In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

• Memories from the First Researchers of German Sign Language
• Siegmund Prillwitz (bio), Alexander von Meyenn (bio), Wolfgang Schmidt (bio), and Regina Leven (bio)

Introduction

This contribution is made up of separate memoirs from the first team that Siegmund Prillwitz pulled together around 1982 to begin research on German Sign Language (DGS) at the University of Hamburg. The "Three Musketeers" in this text refers to the first deaf researchers who worked with him: Alexander von Meyenn, Wolfgang Schmidt, and Heiko Zienert (who died in 2019). Regina Leven was also in this first research team and, at the same time, was one of the first DGS interpreters. In 1997, Prillwitz, von Meyenn, Zienert, Schmidt, Leven, and Bernd Rehling all received the Cultural Award [End Page 406]

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Siegmund Prillwitz in 1989. Photo courtesy of Thorsten Herbig.

of the German Federation of the Deaf, which is awarded every four years, for their pioneering work. DGS was officially recognized in Germany in 2002. Prillwitz retired in 2005.

The contributions from Prillwitz, von Meyenn, and Zienert are English translations of interviews from television broadcasts, as well as from interviews published on the University of Hamburg website.¹

Siegmund Prillwitz

In 1979, I was an assistant at the University of Hamburg for the German language and was asked by Professor Kröhnert, professor of deaf education at the university at that time, to create seminars for teachers of the deaf so that they could better teach the deaf German [End Page 407] grammar. When I took a look at how this was done in schools, I was suddenly quite fascinated that during breaks in the instruction, the deaf students, even though signing was forbidden in class, still signed. And as a linguist, I wanted to know more about this, so I went to a kindergarten, early education classes, and a deaf club, and from then on, I became more and more interested in sign language.

Then I was very lucky to meet Wolfgang Schmidt, social pedagogue at the Hamburg School for the Deaf, then Heiko Zienert, and Alexander von Meyenn. Beginning in 1982, every Monday, before going to my string quartet with my violin, we met at my home: Heiko, Alexander, and Wolfgang—three deaf intellectuals—and Regina Leven.

Actually, I had come across the topic before through the literature. Before that, I had no contact with deaf people or sign language, neither through my relatives nor as a linguist. I had also largely succumbed to the common prejudice against sign language: "Yes, that's probably a makeshift means to somehow communicate something visually."

Our group started an investigation in which we looked at families with deaf children who were in their first five years of life up to the beginning of school, to see how communication took place. And it was quite shocking to see that everything didn't go well. Then Rolf Schulmeister, Hubert Wudtke, and I—a team of three on the hearing side—went to the school for the deaf on Hammer Strasse here in Hamburg to observe the teaching. We were supported by Professor Kröhnert, who opened the doors there for us. In the classes we observed, deaf children really made an effort to somehow cope with reading, repeating, articulating, etc. It wasn't really about knowledge at all, it was always just about these few sounds that they put together to form certain words and tried to improve. This was the so-called "German method," which had been the school practice for more than a century worldwide, and especially in Germany until the 1980s.

Actually, the teachers were in an equally bad situation as their students, especially after it became clear that the children had their own language, and that teaching could be done on a completely different level if sign language was mastered and used by the teacher. That was [End Page 408] then the motivation for us—to get the instructional staff on board with using sign language in class as quickly as possible and to give them a way to learn this language.

My idea was always, "Gee, why don't you turn the tables for half an...

中文翻译：

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德国手语首批研究者的回忆

以下是内容的简短摘录，以代替摘要：

• 德国手语首批研究者的回忆
• 西格蒙德·普里尔维茨（简介）、亚历山大·冯·梅恩（简介）、沃尔夫冈·施密特（简介）和雷吉娜·莱文（简介）

介绍

本文稿由 Siegmund Prillwitz 于 1982 年左右组建的第一个团队的独立回忆录组成，该团队在汉堡大学开始研究德国手语 (DGS)。本文中的“三剑客”指的是与他一起工作的第一批聋人研究人员：Alexander von Meynn、Wolfgang Schmidt 和 Heiko Zienert（已于 2019 年去世）。Regina Leven 也是第一个研究团队的成员，同时也是第一批 DGS 口译员之一。1997年，普里尔维茨、冯·梅恩、齐纳特、施密特、莱文和贝恩德·雷林均获得文化奖[第406页完]

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查看完整分辨率图 1。

西格蒙德·普里尔维茨 (Siegmund Prillwitz)，摄于 1989 年。照片由托尔斯滕·赫比格 (Thorsten Herbig) 提供。

德国聋人联合会每四年颁发一次奖项，表彰他们的开创性工作。DGS 于 2002 年在德国得到正式认可。Prillwitz 于 2005 年退休。

Prillwitz、von Meynn 和 Zienert 的贡献是电视广播采访以及汉堡大学网站上发布的采访的英文翻译。¹

齐格蒙德·普里尔维茨

1979年，我在汉堡大学担任德语助教，当时该大学聋人教育学教授Kröhnert教授要求我为聋人教师创办研讨会，以便他们更好地教导聋人德语[完页407]语法。当我看到学校是如何做到这一点时，我突然很着迷，在教学间隙，聋哑学生即使在课堂上禁止手语，仍然手语。作为一名语言学家，我想了解更多这方面的知识，所以我去了幼儿园、早教班和聋人俱乐部，从那时起，我对手语越来越感兴趣。

然后我很幸运地遇到了汉堡聋人学校的社会教育家沃尔夫冈·施密特，然后是海科·齐纳特和亚历山大·冯·梅恩。从 1982 年开始，每周一，在带着小提琴去听我的弦乐四重奏之前，我们都会在我家里见面：海科、亚历山大和沃尔夫冈——三位聋哑知识分子——以及雷吉娜·莱文。

事实上，我之前就通过文献了解到过这个话题。在此之前，无论是通过亲戚还是作为语言学家，我都没有接触过聋人或手语。我在很大程度上也屈服于对手语的普遍偏见：“是的，这可能是一种临时手段，以某种方式以视觉方式传达某些东西。”

我们的小组开始了一项调查，对有聋哑儿童的家庭进行了调查，这些孩子从出生后的头五年一直到入学，以了解沟通是如何进行的。令人震惊的是，一切都不顺利。随后，罗尔夫·舒尔迈斯特、休伯特·伍德克和我——听力方面的三人小组——前往位于汉堡哈默大街的聋人学校观摩教学。我们得到了 Kröhnert 教授的支持，他为我们打开了大门。在我们观察的课堂上，聋哑儿童确实努力以某种方式应对阅读、重复、发音等。这根本不是知识的问题，而只是他们组合在一起形成某些单词的几个声音并尝试改进。这就是所谓的“德国方法”，一个多世纪以来，这种方法一直是全世界学校的做法，尤其是在 20 世纪 80 年代之前的德国。

事实上，老师和学生的处境同样糟糕，尤其是当人们清楚地知道孩子们有自己的语言，如果老师掌握并使用手语，教学可以在完全不同的水平上进行。这就是我们当时的动机——让教学人员尽快在课堂上使用手语，并为他们提供学习这种语言的方法。[完第 408 页]

我的想法总是，“哎呀，你为什么不扭转局面半......