Weltdeutsch

For the language created by Adalbert Baumann in 1916, see Wede.

Weltdeutsch
Wede
Created byWilhelm Ostwald
Purpose
SourcesGerman
Language codes
ISO 639-3qdw (local use). Also used for Coast Yuki
IETFart-x-weltdeut (local use)

Weltdeutsch (German pronunciation: [ˈvɛltdɔɪtʃ] ⓘ VELT-doych, lit. 'World-German') was a proposal for a German-based zonal international auxiliary language by chemist and interlinguist Wilhelm Ostwald.[1] Published in 1916 in Ostwald's Monistic Sunday Sermons (German: Monistische Sonntagspredigten), Weltdeutsch was a reflection of the advance of German nationalism during the First World War – Ostwald had long been a pacifist, being aligned with the German Monistic League [de] founded by Ernst Haeckel.[2]

The language consisted of Standard German with some orthographic and phonemic simplifications, but was never fully developed. After publication, there was little further interest in Weltdeutsch; it was not taken up by any German institutions, and was denounced as an act of chauvinism by the interlinguistic circles which Ostwald had been part of.

  1. ^ Says, Michael Noelle (26 February 2017). "German Auxiliary Languages – Weltdeutsch | © SmarterGerman 2022". smartergerman.com. Archived from the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  2. ^ Storm, Jason Ānanda Josephson (November 2021). "Monism and the Religion of Science: How a German New Religious Movement Birthed American Academic Philosophy". Nova Religio. 25 (2). doi:10.1525/nr.2021.25.2.12. S2CID 240478349. Archived from the original on 5 April 2023. Retrieved 5 April 2023.