Teaching German as a mother tongue and as a foreign language at the DSJ

• Main Author: Broschk, Heidi
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: German language - Study and teaching (Elementary) - Research - South Africa - Johannesburg; German language - Study and teaching (Elementary) - Foreign speakers - Research - South Africa - Johannesburg
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/9070

M.A. (Linguistics) === The gold rush to the Witwatersrand Goldfields in 1886 attracted a diverse cross-section of European settlers. 10 % of this new community consisted of Germans. As Johannesburg developed, the need for education (schools) became acute, and in 1890 the DSJ (Deutsche Schule zu Johannesburg) was founded for the children of the German settlers. The founder of this private school was pastor Herrmann Kuschke, a Berlin missionary. He commenced tuition with only one pupil and by the end of 1891, the DSJ boasted 20 scholars. In his endeavour, the pastor not only taught all the sciences and the language German, but all scholars were expected to learn English, and the then ‘official’ language Dutch. After 1899, teaching Dutch to DSJ pupils was used to assist and obtain state funding.