German spelling reform of 1996
Encyclopedia
The German orthography reform of 1996 (Rechtschreibreform) was an attempt to simplify the spelling
of the German language
and thus to make it easier to learn, without substantially changing the rules familiar to all living users of the language.
The reform was based on an international agreement signed in Vienna in July 1996 by the governments of the German
-speaking countries of Germany
, Austria
, Liechtenstein
and Switzerland
. Luxembourg
, in which German is one of the three official languages, regarded itself "as a non-German-speaking country not to be a contributory determinant upon the German system of spelling" (statement of Othon Neuen, spokesman for the Luxembourg Ministry of Education).
The reformed orthography
became obligatory in schools and in public administration. However, there was a campaign against the reform and in the resulting public debate the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
was called upon to delineate the extent of reform. In 1998 the court stated that because there was no law governing orthography, outside the schools people could spell as they liked, including the use of traditional spelling. In March 2006, the Council for German Orthography agreed unanimously to remove the most controversial changes from the reform; this was accepted by media organizations such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
that had previously opposed the reform.
Place names and family names were excluded from the reform.
The reform aimed to systematise the correspondence between sounds (phoneme
s) and letters (graphemes), and to strengthen the principle that derived forms should follow the spelling of the root form.
ß and ss: In reformed orthography the grapheme ß
(a modernised typographical rendering of how a double s appeared in traditional Gothic script; it is seldom used in Switzerland) is considered a separate letter that is to appear only after long vowels and diphthongs. In general in German, long stressed vowels are followed by single consonants, and short stressed vowels by double consonants. In the traditional orthography, "ß" is written instead of "ss" if the s phoneme belongs to only one syllable
, thus in terminal position and before consonants "ss" is always written as "ß", without regard to the length of the preceding vowel. In the reformed orthography, a short stressed vowel is never followed by "ß". This brings it into line with the two-letter spelling of other final consonants (-ch, -ck, -dt, -ff, -ll, -mm, -nn, -rr, -tt, -tz). Thus Fass [fas] – Fässer [ˈfɛsɐ], by analogy to Ball [bal] – Bälle [ˈbɛlə]; cf the old spelling: Faß – Fässer, in contrast to Maß [maːs] – Maße [ˈmaːsə] like Tal [tal] – Täler [ˈtɛlɐ].
Nevertheless, the new German spelling is not fully phonetic, and it is still necessary to know the plural of a noun in order to spell its singular correctly: Los [loːs] – Lose [ˈloːzə], Floß [floːs] – Flöße [ˈfløːsə].
Exempted from change are certain very common short-vowelled words which end in a single 's' (such as das, es), echoing other undoubled final consonants in German (e.g. ab, im, an, hat, -ig). So the frequent error of confusing the conjunction dass (previously "daß") and the relative pronoun das has remained a trap: Ich hoffe, dass sie kommt. / Das Haus, das dort steht. (I hope that she comes. / The house that stands there.)
The so-called s rule makes up over 90% of the words changed by the reform. Since a trailing -ss does not occur in the traditional orthography (being replaced by "ß") the -ss at the end of words like dass and muss is now the only quick and sure sign (unless the text is of Swiss origin) to indicate that the reformed spelling has been used (at least partly). All other changes are encountered less frequently and not in every text.
Triple consonants preceding a vowel are no longer reduced (but hyphenation is often used in these instances anyway):
In particular, triple "s" now appears more often than all the other triple consonants together, while in the traditional orthography they never appear:
Doubled consonants appear after short vowels at the end of certain words, to conform with derived forms
Vowel changes, especially ä for e, are made to conform with derived or otherwise close forms
Additional minor changes aim to remove a number of special cases or to allow alternative spellings
Several loan words now allow spellings that are closer to the German norm. In particular, the affixes -phon, -phot, and -graph can be spelled with f for ph.
Examples such as Eis laufen are thought by some to be grammatically incorrect, the reason being laufen (literally to go, to walk, to run) is an intransitive verb
and cannot take a direct object, thus engendering some harsh criticism of the spelling reform. However, this is not true: in this word, Eis is a verb modifier, not a direct object in any way; that is, it is an attachment to the verb stem which changes or specifies the meaning of the verb.
