In 1914, the Westermann publishing house in Braunschweig publishes the "Hansa-Fibel" by the Hamburg educationalist Otto Zimmermann (1874-1944), which is influenced by reform pedagogy. Low German is gradually introduced in this primer after basic High German reading skills have been taught. By 1933, the "Hansa-Fibel" had been published in around 35 different regional versions, so-called "Heimatausgaben". "Heimatausgaben", for the whole of northern Germany and beyond (cf. Weßels 2022, 1; Bartnitzki 2024, 3). In 1935, the version "Hand in Hand fürs Vaterland" (Hand in Hand for the Fatherland), which Zimmermann himself adapted to the ideology of the National Socialists, was officially admitted for school lessons and became the basis for regional variants. In the same year, the "Plattdüütsch Kinnerbook: Geschichten un Rimels för dat eerste Lesen in de School", published by the Gausachberatungsstelle für Niederdeutsch im NS-Lehrerbund. The "Kinnerbook" is also published several times in different dialect variants in the following years. While the "Hansa-Fibel" integrates regional aspects in order to make the child's - and therefore often Low German - world of experience didactically usable for a child-appropriate (High German) reading acquisition, the "Kinnerbook" is decidedly focussed on the acquisition of Low German language skills. The "Kinnerbook" was published for the last time in 1939, while the "Hansa-Fibel" was published in the first few years after 1945 in "emergency editions", which were based on ideologically unencumbered pre-war editions. With the centralisation and de-localisation of the rural school system in both German states from the 1950s onwards, Low German was no longer included in first reading books as part of children's lives. In addition, the family as a place for the uncontrolled acquisition of Low German became increasingly less important. Low German is perceived as an obstacle to education.
As part of the start-up funding from the Hanse University Alliance, a working meeting of the project participants from Greifswald (PD Dr Birte Arendt, linguistics, didactics), Rostock (Prof. Dr Andreas Bieberstedt, PD Dr Klaas-Hinrich Ehlers, both linguistics) Prof. Dr Wenke Mückel, primary school education) and Oldenburg (Prof. Dr Doreen Brandt, literary studies; Dr Franziska Buchmann, linguistics, didactics) is planned. The aim is to review the materials collected so far (Hansa primers, Kinnerbook, any accompanying educational materials, research literature) and to discuss them in order to identify a common interest in knowledge at the intersection of Low German linguistics and literary studies, primary school education and didactics and to discuss methodological approaches. A third-party funded project on the topic is planned for the medium term.