.10.2003

Sorbians file case at German constitutional court

Copenhagen 24/10/03, by Brigitte Alfter

Can minority language schools be treated and exposed to cutbacks just like majority schools when the authority of the province has to save money?

This question will soon be dealt with by a regional court in the first instance. The case will be filed by the parents concerned and likely to take several years. However the minority school in question, the Sorbian school in Crostwitz in German province of Saxony, has been closed since the summer holiday started.

The parents filed an urgent case to postpone the closure of the school until the principal case is decided upon. So far they have lost in all the lower courts. Therefore they have today filed an appeal to both the constitutional court in Saxony and to the Federal Constitutional Court, according to the lawyer of the parents, Thomas Schmidt.

'We can not expect a decision [on the principal case] while the children still go to school,' says Thomas Schmidt to Eurolang.

Crostwitz is one of only two Sorbian-language secondary schools in the region. Currently the children of Crostwitz go to a school teaching both German and Sorbian in another village. The school in Crostwitz was closed according to controversial new school legislation in the province, with higher minimum levels for numbers of children per class and per school.

The Sorbian main organisation, Domowina, this week decided to support the court cases, as it is considered a principal question, according to a press release from Domowina. Minority representatives argue, that minority schools serve not only education in the minority language but also the building up of an identity as a member of a minority.

Never before has the pressure for assimilation been as strong as in these times when new media, industrialisation and not least mobility, which is often necessary to make a living, pressure the traditional structures of minorities, according to Bernhard Ziesch, secretary general of Domowina.

'In such a situation special efforts must be made to keep the special characteristics of language, culture and way of life of the minority', Ziesch states. (EL)