• Home
• Aktuelles
• Über uns
• Tätigkeiten
• Freiburg
• Dokumentation
• Kontakt
• Links

Presentation of the DFAG

Introduction

Of the 26 cantons of the officially quadrilingual Swiss Confederation, not many have bi- or plurilingual status. Among them, the French-German bilingual Canton of Fribourg/Freiburg presents the interesting challenge of having an inverted majority/minority relation as compared to Switzerland.

The Deutschfreiburgische Arbeitsgemeinschaft (DFAG) is an association dedicated to the maintenance and promotion of the German language in its standard and dialect varieties, and bilingualism in the Canton of Fribourg/Freiburg and its capital, Fribourg/Freiburg. It was founded in 1959 to assure the recognition of the linguistic and cultural rights of the German-speaking minority, at social, political, administrative, educational and economic levels, and to promote institutional and individual bilingualism.

Freiburg/Fribourg: Historical Milestones

The region between the Lake area and the Prealps in the Western part of Switzerland has been a crossroad and a region of settlement for many populations and civilisations. It was inhabited during the stone, bronze and iron age. The Celtic Helvetians dwelled here from approximately 500 BC on, before they were defeated by the Romans at Bibracte in 58 BC and subsequently romanized. No written Celtic testimonies exist, however, a few traces remain in place names and in the Alpine culture. Successive germanization took place from the 6th century AD on, as the Alemmanic tribes came from the North. Romanized Burgundians came in from the West, and the language border zone established around the year 1000. It has been relatively stable ever since.

The city of Fribourg/Freiburg was founded in 1157 at the river Sarine/Saane by Duke Berthold IVth of Zaehringen. The river is considered the symbolic language limit between German and French, but the border and the river overlap, in fact, for only a few kilometres. In everyday imagery this is called Röschtigraben, the symbol of cultural and social - real or imagined - antagonism between the French- and German-speaking parts of Switzerland.

In 1481 Fribourg/Freiburg joined the Helvetic Confederation as the first canton having a French-speaking population. The influence and weight of the two language communities changed during the centuries due to both internal and external factors, however, bilingualism can be considered as one of the only constant and continuing elements of its history. In 1889, the University was founded, the first Swiss university in a Catholic canton. The University has been officially bilingual since its foundation, nowadays with English as an additional academic language for teaching and research.

In the German-speaking community, language choice is largely determined by diglossia; speakers of every economic and social status use mostly Swiss-German, in different varieties, for everyday oral use, except very formal situations, and use standard German for most written activities, except folklore and short messages such as blogs, sms and chats, especially young people. In the French- speaking community, a similar diglossic situation prevailed in the past when the Franco-Provençal dialects, called patois, were largely in use. Nowadays, due to the hegemonic position of the French language, they can be considered as nearly extinct.

Of a population of about 240 000 inhabitants, the canton hosts 63.2% French- and 29.2% German-speakers, and 7.6% speakers of other languages. The capital has a population of about 36 000 citizens, 63.6% French- and 21.2% German-speakers, and 15.2% speakers of other languages (Federal census 2000, Office of statistics).

The History of DFAG

The DFAG was founded on January 15th 1959 by the surgeon Dr Peter Boschung. Its aims remain largely unchanged, cf. the statutes. This act must be seen in terms of the inequity to which German-speakers were exposed at political, cultural, educational and economic levels.

In 1962, the members of the association addressed a petition to the government asking for full recognition of the German language as one of the co-official languages of the canton.

In 1963 a commission was created to unify the orthography of the Swiss German dialects, and another one was charged to organise cultural events in German.

In 1964, the DFAG joined the Institut Fribourgeois. The Language Charter, written by both institutions, was handed to the cantonal government on December 24th 1968.

Upon initiative of the DFAG, a group of German-speaking parliamentarians was created in 1970, and the next year, a radio and TV commission.
Since 1974, the issue of languages at school has been a much debated subject. The new school law of 1985 led to the foundation of the Communauté romande du pays de Fribourg (CRPF), the French-speaking counterpart of the DFAG.

Between 2000 and 2004, the redaction of the new cantonal Constitution was embraced as a challenge for the members of the committee and the association. Thanks to this commitment, the new Constitution, which entered into force on January 1st 2005, accords an important role to language rights.

The DFAG is a privileged interlocutor for language matters, in the domains of language policy, language and education, and language and culture. For these reasons, it is regularly consulted by political organs.

Main Activities

Since 1963, the DFAG has awarded a prize for cultural achievements, and since 1999 a prize for achievements in the domain of bilingualism. In collaboration with the cantonal board of education, it has organised an annual reading contest for primary school children since 2005. It is also active in German-speaking theatre activities and takes part in language policy (e. g. revision of the cantonal Constitution [link], cantonal laws with an impact on linguistic, cultural or educational issues). In terms of costs and benefits, the DFAG clearly values bilingualism as a generator of mutual understanding and social and economic advantages rather than a source of potential conflicts.

Winners of the Cultural Award
1963: Ernst Flückiger et German Kolly
1968: Raymond Meuwly
1973: Othmar Perler
1979: Bruno Baeriswyl
1984: Hanni Schwab
1988: Walter Cottier et Venanz Peissard
1996: Pius Kaeser
2001: Moritz Boschung-Vonlanthen
2008: Michel Roggo

Winners of the Award for Bilingualism
1999: Musée d´histoire naturelle à Fribourg
2000: Haute école de gestion, Fribourg
2002: Etablissement cantonal d'assurance des bâtiments, Fribourg, M. Pierre Ecoffey
2003: Pro Fribourg / M. Gérard Bourgarel
2004: Scou-Bi-Doux, bilingual school in Villars-sur-Glâne
2007: Bilingual municipality of Courtepin-Courtaman

Bibliography