The First Death of Father Schleyer

Father Schleyer, at the
time of his not death

In October 1888, the word went out that Father Johann Martin Schleyer, the inventor of Volapük had died. It made the newspapers across the country over a number of days, though some simply ran a brief item reading “The death is announced of Father Schleyer, the inventor of Volapuk,” or some close variant. The source of this information isn’t quite clear. The Los Angeles Daily Herald included it in a column of “Cable Sparks” on October 10, 1888. On the same day, Der Deutsche Correspondent ran an article with about the same information, datelined Paris.

This was repeated in several newspapers over the next few days. Some even condensed it down to “Schleyer, the inventor of Volapuk, is dead.”
But the Evening Bulletin of Maysville, Kentucky expanded it to “in Paris,” in their October 11 edition, probably mistaking the dateline for the place of the incident.

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Volapük Pronounced Dead on Anniversary of Creator’s Birth

Schleyer

July 18th, 2014 was the 183rd anniversary of the birth of Johann Martin Schleyer, the creator of Volapük. In 1910, the Evening Statesman of Walla Walla, Washington, took this as an opportunity to mark the anniversary and to pronounce his creation dead. Schleyer was still around at that point; he died in August 1912.

It’s not clear how many Volapük speakers were still around in 1909. I doubt even those who forsake it totally forgot it. Wikipeda notes that at its height, it had a million speakers, but in 1900, the total number of active Volapukists was 159. A decade later, who knows?

I wish we could wish a happier birthday to Johann Martin Schleyer, but feel free to raise a glass in a toast to the man who felt that God had revealed to him the tongue that all mankind should learn. And if you can’t make the toast in Volapük, don’t worry. Few can these days.

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