The Organisation

Welcome to the Friisk Foriining Homepage

Here you will find all information about our cultural-political programme, current events, piles of Frisian books and CDs, a programme especially designed for young people, e link tu the first Frisian webradio, our press releases and much more.

Founded under the name of “Friesisch-Schleswiger Verein” in the year 1923, the society has always considered the Frisian language and culture as independent and therefore on equal terms with the other languages and cultural groups within the German-Danish border area. The society’s main objective is to maintain and to develop the Frisian language and the Frisian identity.

Who are we?

Around 10.000 people in North Friesland and on the island of Heligoland speak Frisian and about twice as many have passive knowledge of that language. The Frisian language is also spoken by 350.000 people in West Friesland and by about 2000 people in the Saterland in East Friesland, and the language is the decisive feature that unites all the Frisians.

The Frisian ethnic group has the right to be protected and promoted under article 5 of the Schleswig-Holstein constitution. The rights of the Frisians in public life have been secured by the Frisian Language Law since 2004. It gives everyone the right to freely choose to be a member of the Frisian ethnic group. As early as 1988 direct access to the executive organs of the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag was made possible by creating the “Committee for Frisian Community Issues”. Furthermore, there is a contact committee for the Frisians in the German Bundestag, existing since 2005.

The Friisk Foriining who, until 1933, had run for elections with its own political party “Liste Friesland”, intensified its cooperation with the Danish minority in 1945. In 1948, the Danes and the Frisians founded the “Südschleswiger Wählerverband” (www.ssw.de) in order to look after their political interests jointly. At present, one of four SSW-representatives in the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag is the Frisian Lars Harms.

The Friisk Foriining has about 600 members. The Friisk Foriining regards the Frisians as being a people in their own right and an ethnic-autochthonous minority within Germany, comparable to the Sorbs in Lusatia. The most important objective is to protect and to promote the Frisian language and culture.

In cooperation with the Frisian youth organization “Rökefloose” (“flock of ravens”, www.rökefloose.de) the Foriining arranges events for young people and leisure activities, among other things. During these arrangements Frisian is spoken. In the area of school education, the Friisk Foriining cooperates with the Dansk Skoleforening (Danish School Association of the Danish minority in Southern Schleswig). The Skoleforening offers Frisian lessons in some of its schools and, furthermore, runs the only school in which classes are conducted in Frisian on an equal footing with Danish and German (www.risumskole.de). The Foriining also arranges tours to other language minorities in Europe and offers a so-called “Friisk Harfsthuuchschölj” for individuals and families every year. This “Harfsthuuchschölj” offers courses over a period of 5 days, usually in October, where interested people can participate in various activities like computer workshops, story-writing, craft activities, history workshops etc., all held in Frisian language. Furthermore, the Friisk Foriining works together closely with the northfrisian youth organisation “Rökefloose”. In a further project daily Frisian messages are produced for a commercial Internet radio (www.radio-mm.de), which can be downloaded under www.friiskforiining.podspot.de. Since 2006 in a two-yearly rhythm the Friisk Foriining  performs a European-wide film festival for feature films in minority languages.