Included By Means of a Broadcasting Language? the Case of Language-Based Minority Construction through the German-Speaking Radio Shows in Poland

The language of diaspora communities and minorities can be considered as a boarder- making instrument, as a mechanism of exclusion and inclusion (or rather of both simultaneously). The minority-or diaspora language media can as well function as means, instruments or mechanisms of border creation, boarder maintenance or inclusions.

The paper deals with media offers for language minorities and especially the German-speaking minority in Poland, focusing on the German-Speaking radio shows in the Voivodships Silesia and Opole. In these regions two stations produce radio shows in German; the very availability of non-polish-speaking media is a transformation phenomenon. Due to the novelty of media offers in German language as well as to the fact, that those, who define themselves as “German minority” partly do not speak German because of the minority languages ban during the socialist period in Poland, the central question to be posed in this presentation arises: Which function does the German speaking radio have in the creation of borders, inclusions, exclusions, interties and belongings?

My research concentrates not on the radio listeners but on how the radio stations by means of programme planning foster a regional identity, create a picture of the self and the others, and which role German as broadcasting language plays in these processes. I will demonstrate the integration function of the media and simultaneously its function within a diasporic consolidation, focusing on how the radio stations strive to create a collective identity among the German minority. I will demonstrate, how a strong belonging to the minority and tradition of the group is produced by these radios, while asking, how is it possible, if German is positioned as “mother tongue” which is “to be learned first”.