2.3. Deaf culture
The German sign language community is a linguistic and cultural minority group. As mentioned in Socio-Historical Background 2.1., deaf people in Germany come together primarily in schools for deaf, vocational schools, deaf clubs and associations.
However, Deaf culture is also expressed in other ways in Germany: The well-known 30-minute TV-program Sehen statt Hören (‘seeing instead of listening’) is broadcasted every Saturday at 9:30 am at the Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR, the Bavarian TV channel, broadly accessible in all of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, even via the internet). First broadcasted in 1975, this program is presented by deaf moderators and shows news from the Deaf world, current political events, which can impact the sign language community as well as sport and cultural events with deaf participants. It is broadcasted in DGS with German subtitles and dubbing. Additionally, some popular German news journals such as Tagesschau and heute journal present their shows with a (Deaf) sign language interpreter on the TV channel Phoenix. There are more and more podcasted Deaf-TV-programs with Deaf moderators such as the sign language talkshow Fingerzeig (via ALEX Berlin, it can be watched on youtube), which is also subtitled and dubbed.
Currently there is an increase in TV-programs and online videos for deaf children. At the TV-channel Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR, the northern German channel) deaf children and teenagers from the Deaf School in Hamburg product a news broadcast program called Kindernachrichten in DGS (‘children news in DGS’) which is being broadcasted every day at 7:50 pm. Another example for a children program at TV is the Sandmännchen (‘little sand man’) at the Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb, TV-Channel of Berlin and Brandenburg), which is shown every day at 5:55 pm via internet, translated by deaf children, teenagers and interpreters. This publication has become very popular, over 1,5 million viewers since its first appearance in April 2017.
Two well-known websites, who provides an adequate language input in DGS for deaf children and CODAs, are the DGS Kids and Kinderbücher in Gebärdensprache (‘children books in sign language’), organized by the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Association of Hessia (HVGHM, located in Frankfurt am Main) and the Deaf Association of Munich and Suburbs (GMU, in Munich). Famous children’s books are translated by deaf translators and sign language instructors, then produced in sign language with added visual elements like background pictures and costumes.These are popular for deaf infants and children because they are still not able to read subtitles and many of them are born in hearing families with less DGS-input.
A very prominent platform for the sign language community for sharing information about cultural and sport events such as festivals, discussions, poetry slams, DGS-courses, interpreting courses at universities, parents counseling, surveys and more, is the website Taubenschlag (www.taubenschlag.de). The monthly magazine Deutsche Gehörlosen-Zeitung (DGZ, established in 1872 and re-established in 1950) is also a very popular medium to inform and discuss about various and current topics within the sign language community and worldwide. Editors and journalists of these are mainly deaf persons. In addition, there exits also newspapers from diverse local deaf associations such as the “Doven Klönschnack” from the Hamburg Deaf association.
The Association of Deaf Culture and History called Kultur und Geschichte Gehörloser (KUGG) provides research, exchanges and disseminates information about the German Deaf history and culture. The KUGG comprises information, for example, about the attitudes and experiences of deaf people during the fascistic Nazi regime 1933-1945 (i.e., deaf Jewish club members were excluded, genetically deaf children and teenagers were sterilized, some deaf youngsters organized themselves in a special sector in the Hitlerjugend, etc.). Another website, www.taubwissen.de, is a resource offered by the University of Hamburg for the sign language community as well as the wider general public to learn about history, organization, sports, sign language and literature.
An additional highly relevant cultural event is a three-day culture celebration called Gehörlosen-Kulturtage, which takes place every four or five years since 1993 in different cities across Germany and which is organized by the German Federal Association of the Deaf (DGB). This is the biggest event related to the German Deaf Community with around 3,000 visitors. Other well-known festivals are the theatre festival called DEGETH (Deutsches Gehörlosentheater), traditionally held in Munich every two years, and the sign language festival called Gebärdensprachfestival, which usually takes place in Berlin. Here, theatre groups with Deaf actors (and a few hearing bilingual actors) can enter a competition for the best performance in sign language. For example, the DGT - Deutsches Gehörlosentheater or Theater Türkis are commonly known and have won the competition in the last years. One other festival in Berlin is a sign language contest and famous poets such as Jürgen Endress, Giuseppe Giuranna, Gunter Trube (1960-2008), newcomers, and even signing children, teenagers or groups compete for a “golden hand” award.
In fine arts, painting and sculpturing, deaf artists like Albert Fischer (1940-2003), David Ludwig Bloch (1910-2002), Claudia Krämer and Dieter Fricke are quite popular. In moving picture industry, the deaf twins Reiner and Manfred Mertz are well known with their movies “Lautlose Flucht” (2013) and “Stille Angst” (2015), which are performed mainly by deaf actors.