The project "Proverbs"
Introduction, presentation of the working team.
„Having in mind, that views, values, thinking, habits, in brief : the whole character of a people is demonstrated nowhere else more clearly, more distinctly, more perceptible than in its proverbs, the first proverb collectors began to look for proverbs of the second century after Christ. Today almost every country has established its own collection.
In Germany, besides dozens of German editions, also Latin, Greek, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Iranian, Chinese and Japanese proverbs had been translated into German.
„ You will recognize a people by ist proverbs“, this quotation of the Old Testament is generally accepted.“
(Dr.Landsberger 1912, shortened)
Seven senior students from three European countries agreed with this statement and established a working group within the VECU project „Culture Transfer“, to look after traces,
in which way proverbs have transferred values, ways of thinking across national frontiers and from one generation to the next, and whether they do it even today.
We tried to find out, whether also Europe "is to be recognized by its proverbs“.
This project had been stimulated by Prof. Paul Duchesne (Namur, Belgium), who had already published several books about this matter (1, 11) and by personal documents of the Polish member of our working group, Mrs. Urszula Mierzejewska. (See chapter 6. ).
Since august 2009 the following team worked on this project:
Grunwald Katarina, PhDr. (SK), Slovakian.
Hrapková Nadezda, PhDr. (SK), Slovakian.
Leonhard Inge (A), English,Gaelic.
Lutonska Lenka, Ing.(SK), Latin.
Marek Elisabeth (A), French.
Mierzejewska Urszula (PL), Polisch, Yiddish.
Spitaler Wolfgang, Dipl.Ing.(A)German, coordination.
There had been given an additional contribution to the collection of English proverbs (8) and the result of a questionnaire about knowledge of proverbs answered by senior students, coordinated by Dr. Fritz Weikert, Magdeburg (D).