Capitalisation after a colon is now always allowed.
The polite capitalisation of du, dich, dein, ihr, euch, and euer (the cases of the familiar second person pronouns) in letters is discouraged, but it is retained for Sie, Ihnen, and Ihr (the formal second person pronouns).
Nouns and verbs are generally separated:
Multiple infinitive verbs used with finite verb
s are separated:
Other constructions now admit alternative forms:
There are some subtle changes in the meaning when the new forms collide with some pre-existing forms:
Many of the suggested reforms called for the elimination of the capitalisation of all common nouns. A similar reform had previously been carried out in the Nordic countries
.
, Austria
, and Switzerland
taking part.
The initial proposals of this working group were further discussed at two conferences
in Vienna, Austria, in 1986 and 1990, to which the Austrian government had invited representatives from every region where German is spoken. In the closing remarks from the first of these meetings, capitalisation reform was put off to a future "second phase" of German language
reform attempts, since no consensus had been reached.
In 1987, the Ministers of Culture of the federal states (Bundesländer
in West Germany
) assigned the "Institute for the German Language" in Mannheim, Germany and the "Society for the German Language" in Wiesbaden, Germany with the task of coming up with a new system of rules. In 1988, these two organisations presented an incomplete but very wide-ranging set of proposed new rules (for example, the traditionally-phrased Der Kaiser ißt den Aal im Boot would be changed to the Der keiser isst den al im bot) ("The Emperor eats the eel in the boat"), but these proposals were quickly rejected by the general public, and then they were withdrawn by the Ministers of Culture as unacceptable. At the same time, similar groups were formed in Switzerland, Austria, and East Germany.
In 1992, the International Working Group published a proposed global reform to German spelling entitled Deutsche Rechtschreibung — Vorschläge zu ihrer Neuregelung (German Spelling — Proposals for its New Regulation). In 1993, the German Ministers of Culture invited 43 groups to present their opinions on the document, with hearings held in the unified Germany
, Austria, and Switzerland. On the basis of these hearings, the Working Group backed off from the notion of eliminating the capitalisation of all nouns. It also preserved the orthographical distinction between the inconvenient homophones das ("the", or "that", relative pronoun) and daß ("that", the conjunction, as in "She said that you came"), which introduce different types of subordinate clause.
At a third conference in Vienna
in 1994, the results were recommended to the respective governments for acceptance. The German Ministers of Culture decided to implement the new rules on August 1, 1998, with a transitional period lasting until the 2004–2005 school year.
), and the countries of Austria
, Switzerland
, and Liechtenstein
, as well as some other countries with German-speaking minorities (but notably not Luxembourg
) agreed to introduce the new spelling by August 1, 1998. A few German Bundesländer introduced the new rules starting with the 1996–1997 school year.
The various dictionary
companies raced to be the first with the new spellings, and that idea turned out to be quite profitable. For a time, German dictionaries were showing up on the best-seller lists for German books. The market for school textbooks was also given a new life.
was the eight-year transitional period. Experience from other reforms that affected the behaviour of large groups of people (introduction of the metric system
, switching to the euro
, Sweden
's change from driving on the left to driving on the right on Dagen H
, and Britain
's and Ireland
's introduction of decimal currency
) suggested that such reforms might very well be more effective with a shorter transitional period. When there is a longer transition period, it has been argued, many do not bother to familiarise themselves with the reforms, in the questionable hope that they might later be repealed. This tends to divide people into groups of early adopters and persistent resisters. Some experts suggest that the better course is to prepare well in advance and then make the change from one day to the next.
The above analysis, however, ignores the fact that the decision of the Ministers of Culture can ultimately affect only schools and public documents, since everyone else can simply write the way that they prefer. Thus, it is impossible to introduce a spelling reform "overnight". Even if the spelling of private individuals could be legislated, there are still billions of books and archived magazine
s in libraries using the older spellings. Comparison with currency change or driving on one side of the road or the other is invalid anyway: in those cases the old behavior completely disappears after the change (the old money is either valueless or must be traded in soon, and it would be highly dangerous to continue driving on the "wrong" side of the road).
