Low German Book Fair in Hamburg: Under Platt Protern

This weekend, Hamburg's Lichtwarksaal is full of Low German books, klönschnack and gray hair. On stage Carina Dawert. The presenter and freelance speaker talks in Low German about being cringe at family celebrations and what it's like to date in your thirties. I like it. The Low German Book Fair is a good chance for me to expand my vocabulary.

Platt was my Sunday language for a long time. On Sunday we visited my grandma and there was a lot of talk. The many tea ties with Krinthstuut at my grandma's were more about different topics than the poetry slam at the book fair. The visitors to the book fair also look a little surprised. Facial expressions vary from slightly irritated to tentatively amused. Frollein Dawert doesn't care at all. She knows how to be cringe. At the end there is a lot of applause. Maybe it was just North German reticence.

I rarely get to chat in Hamburg anymore; I would first have to find people who speak Platt. There are many of these at the two-day book fair. The small Lichtwarksaal is full. When I was there on Saturday, around 70 people pushed past the rows of tables with me. Behind it are publishers, book authors and creative people. Plattdüütsch textbooks, fairy tales and children's books, an AI lexicon and brochures on the origins of the Low German language lie on dark red tablecloths.

There are postcards in a stand. “No tea for the AfD!” I read on one. Another says “East Frisian words”. The collection is curious. Hutschefiedel (old car), Spökenkieker (spirit seer), Töverland (magic land). For me, they are expressions that non-platform speakers will definitely enjoy reading. At least in my Platt-speaking family, very few of them are used. But they sound nice.

At exactly half past one a group sets off for a reading walk. Of course up flat. I continue my rounds. You understand each other quickly; from flat schnacker to flat proker to flat body. Regional language differences don't make the difference.

There is a paper stand next to the table at the State Center for Low German. A map can be seen on it. It shows where Platt is spoken in its regional languages: Südmarkisch, Mittelmarkisch, Nordmarkisch. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Holstein, East Frisian. According to the country center, 2.5 million people speak the language. What moi. This weekend in Hamburg's Lichtwarksaal you almost get the idea that Platt is on a high.

But of course it's not that simple. On my way to the book fair I ran into a woman from “Nettwark Junge Lüüd”. The newly founded group meets in person for the first time in the Low German library next to the Lichtwarksaal. Tosamen is in Uttuush to develop political demands for the preservation of the language among young people, she tells me. There are almost 70 people so far. In our conversation we keep switching between high and low. Maybe she'll notice my lack of practice. Doesn't matter. I should put it up on Instagram to see what the niceness is like, she says. It could be interesting for me too.

On my way home I talk to my father on the phone. He has been a Platt Proter since day one and calls Standard German his first foreign language. I'm also trying out proten again today. He is pleased. Making mistakes doesn't matter. You have to open it, he says. Well, okay, I guess. Maybe I just have to be cringe at the next family celebration. And talk about a few new terms. What I have learned now.