About Klaus Groth*

Klaus Johann Groth—born to a Dithmarschen farming family on April 24, 1819, in Heide, Holstein, and died on June 1, 1899, in Kiel—is considered by many Germans the most important Low Saxon (Low German) poet. Furthermore, Groth was one of the most important Low Saxon philologists and language activists of the 19th century, one of those who endeavored to save and revive the old Saxon language of Northern Germany and the Eastern Netherlands. He was keenly aware of the then still intact cultural and linguistic “Low German” (i.e. Low Franconian and Low Saxon) continuum from French Flanders to the Eastern Baltic region. Groth wrote mostly poetry in folksong modes. His most popular works are found in his collection Quickborn (“Refreshing Wellspring,” Hamburg, 1856), and the best-known among these are the poems “Min Modersprak” and “Min Jehann.”
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* “Klaus” rhymes with “house” and “Groth” with “boat.”