100 years Esperanto (World auxiliary language) - Germany / German Democratic Republic 1987

100 years of Esperanto The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the German Democratic Republic issues a multicolored special postage stamp block "100 years of Esperanto". No special First Day Cover Special cancellation from July 7 to September 6, 1987 100 years of Esperanto 100 years ago, on July 26, 1887, the 40-page brochure of a Dr. med. Esperanto on the project of an international communication tool called "lnternacia Lingvo". The author was the Polish ophthalmologist Ludwig L. Zamenhof (1859-1917), whose pseudonym "Esperanto" means "the hopeful" in this language and later gave the language its name. For Zamenhof hoped that his neutral language, since bound to no people, to any political or economic grouping of states, would be introduced as an international means of communication between people of different languages, and thus could give peace to mankind torn apart by wars and other international conflicts. Although Zamenhof remained hidden from the real causes of social and military conflicts, his humanistic endeavors were an important motivation for many humanistic forces to learn this language. Efforts to consciously create an international script or language systems to facilitate international linguistic communication go back to the Middle Ages. From the present to the present about 1000 trials, only a few (eg Volapük, Ido, Interlingua) experienced a limited practical application. From the project to the living language but could only develop the Esperanto. The practical basis for today's use of Esperanto is a system of about 70 national associations, of over 40 international (partly technical and object oriented) associations and numerous institutions as well as clubs, traditional events and numerous publications in the language. The most widespread Esperanto in the European socialist countries, but has in recent years increasingly followers in Latin America and Asia, especially in Cuba, China and Vietnam. In Esperanto, the written use is still predominant, as for international correspondence, in over 150 journals, but also as a language of fiction and science. Numerous works of world literature have been translated into the planned language, including by Shakespeare, Goethe, Schiller, Gorki, Petofi, Lu Xun u. a. Translations of the "Dreigroschenromans" and of Apitz "Nackt unter Wölfen" appeared in the GDR. Increasingly, language is used in science and technology, most recently for computer problems, microelectronics, cybernetics and linguistics. The developing specialist vocabulary is fixed in over 200 specialized dictionaries for about 50 scientific disciplines. The annual one-week Esperanto World Congresses with 2,000 to 5,000 participants from over 50 countries realize with their approximately 200 events an optimal form of international communication. The 71st Esperanto World Congress was held in 1986 in Beijing, and the site of the 72nd World Congress in the summer of 1987 is Warsaw. 14 radio stations in 10 countries regularly broadcast information programs, including Radio Polonia six times a day and Radio Beijing four times. Based on the humanistic concerns of Zamenhof and the anti-militarist traditions of the 1920s very dynamic Workers' Esperanto Movement, the overwhelming majority of Esperantoists actively contribute to the struggle for peace, for disarmament and for a coalition of reason and realism , a. in the World Peace Esperantist Movement (MEM). At the 23rd Assembly of UNESCO in 1985 in Sofia, Resolution 23c / Res. 11.11. Expressing its appreciation of Esperanto "as a means to promote the mutual understanding of the people and cultures of different countries" and to emphasize the "great potential of Esperanto for international understanding". In the GDR, the Friends of Esperanto in the Esperanto Association in the Cultural League of the GDR are organized.