Written Wednesday: Der brave Junge - Einführung

Since the book written by Julius was written in his native language, the copy I have been gifted is also not in English.  It is actually printed in the original text on the left pages and German on the right pages.  It has been slow work but I've been typing the book in page by page into Google Translate and working on getting this story read.  My goal is to share a little bit of it with you in pieces every 'Written Wednesday' until the story is complete.  Please, please, please keep in mind that this has been translated at least twice by the time it is getting posted so assume any and all errors are mine either in inputting the German text or copying it to you.  While I would love to give you a smooth reading experience, I'd much prefer to give you the unaltered version and allow you to make changes in your mind as needed.  So, without further ado. . . .

Introduction 

Julius Georg Johannsen (1853-1935), born in Emmelsbüll in the Wiedingharde, has left the posterity "Di broowe dring" ("The brave boy") as a writer in his mother tongue, the Emmelsbuller version of the Wiedingharder Frisian , Accompanied by two letters, also written in Frisian, to Peter Jensen, who prepared the story for the pressure in the Nordfriesische Rundschau, Niebull.  Peter Jensen (1861-1939), born in Horsbüll, was the most prolific author of the Frisian-Frisian literature. He was also one of the most important North Frisian speakers.

In 1871, Julius Johannsen, together with his parents and his younger brother August Martin (1855-1922), emigrated to America (Port Clinton, Ohio) and worked in the New World. He was, for example, a helper on a farm, railway bridges, sailing shipbuilding, and wood-carriages, before he had bought his own country in 1884, breeded bees, and begged a vegetable garden for the greenhouse.

In October, 1884, he married Caroline Japsen (1863-1933) from Keitum / Sylt, who had been to visit America together with her mother the year before. The couple received nine children, six sons and three daughters: Wilhelm Nicolay Johannsen (1885-1941), Marie Mathilde Johann Boeck (1887-1959), Adele Caroline Johannsen Durdel (1888-1960), August Martin Johannsen (1890-1920), John Cornelius Johannsen (1891-1977), Nelson Ludwig Johannsen (1894-1964), Lilly Otilde Johannsen Madison (1897-1963), Paul Georg Johannsen (1900-1977) and Lorenz Redlef Johannsen (1902-1978).

In the 19th century, a large number of Schleswig-Holsteins, including a large group of North Frisians, fell in love with a better life and tried to settle in North America, but also in other parts of the world. The emigration took place in several waves. Many emigrants who had succeeded in founding a new existence continued to maintain contact with their native country and, of course, with other emigrated landlords. The common mother tongue played an important role. 

Julius Johannsen's strong attachment to North Frisia is evident not least in entering a marriage with a North Frisian. A first written receipt, which can be attributed to him with a high probability, is a German-language letter written on February 27, 1921, which is anonymous in Peter Jensen's article "Hurr widd langt ett Reerst uff datt Naibling Blair?" ("How far Is the voice of the Niebuller Zeitung? ") - in response to a donation campaign organized by Jensen in the post-war Germany, in which Johannsen participated. Johannsen writes about this by a former schoolmate, Anna Nielsen, intermediate aid.

Hahn, who was sending her brother the Nordfriesische Rundschau to America. With him he was a friend and was allowed to read his newspaper. To Johann Jensen's printed Frisian-language stories, Johannsen finds "much amusement", after an early effort reading was "quite fast" - "yes, it is true, the homeland and the mother tongue does not forgive man [...] . "

In the first of his Frisian-language letters, a good eleven years later, Johannsen mentions that his daughter Marie, who brings him the Nordfriesische Rundschau, can not read texts written in other Friesian dialects than the Wiedingharder Frisian. He himself can do it, but hears only his own dialect.

In the second letter, he refers to the "coarse wordbush / grot uurdbeuk", which would be of great value for future generations. The Frisian language must be uniformly coded, "we can not continue to write as the beak grew Is / wi kane ai al baibluuwe to skruuw, as us e snoobel grain as. " 

Johannsen refers to the Gesamtnordfriesische Dictionary of the Dictionary, which, from 1927 onwards, commissioned Professor Dr Julius Tedsen (1880-1939), who had done an important preparatory work for Peter Jensen with the "Dictionary of the North Frisian Language of the Wiedingharde" (Neumunster, 1927). The overall North Frisian dictionary has, however, been realized up to now only in single texts for the respective language variants of the North Frisian.

Johannsen's narrative and his written contact with Peter Jensen fall into a bloodthirsty of North Frisian language care in the 1920s and 30s, which many North Frisians like to come into contact with printed texts in their native language. Reading and writing to North Frisian was not a self-evident thing at the time. Even the understanding of closely related dialects, as in the case of Johannsen's daughter, the Mooringer (Bokingharder) Frisian, was difficult.

A reason for the revival of the North Frisian, which at the time was the state support of German-minded Frisians, organized in the North Frisian Association for Heimatkunde and Heimatliebe, who, contrary to other movements, sought no recognition as a national minority. Important representatives of the interests of the Nordfriesischen Verein were the bokingharderfriesischen writers Nis Albrecht Johannsen d. A. (1855-1935) and Katharine Ingwersen (1879-1968) on the mainland besides Peter Jensen.

As a writer in his mother tongue, Julius Johannsen appears late and only with a single story. As he states, this is a matter of embarrassment, since he was not able to work in winter 1929/30 because of a diseased leg. "Di broowe dring" and the two supporting letters are valuable testimonies of the Wiedingharder dialect, which is otherwise not very well represented, apart from the rich work of Peter Jensen, and is published for the first time in modern Friesian orthographies and with a German translation Was Peter Jensen's mentioned article of the time, which contains an anonymous German-language letter, but the letter was left in its original form, while Jensen's Frisian text was translated into the new spelling.the epilogue describes the story, as Peter Jensen writes, Historical value ", once in terms of content.

The standard form of the "Freesk Uurdebuk" was chosen for the implementation in the modern orthography to help the Frisian readers, who use the dictionary in the lecture, to facilitate the look-out. The Emmelsbuller variant, which partly resembles the Bursharder dialect And in the "Freesk Uurdebuk" has only been shown in some examples, the creation of a modern orthography was necessary. The original is in digital form in the "Thesaurus of North Frisian".

Yours sincerely, Ms Kathryn Knoll, great-great-granddaughter of Julius Johannsen, was warmly thanked for her extremely helpful transfer of biographical information and photos.

Kiel, January 2017       The Producer 

Where it fits:  Julius Johannsen is the son of Wilhelm & Marie (Christiansen) Johannsen.  Further biographical information can be seen above.