Warnočanska generacija – wulki mały swět łužiskich dźěći w Čěskosłowakskej
The Varnsdorf Generation – the Large, Small World of the Children from Lusatia in Czechoslovakia.

An Interdisciplinary Project at the Sorbian Institute: Current State of Linguistic and Historical Investigations

Summary/Abstract: Between 1945 and 1950, a secondary school system conducted in the Sorbian language was established for the first time in Varnsdorf and other towns in northern Bohemia as a result of a private initiative. There were obvious gaps in the culture of rememberance of this episode of Sorbian history in the GDR before the political changes in 1989/90. It was not until 1993 that the significance of the education of several hundred schoolchildren in the (post-war) Czechoslovak Republic for the formation of an elite, which influenced public Sorbian life in the GDR on all levels, was openly discussed. This process came increasingly to be linked with the concept of the “Varnsdorf generation”, which implies a community of people who share similar experiences. The analysis of its success reveals themes and strategies linked to socialization. The memories of, now very old, former schoolchildren are being collected, in the form of interviews, as part of an interdisciplinary project at the Sorbian Institute. The first results from this project provide an overview of the memories from this educational initiative, including the sense of a collective identity and, in certain cases, the feeling of being part of an elite amongst the graduates, the creation of a linguistic identity in the everyday life of boarding schools, and teaching methods, which are still very relevant today.

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