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Josef Jungmann, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn and Deutsches Volksthum

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2014

Abstract

This study is a critical edition of a part of the book Deutsches Volksthum by Friedrich Ludwig Jahn which was translated in czech by Josef Jungmann. Josef Jungmann, who - according to the Miroslav Hrochs theory - belongs to the phase B of the czech national movement, regarded the language as the fundamental idetifying element of the czech nation.

All his life he spent with taking care of it - like teacher, translator, author of scientific publications or creator of the monumental czech-german dictionary. Among his transaltions there is a text called "Pochoutky z Německého národství Fryd.

Lud. Jahna" as well which was published 1814 in the Kaiserlich Königliche Wiener Zeitung.

Friedrich Ludwig Jahn wrote "Deutsches Volksthum" five years befor and presented in this book how a german national state should work. Josef Jungmann decided to translate some parts of it because of its content, not because of its literary quality - this was his main reason for the other transaltions.

From the comparison of the original text with the Jungmanns transtaltion it results that Jungmann chose from the opulent work only parts regarding nation, language, books and education. Moreover, he made the language easier, sometimes he changed the meaning or integrated his owen oppinions.

Due to this changes he adapted the text to the czech readers and made it more attractive for them. It is possible to assume that the transaltion became the object of discussions among the czech patriots who liked reading the Kaiserlich Königliche Wiener Zeitung.

The czech transaltion of the Jahns work shows that Jungmann was an attentive observer of the national movement in Germany and that the protagonists of the national movements in the Central Europ received each others.