A Language for the World from Warsaw
Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof, Esperanto and Eastern Europe
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
L.L. Zamenhof is the founder of Esperanto. In Poland, he is considered one of the country's most prominent sons; whereby, he understood himself a trans-national man. Even Zamenhof's constructed language cannot be separated from his experience as a Jew in a Slavic environment. Zamenhof was one of the first Zionists and a humanist with political and strangely "non-political" thoughts. Under National Socialism and Stalinism, adherents of the Esparanto movement were persecuted; under Socialist regimes, Esperanto associations moved between manipulation and encouragement.
(Osteuropa 4/2007, pp. 143–156)