(the largest in Germany) of 1996, Friedrich Denk, a teacher from Bavaria
, obtained signatures from hundreds of authors and scientists demanding the cancellation of the reform. Among the leading supporters were Günter Grass
, Siegfried Lenz
, Martin Walser
, Hans Magnus Enzensberger
, and Walter Kempowski
. The protest gained further nationwide significance through initiatives such as Wir Lehrer gegen die Rechtschreibreform (Teachers Against the Spelling Reform), which was headed by the teacher and activist Manfred Riebe.
In May 1997, the "Society for German Spelling and Language Cultivation – initiative against the spelling reform" (Verein für deutsche Rechtschreibung und Sprachpflege e. V. (VRS) – Initiative gegen die Rechtschreibreform) was founded in opposition to the German spelling reform.
The issue was taken up in the courts, with different decisions in different German states, so that the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court of Germany) was called upon to make a ruling. In May 1998 a group of 550 language and literature professors, led by Theodor Ickler, Helmut Jochems, Horst Haider Munske and Peter Eisenberg, two of the Reformers, Harald Weinrich
of the Collège de France
, Jean-Marie Zemb of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, and others, with a resolution requested the reversal of the reform by the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany.
On July 14, 1998, after one hearing on May 12, 1998, and involving only one teachers' organisation, the High Court declared that the introduction of the spelling reform by the Ministers of Culture was legal.
In the German state of Schleswig-Holstein
, a majority of people who voted in a referendum on September 27, 1998, called for a return to traditional spellings. However, the prime minister of that state, Heide Simonis
, found a way to reverse the results of that referendum via a parliamentary vote in 1999.
While the new German dictionaries were published in July and August 1996, the critics of the language reform perceived themselves to be justified. They began to demand the reversal of the change at the federal level. However, the Ministers of Culture continued to refuse to accede to their demands. The editors of the Duden
dictionaries also agreed that many of the problems in the traditional spelling system were due to the arcane rules that had been fabricated to explain it, thus lending their support to the new spelling system, which they said was and is more logical.
One of the public critics of the spelling reform was Josef Kraus, the president of the Deutscher Lehrerverband (German Association of Teachers).
Simultaneously, the committee released its fourth report on spelling reforms, reviewing the points of the reform in detail. However, this report was rejected by the Conference of Ministers of Culture in March 2004. The ministers also demanded that the committee work together with the "German Academy for Language and Poetry" in its future deliberations. The academy had been strongly critical of the reform from the beginning. The ministers also made changes to the composition of the international committee.
In July 2004, the Ministers decided to introduce some changes to the reform, making both the traditional and the new spellings acceptable. They also formed a Council for German Orthography - "38 experts from five countries", representing linguists, publishers, writers, journalists, teachers and parents. Taking the place of the existing international committee, the Council agreed unanimously to implement the uncontroversial parts of the reform, while allowing compromises on other changes: "writing compounds separately or as a single word, the use of lower and upper case, punctuation and syllabification". This modified reform came into effect by August 1, 2007.
", Karl-Heinz Reck, and the parliamentary secretary of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Eduard Lintner. There have been no Bundestag
(parliamentary) decisions on the reforms. Instead, as mentioned above, the German Supreme Court ruled that the reform in the public schools could be decided by the Ministers of Culture. Thus, as of 1 August 2005, the traditional spelling system is to be considered incorrect in the schools, except that two of the German states, Bavaria
and North Rhine-Westphalia
, had both officially rejected the reform. Since 2006, the new rules have become compulsory at the Bavarian and North Rhine-Westphalian public schools as well. It is presumed that from the schools the writing reforms will spread to the German-speaking public.
. Still, some newspapers, including Die Zeit
, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung
, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
, and the Süddeutsche Zeitung
, created their own in-house orthography rules, while most other newspapers use approximately the rules set forth by the DPA. These in-house orthographies thus occupy a continuum between "old spelling with new rules for ß
" and an (almost) full acceptance of the new rules.
