The Cimbrians and the Bavarians

Stefan Ulrich reports on today's "least used language," spoken by only approximately 1,000 people worldwide: Cimbrian, a mixture of Bavarian, Italian and Middle High German. "It appeared that the last bastion of the Cimbrians, the village of Lusern 1,300 metres above sea level, would disappear or become just another Italian mountain village. More and more families were leaving. But then a kind of Cimbrian resistance movement emerged. ... The mayor of the village [Luigi Nicolussi] now aims to attract tourists from Germany in a bid to protect his mother tongue. He came up with an idea involving Bruno, the problem bear that crossed the border from Trentino into Bavaria in the summer of 2006 and was shot. Nicolussi has asked the state government in Munich to give him the stuffed bear to put on exhibition. 'We are ancient Bavarians' he wrote in his appeal to the state premier, and pointed out that the Cimbrians were now threatened with extinction. 'The dead bear Bruno can make a positive contribution to our fight for survival'".

» to the homepage (external link, Süddeutsche Zeitung)
More from the press review on the subject » Minorities, » Italy, » Switzerland
All available articles from » Stefan Ulrich

» To the complete press review of Monday, March 17, 2008