logo blue Deaf History -

Europe

1900 - 2000

1900 - 100

1900 - 1966: Richard Liebermann, Painter (DE)

1900 - 1966: Richard Liebermann, Painter (DE)

Richard Liebermann was born deaf and Jewish at Neu-Ulm in Bavaria.  He painted portraits and landscapes all across Germany, but when the Nazis came to power, he was prohibited from continuing his public career because of his Jewish ancestry.

1900 - 1972: Emerson Romero

Emerson Romero  was a Cuban-American silent film actor who worked under the screen name Tommy Albert. Romero developed the first technique to provide captions for sound films, making them accessible for the deaf and hard of hearing; his efforts inspired the invention of the captioning technique in use in films and movies today.

20th century violet ray machine

1900: Ultraviolet Therapy

Ultraviolet therapy arose during the late nineteenth-century and early twentieth century to compliment the growing use of electrotherapy by using high-frequency electric current, in attempts to cure deafness.

1905: Kuurojen Liittoo ry, Finnish Association of the Deaf

The Association of the Deaf is an interest organization for sign language speakers. The deaf founded this own organization in 1905. The union's premises are located in the White House in Helsinki.

1907: The Nordic Council of the Deaf

The Nordic Council for the Deaf (DNR) is a non-partisan and non-religious association with the task of working to raise awareness of the linguistic and cultural interests of the deaf in the Nordic countries.

1911: Founding of the RNID (UK)

RNID is the UK charity working to make life fully inclusive for deaf people and those with hearing loss or tinnitus.

1913: Österreichische Gehörlosenbund (ÖGLB) (AT)

The ÖGLB was founded in 1913 on the 11th Taubstummentag in Graz as the Reich Association of Deaf-Mute Associations in Austria.

1914 - 1918: Deaf People during World War I (UK)

1914 - 1918: Deaf People during World War I (UK)

Deaf filmmaker Julian Peedle-Calloo re-imagines the unique situations deaf people faced in the Great War with his new 30-minute drama Battle Lines, made for the deaf online TV channel BSLZone. A period drama set in a small village during wartime, it follows a deaf man who desperately wants to fight but is instead treated as an outcast by his neighbours.

1915: Opening of the Finnish Museum of the Deaf

1915: Opening of the Finnish Museum of the Deaf

The Finnish Museum of the Deaf preserves the cultural heritage of the deaf in Finland. 

The function of the museum is to collect, research and exhibit the cultural heritage of the deaf and sign language users in Finland. The aim of the museum is to increase knowledge of the history and culture of the deaf and sign language users and to strengthen their identity. In addition, the museum aims at communicating knowledge related to its specialty to the public at large.

Since 2012, The Finnish Museum of the Deaf is part of the Finnish Labour Museum Werstas inTampere.

1916 - 1975: Ivan Štrekelj (Sculptor, Slovenia)

Ivan Štreklj (1916 - 1975) was a sculptor who studied under the great names of Slovenian sculpture.

1918 - 2007: A.F. Dimmock (UK)

Arthur Frederick Dimmock (15 July 1918 – 25 November 2007) was an English writer, journalist and historian. He became deaf after a bout of meningitis during early childhood.

1918: Norges Døveforbund (NDF) Norwegian Association of the Deaf

The first deaf association in Norway was founded in Oslo in 1878.