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The International Esperanto League (Esperanto : Internacia Esperanto-Ligo) was for 11 years the largest and most important neutral Esperanto federation, reuniting in 1947 with the Universal Esperanto Association from which it had broken away in 1936.
At the UEA's founding in 1908, the question arose of how the UEA would work together with national Esperanto societies, some of which perceived the UEA as a competitor that might lure away their most active members. The UEA reached a loose cooperation agreement with the national federations in 1913, but it was of mostly symbolic character. Meeting at the 1922 World Esperanto Congress in Helsinki, delegates worked out a system which was to govern the Esperanto movement from 1923 till 1932. The Helsinki system divided each country's individual membership contributions between a national federation on the one hand and the UEA on the other and determined the membership of an international central committee. This committee decided on the use of funds for general tasks of the Esperanto movement, such as lobbying of international organizations.
With the rise in nationalism, by 1932 most of the separate national organizations had announced that they wanted a greater role in the UEA structure. After some considerable confrontation the 1933 World Congress in Cologne brought into being a "new UEA". The World Esperanto Association would become an umbrella organization with an international council or parliament, the vast majority of whose members would be delegates representing dues-paying national Esperanto federations. At-large Esperantists residing in countries without national Esperanto bodies would be entitled to elect a smaller number of delegates as well.
The new election system weakened the traditional internationalist outlook of the UEA, removed from office the idealist Esperanto movement leaders like Edmond Privat, Johannes Waldemar Karsch and Andrei Cseh, and turned the UEA into a loose confederation of national Esperanto associations with conflicting nationalist ideologies. [1] The German Esperanto Association not only tried to accommodate itself to the Nazi regime but even adopted its racist theories, expelled its Jewish members and minimized the extent of Hitler's human rights abuses. [1]
To avoid financial catastrophe resulting from the high cost of maintaining a Geneva office, in the spring of 1936 the UEA Central Office announced plans to move its headquarters to London.
Leaders of the Swiss Esperanto Society challenged the decision in Geneva district court (Genfer Amtsgericht ) on the grounds that by the terms of the UEA constitution its headquarters was to be in Switzerland, and delayed the move for a year. By March 1937 most national federations (except for Spain, still in the throes of the civil war, and Switzerland) had left the UEA and affiliated with the newly established International Esperanto League (IEL). The remaining Geneva UEA, with the support of Lidia Zamenhof, the daughter of L.L. Zamenhof, taking a courageous stand against Nazi Germany and their co-opting of the German Esperanto movement, spoke out against the regime and made efforts to help Jews desperate to flee persecution in Germany. [1]
After the Second World War the German Esperanto Association purged itself of its Nazi past and of members like Anton Vogt, a Nazi party member who in 1935 had been UEA vice-president. [1] While a resolution put forward by Dr. Ivo Lapenna on behalf of eight national Esperanto associations to condemn fascism did not pass at the Bern Congress, in part because of fears of having to take sides in the incipient Cold War, [1] the German association dedicated itself to anti-fascism and pacifism. Anti-fascist sentiment was very popular among Esperantists; after all, Nazi Germany had eventually prohibited Esperanto in the Third Reich despite all the prewar attempts to meld the incompatible ideals of Esperantism and Nazi ideology. [1]
By now atrophied to a shadow of its former self, the leadership of the Geneva UEA realized that an organization independent of the successful IEL had no future. Thus, at the first postwar Congress in 1947, they decided to reunify with the IEL under the old name of Universal Esperanto Association (UEA).
Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. It was created by Polish ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887. Zamenhof first described the language in The International Language, which he published in five languages under the pseudonym "Doktoro Esperanto". The word esperanto translates into English as "one who hopes".
Esperantujo or Esperantio[esperanˈtio] is the community of speakers of the Esperanto language and their culture, as well as the places and institutions where the language is used. The term is used "as if it were a country."
L. L. Zamenhof developed Esperanto in the 1870s and '80s. Unua Libro, the first print discussion of the langague, appeared in 1887. The number of Esperanto speakers have increased gradually since then, without much support from governments and international organizations. Its use has, in some instances, been outlawed or otherwise suppressed.