In books, the implementation's success depends on the book's subject, and it often varies within a publishing house. Approximately 80% of newly-published books use the new system. Schoolbooks and children's books generally follow the new spellings, while the text of novels is presented as the authors prefer. Classic works of literature are typically printed without any changes, unless they are specifically editions intended for use in the schools.
Since dictionaries adopted the new spellings early on, there is no currently in-print, standard reference work available for traditional spellings. However, Theodor Ickler, a Professor of German at the University of Erlangen, has produced a new dictionary that aims to meet the demands of simplification without the need to impose any new spellings. There is also a lively commerce in used copies of the older Duden dictionaries. As of the 2004 edition, the Duden dictionary includes the most recent changes proposed by the Ministers of Culture.
, as well as several other reform critics, founded the "Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung" (Council for German Spelling) on August 22, 2004.
Among politicians, Christian Wulff
, then Minister-President of Lower Saxony
, has also stated that Germany should go back to the traditional spelling. Peter Müller, the Minister-President of the Saarland
said, "This spelling reform is a miscarriage, and it is not accepted by most people. Politicians have to accept this and have the power to remove this reform again completely." The Christian Democratic Union
and Christian Social Union of Bavaria
leaders Angela Merkel
and Edmund Stoiber
have also proposed repealing the reform.
The "German Academy for Language and Poetry" suggested a compromise proposal in 2003.
, the reform has had a less noticeable impact since the letter "ß
", which was the most prominent part of the reform, had not been in much use anyway. Most Swiss newspaper
s and magazine
s follow house style that, in the case of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung
, Switzerland's leading daily paper, diverges substantially from the official rules. The Schweizer Monatshefte company returned to the traditional Swiss spelling in 2004.
Liechtenstein
follows the same spelling system as Switzerland.
use house style rather than the official spelling rules. A Gallup poll conducted in August 2004 indicated that 62% of Austrians would favour a return to the traditional spelling. The Kronen-Zeitung company (the most widely read newspaper in Austria) announced on August 16, 2004, that it would return to the classical spelling rules — but in the end, it did not.
German spelling reform appeared in the German language. The following list includes authors who are responsible for the definition of the imposed changes.
Spelling
Spelling is the writing of one or more words with letters and diacritics. In addition, the term often, but not always, means an accepted standard spelling or the process of naming the letters...
of the German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and thus to make it easier to learn, without substantially changing the rules familiar to all living users of the language.
The reform was based on an international agreement signed in Vienna in July 1996 by the governments of the German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
-speaking countries of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein
The Principality of Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked alpine country in Central Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over , and it has an estimated population of 35,000. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan...
and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, in which German is one of the three official languages, regarded itself "as a non-German-speaking country not to be a contributory determinant upon the German system of spelling" (statement of Othon Neuen, spokesman for the Luxembourg Ministry of Education).
The reformed orthography
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
became obligatory in schools and in public administration. However, there was a campaign against the reform and in the resulting public debate the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
The Federal Constitutional Court is a special court established by the Grundgesetz, the German basic law...
was called upon to delineate the extent of reform. In 1998 the court stated that because there was no law governing orthography, outside the schools people could spell as they liked, including the use of traditional spelling. In March 2006, the Council for German Orthography agreed unanimously to remove the most controversial changes from the reform; this was accepted by media organizations such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , short F.A.Z., also known as the FAZ, is a national German newspaper, founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt am Main. The Sunday edition is the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung .F.A.Z...
that had previously opposed the reform.
New rules
The rules of the new spelling concern the following areas:- correspondence between sounds and written letters (this includes rules for spelling loan words)
- capitalisation
- joined and separate words
- hyphenated spellings
- punctuation
- hyphenation at the end of a line
Place names and family names were excluded from the reform.
Sounds and letters
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s) and letters (graphemes), and to strengthen the principle that derived forms should follow the spelling of the root form.
ß and ss: In reformed orthography the grapheme ß
ß
In the German alphabet, ß is a letter that originated as a ligature of ss or sz. Like double "s", it is pronounced as an , but in standard spelling, it is only used after long vowels and diphthongs, while ss is used after short vowels...
