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Voluntary Social Year (FSJ) at the Research Center Deutscher Sprachatlas
Since 2021, we have been offering a Voluntary Social Year (FSJ) in the field of heritage conservation.
As part of the FSJ, interested young people up to the age of 26 get an insight into our research center, our main areas of work, our research and documentation center, the field of science communication and scientific work in general - a good opportunity to orientate themselves for their own professional training and future and to support research into the regional language varieties of German.
Dialect research - what does this have to do with heritage conservation?
When most people hear the term “monument preservation”, the first thing that comes to mind is the restoration of churches, old houses and works of art. On the one hand, monuments bear witness to our history, they document and teach us something about the way of life of previous generations.
On the other hand, monuments also create identity - they are closely linked to people's self-image and their culture.
This is just as true of language, and dialects in particular, as it is of physical monuments. Now, monument preservation in relation to language is a little different to old buildings, for example, where a crack in the wall cannot “simply” be repaired. This makes it all the more important to deal with and safeguard the intangible cultural asset of language for future generations.
Researching dialects and other regional varieties is primarily about collecting data and documenting, researching and understanding language developments in the past and present, as well as getting in touch with their speakers and hearing their stories.
How do our FSJ volunteers contribute to safeguarding the language as an intangible cultural asset?
The tasks of the volunteers at the Language Atlas are very diverse and vary throughout the year depending on current events and personal interests.
Volunteers have the opportunity to attend courses such as introductory linguistics or palaeography (where they learn about the German Kurrent script, for example).
Volunteers can also sit in on various working groups depending on their interests.
In general, our FSJ volunteers gain a good insight into academic research and work, e.g. by attending colloquia, participating in meetings, conferences and workshops or working in various editorial offices.
Another important area of responsibility is public relations work, whether it's creatively designing appealing posts on our social media channels, maintaining the website or participating in high-profile projects.
In these projects, our volunteers can experience right from the start how projects are realized, from the collection of ideas to scheduling, application and problem solving to implementation.
In this way, they learn to work independently and autonomously, but also to work in a team, and the young people can find out for themselves which working methods suit them best. The short introduction to working life opens up completely new perspectives when choosing a career, course of study or training.
The sponsors of the FSJ
Our FSJ in the preservation of historical monuments is part of the project Jugendbauhütten of the Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz, which is sponsored by the internationale Jugendgemeinschaftsdienste (ijgd).
Through the 16 Youth Building Lodges throughout Germany, the German Foundation for Monument Conservation enables young people to work for a year in the trades, museums or other areas of work and gain valuable experience, while at the same time securing the next generation for monument conservation.
The project is supported by the ijgd, which promotes voluntary work among young people worldwide.
During their voluntary year, our FSJ volunteers attend a total of six five-day seminars at the Jugendbauhütte Hessen-Marburg, which usually take place on the recreational grounds of the city forest in Marburg. At the seminars, they live, cook and work together with the other FSJ students in monument preservation from Hesse. The 2021/22 cohort, for example, completed a small house on the Stadtwald site - so even volunteers in less craft-oriented workplaces like ours get a brief insight into a completely different working world and can incorporate this into their considerations for the future.
Have we sparked your interest, do you still have questions or would you like to apply?
Contact at the Research Center Deutscher Sprachatlas:
Dr. Brigitte Ganswindt
E-Mail: ganswindt@staff.uni-marburg.de
Tel.: +49 6421 28-22487
Contact at the Jugendbauhütte Hessen-Marburg:
Oliver Dahn
E-Mail: fsj.denkmal.he@ijgd.de
Tel.: +49 6421 309 68 66
Current FSJ Volunteers at the Research Center Deutscher Sprachatlas:
Mila Dege
Monika Fröh
Former FSJ Volunteers:
Valerie Dudinets
Louisa Gnau
Paula Grabar
Joris Hunzinger
Fenna Suhrkamp