Description: " Georg Wenker's "Linguistic Atlas of the German Empire" (Sprachatlas des Deutschen Reichs; data collected between 1876 and 1887) is the first and to date most extensive linguistic atlas in existence. Featuring data from approximately 50,000 locations, it represents the only total survey and cartographic depiction of the dialects of a language. With their as yet unmatched clarity, the 1,668 hand-drawn maps are a cultural asset of the first order. This is why the endangered atlas (the 22 colors are beginning to fade), which for technical and financial reasons has never been published, is to be conserved and made publicly accessible. To this end, the Wenker Atlas maps are being photographed, digitized, incorporated into various databases, and made freely available via the Internet."