Sprache als Werkzeug im 'nation-building': Die sprachnationalistischen Bewegungen Norwegens und Kataloniens in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts

Abstract

Summary: This article describes the origin and development of nationalistic thinking in Norway and Catalonia in the course of the 19th century. It aims at showing that two geographically and culturally quite distant European regions underwent very similar processes almost at the same time. Using a comparative approach, the article discusses the rise of the concepts of nation and culture as a new interest of small groups of intellectuals, based on ideas of thinkers like Herder and Fichte. It aims at showing how these foremost “romantic”, or rather cultural concepts led to political programmes and the cry for independence and liberation of central powers (Spain/Castile and Denmark) in the course of time. The focus lies on the analysis of concepts of language and their (assumed) history as one of the favourite and most powerful justification tools for delimitation and the description of own genuine history and culture in the discourse of Norwegian and Catalan intellectuals. [Keywords: Nationalism; 19th century; history of ideas; intellectuals; Norwegian; Catalan; language history]