Detlev Blanke

Detlev Blanke
Born (1941-05-30)30 May 1941
Neumünster, Germany
Nationality German
Known for philologist of Esperanto and German

Detlev Blanke (born 30 May 1941) is an interlinguistics lecturer at Humboldt University of Berlin. He is one of Germany's most active Esperanto philologists and has been since 1991 both the chair of the Gesellschaft für Interlinguistik ("Interlinguistics Society") and the editor of its newsletter, Interlinguistische Informationen. He and his wife Wera Blanke are especially interested in the evolution of language particularly in the development of terminology for the planned language Esperanto and in questions of sociolinguistics. Blanke has made a keen study of Eugen Wüster's work towards common international terminology and towards international standardization.

Academic career

After completing his initial university studies he worked as a teacher of German and geography. He earned a doctorate from Humboldt University of Berlin in 1976 with his dissertation on comparative word construction of Esperanto and German. In 1985 he earned a second doctorate from Humboldt on constructed languages. (In the former East Germany such a second degree was known as "dissertation B", corresponding to the highest academic qualification of "habilitation" awarded to full professors in many European countries.) In 1988 the university appointed him "Honorary Lecturer of Interlinguistics."

Esperanto activities

Having first taught himself Esperanto in 1957, he later became secretary (1968 through 1990) of the Centra Laborrondo de Esperanto-Amikoj ("Central Working Circle of Friends of Esperanto"), a government-sanctioned affiliate of East Germany's Cultural Association (Deutsche Kulturbund). After 1981 the group became a part of the newly founded German Democratic Republic Esperanto Association (Esperanto-Asocio de GDR, GDREA). From 1970 to 1990 Prof. Blanke was also editor of the newsletter of those organizations, Der Esperantist. In 1991 the Esperantists of the former East Germany formally affiliated with the German Esperanto Association (Germana Esperanto-Asocio) which had previously operated only in West Germany.

Works of Detlev Blanke

Original works in Esperanto

Translation into Esperanto

Original works in German

External links

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