The Esperanto flag and other Esperanto symbols have seen much consistency over the time of the language's existence, though a few variations in exact flag patterning and symbology have been seen. The main flag of Esperanto, featuring the Verda Stelo, was adopted in 1905 for use as a symbol of mutual recognition among Esperantists. This flag is used by most Esperantists, though the jubilea simbolo has been more recently proposed in 1987 as an alternative.
The World Esperanto Youth Organization is an organization dedicated to supporting young Esperanto speakers around the world and promote the use of Esperanto. TEJO was founded in 1938 as the Tutmonda Junular-Organizo and took its current name in 1952. In 1956, TEJO became the youth section of the Universal Esperanto Association (UEA). In 1971, the finances and administration of TEJO were fully integrated into those of UEA.
The Universal Esperanto Association, also known as the World Esperanto Association, is the largest international organization of Esperanto speakers, with 5501 individual members in 121 countries and 9215 through national associations and in official relations with the United Nations. In addition to individual members, 70 national Esperanto organizations are affiliated with UEA. Its current president is the professor Duncan Charters. The magazine Esperanto is the main organ used by UEA to inform its members about everything happening in the Esperanto community.
Norvega Esperantista Ligo was founded in 1911. As the Norwegian arm of the Esperanto movement, its aim is to spread knowledge and use of the international language Esperanto. The league has a modest size of a couple of hundred members, and work done within NEL is mostly voluntary. The youth wing of NEL is Norvega Junularo Esperantista.
The Baháʼí Esperanto League (BEL) is the official organization of Baháʼís who are Esperantists. It was founded on 19 March 1973 with the approval of the Universal House of Justice.
Lidia Zamenhof was a Polish writer, publisher, translator and the youngest daughter of Klara (Silbernik) and L. L. Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto. She was an active promoter of Esperanto as well as of Homaranismo, a form of religious humanism first defined by her father.
Edmond Privat was a Francophone Swiss Esperantist. A historian, university professor, author, journalist and peace activist, he was a graduate of the University of Geneva and a lecturer for the World Peace Foundation. His collective works consist of original dramas, poems, stories, textbooks and books about the Esperanto movement.
Hector Hodler was a Swiss Esperantist who had a strong influence on the early Esperanto movement.
The stelo was from 1945 to 1993 a monetary unit of Esperantists, currently used by esperanto youth organizations one of whose aims was to achieve a single world currency. Attempts at an earlier currency, the speso, were cut short by the First World War. For a time the Universal League, part of the Esperanto movement, issued coupons and coins denominated in steloj, making attempts to link the Stelo to existing currencies on the basis of relative purchasing power in different countries.
Rüdiger Eichholz, was a Canadian physicist and Esperantist and a member of the Esperanto Academy. He is best known for publishing the "Esperanto picture dictionary" (1988) and a massive anthology co-edited with his wife, Esperanto in the Modern World (1982).
Louis Marie Jules Charles Bastien was a French Esperantist and a quartermaster in the French army. In 1899 he married Marguerite Pfulb (1879–1941); the couple had three daughters and two sons. In school he learned mathematics, classical French literature, Latin and Greek and learned to compose Latin verse. After a year of preparatory studies at l'Ecole Sainte-Geneviève in Versailles he entered l'Ecole Polytechnique in 1887 at the age of 17. Not having the maturity of his older classmates, he did not excel in his studies and, on graduation in 1889, had to content himself with a military career.
Johannes Waldemar Karsch was a German Esperantist and a state auditor.
Hans Jakob Notz was a German-born Swiss Esperantist. His real name was Franz.
Ino Kolbe, born Ino Voigt, was a German Esperantist. Both she and her brother Holdo Voigt learned Esperanto from birth.
The World Esperantist Vegetarian Association is a voluntary association of Esperanto-speaking vegetarians. Founded in 1908, the group's working language is Esperanto, and it is the oldest international organization of vegetarians that is currently active. TEVA published a journal, Vegetarano ("Vegetarian") from 1914 to 1932, revived in 2009 as Esperantista Vegetarano, and has also operated a spirited Internet mailing list through Yahoo! Groups since 2005.
The Esperanto League of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the national Esperanto association in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which represents Esperanto speakers, Esperanto societies, and friends. Since its establishment in 1910, it helps advancement of Esperanto language learning and usage in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
