KRAL, Georg

Small 8vo., contemporary buckram binding, spine not lettered, boards ruled in blind. viii+254pp.. Very rare. Spine head and corners chipped, title marked, paper a little brittle and browned but generally a good tight copy. Upper and Lower Sorbian (also known historically as Wendish or Lusatian)are closely related. Spoken by the Sorbs, a West Slavic ethno-cultural minority in the Lusatia region of Eastern Germany. Rare copy as most Sorbian language books were destroyed by the Gestapo during World War II. “Nach dem Zusammenbruch des Faschismus begannen viele Sorben, die ihre Muttersprache nicht oder nur mangelhaft erlernt hatten, sich für das Sorbischen zu interessieren. Die Gestapo hat fast den gesamten sorbischen Buchbestand, vor allen Dingen auch die Kralsche Grammatik vernichtet.” Georg Wehle (1949).