(a modernised typographical rendering of how a double s appeared in traditional Gothic script; it is seldom used in Switzerland) is considered a separate letter that is to appear only after long vowels and diphthongs. In general in German, long stressed vowels are followed by single consonants, and short stressed vowels by double consonants. In the traditional orthography, "ß" is written instead of "ss" if the s phoneme belongs to only one syllable
Syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
, thus in terminal position and before consonants "ss" is always written as "ß", without regard to the length of the preceding vowel. In the reformed orthography, a short stressed vowel is never followed by "ß". This brings it into line with the two-letter spelling of other final consonants (-ch, -ck, -dt, -ff, -ll, -mm, -nn, -rr, -tt, -tz). Thus Fass [fas] – Fässer [ˈfɛsɐ], by analogy to Ball [bal] – Bälle [ˈbɛlə]; cf the old spelling: Faß – Fässer, in contrast to Maß [maːs] – Maße [ˈmaːsə] like Tal [tal] – Täler [ˈtɛlɐ].
Nevertheless, the new German spelling is not fully phonetic, and it is still necessary to know the plural of a noun in order to spell its singular correctly: Los [loːs] – Lose [ˈloːzə], Floß [floːs] – Flöße [ˈfløːsə].
Exempted from change are certain very common short-vowelled words which end in a single 's' (such as das, es), echoing other undoubled final consonants in German (e.g. ab, im, an, hat, -ig). So the frequent error of confusing the conjunction dass (previously "daß") and the relative pronoun das has remained a trap: Ich hoffe, dass sie kommt. / Das Haus, das dort steht. (I hope that she comes. / The house that stands there.)
The so-called s rule makes up over 90% of the words changed by the reform. Since a trailing -ss does not occur in the traditional orthography (being replaced by "ß") the -ss at the end of words like dass and muss is now the only quick and sure sign (unless the text is of Swiss origin) to indicate that the reformed spelling has been used (at least partly). All other changes are encountered less frequently and not in every text.
Triple consonants preceding a vowel are no longer reduced (but hyphenation is often used in these instances anyway):
- Schiffahrt became Schifffahrt from Schiff (ship) + Fahrt (journey)
In particular, triple "s" now appears more often than all the other triple consonants together, while in the traditional orthography they never appear:
- Flußschiffahrt → Flussschifffahrt, Mißstand → Missstand
Doubled consonants appear after short vowels at the end of certain words, to conform with derived forms
- As → Ass because of plural Asse (ace, aces)
Vowel changes, especially ä for e, are made to conform with derived or otherwise close forms
- Stengel → Stängel (stalk) because of Stange (bar)
Additional minor changes aim to remove a number of special cases or to allow alternative spellings
- rauh → rau (rough) for consistency with blau, grau, genau
Several loan words now allow spellings that are closer to the German norm. In particular, the affixes -phon, -phot, and -graph can be spelled with f for ph.
Capitalisation
The reform aims to make the capitalisation of nouns uniform, and clarifies the criteria for this.- infrage stellen → in Frage stellen (to call into question)
- eislaufen → Eis laufen (to ice-skate)
Examples such as Eis laufen are thought by some to be grammatically incorrect, the reason being laufen (literally to go, to walk, to run) is an intransitive verb
Intransitive verb
In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb that has no object. This differs from a transitive verb, which takes one or more objects. Both classes of verb are related to the concept of the transitivity of a verb....
and cannot take a direct object, thus engendering some harsh criticism of the spelling reform. However, this is not true: in this word, Eis is a verb modifier, not a direct object in any way; that is, it is an attachment to the verb stem which changes or specifies the meaning of the verb.
Capitalisation after a colon is now always allowed.
The polite capitalisation of du, dich, dein, ihr, euch, and euer (the cases of the familiar second person pronouns) in letters is discouraged, but it is retained for Sie, Ihnen, and Ihr (the formal second person pronouns).
Compound words
As before, compound nouns are generally joined into one word, but several other compounds are now separated.Nouns and verbs are generally separated:
- radfahren → Rad fahren (to ride a bicycleBicycleA bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
)
Multiple infinitive verbs used with finite verb
Finite verb
A finite verb is a verb that is inflected for person and for tense according to the rules and categories of the languages in which it occurs. Finite verbs can form independent clauses, which can stand on their own as complete sentences....
s are separated:
- kennenlernen → kennen lernen (to get to know)
- spazierengehen → spazieren gehen (to go for a walk)
Other constructions now admit alternative forms:
- an Stelle von or anstelle von (instead of)
There are some subtle changes in the meaning when the new forms collide with some pre-existing forms:
- vielversprechend → viel versprechend (literally "much promising," but the meaning of the long compound adjective is "promising" in the sense of "up-and-coming", "auspicious"; whereas the second phrase with two words means "promising many things")
Debate over the need for reform
The scholarly debate over spelling was polarised in the late 1960s, because some of the young men and women of that generation rejected spelling regulation as "repressive" and a means of social oppression. Suggestions for reform were no longer limited to doubtful cases, but rather proposals were made to simplify German spelling and writing fundamentally, and thus to simplify the task of learning to write.Many of the suggested reforms called for the elimination of the capitalisation of all common nouns. A similar reform had previously been carried out in the Nordic countries
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
.
Institutionalised reform talks since 1980
In 1980, the Internationaler Arbeitskreis für Orthographie (International Working Group for Spelling) was formed, with linguists from East Germany, West GermanyWest Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
taking part.
The initial proposals of this working group were further discussed at two conferences
Academic conference
An academic conference or symposium is a conference for researchers to present and discuss their work. Together with academic or scientific journals, conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers.-Overview:Conferences are usually composed of various...
in Vienna, Austria, in 1986 and 1990, to which the Austrian government had invited representatives from every region where German is spoken. In the closing remarks from the first of these meetings, capitalisation reform was put off to a future "second phase" of German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
reform attempts, since no consensus had been reached.
In 1987, the Ministers of Culture of the federal states (Bundesländer
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
) assigned the "Institute for the German Language" in Mannheim, Germany and the "Society for the German Language" in Wiesbaden, Germany with the task of coming up with a new system of rules. In 1988, these two organisations presented an incomplete but very wide-ranging set of proposed new rules (for example, the traditionally-phrased Der Kaiser ißt den Aal im Boot would be changed to the Der keiser isst den al im bot) ("The Emperor eats the eel in the boat"), but these proposals were quickly rejected by the general public, and then they were withdrawn by the Ministers of Culture as unacceptable. At the same time, similar groups were formed in Switzerland, Austria, and East Germany.
In 1992, the International Working Group published a proposed global reform to German spelling entitled Deutsche Rechtschreibung — Vorschläge zu ihrer Neuregelung (German Spelling — Proposals for its New Regulation). In 1993, the German Ministers of Culture invited 43 groups to present their opinions on the document, with hearings held in the unified Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Austria, and Switzerland. On the basis of these hearings, the Working Group backed off from the notion of eliminating the capitalisation of all nouns. It also preserved the orthographical distinction between the inconvenient homophones das ("the", or "that", relative pronoun) and daß ("that", the conjunction, as in "She said that you came"), which introduce different types of subordinate clause.
At a third conference in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
in 1994, the results were recommended to the respective governments for acceptance. The German Ministers of Culture decided to implement the new rules on August 1, 1998, with a transitional period lasting until the 2004–2005 school year.
Institution of the reform
On July 1, 1996, all of the German states (BundesländerStates of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
), and the countries of Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, and Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein
The Principality of Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked alpine country in Central Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over , and it has an estimated population of 35,000. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan...
, as well as some other countries with German-speaking minorities (but notably not Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
) agreed to introduce the new spelling by August 1, 1998. A few German Bundesländer introduced the new rules starting with the 1996–1997 school year.
The various dictionary
Dictionary
A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...
companies raced to be the first with the new spellings, and that idea turned out to be quite profitable. For a time, German dictionaries were showing up on the best-seller lists for German books. The market for school textbooks was also given a new life.
Transitional period
Some have suggested that the main cause of the current controversy over the spelling reformSpelling reform
Many languages have undergone spelling reform, where a deliberate, often officially sanctioned or mandated, change to spelling takes place. Proposals for such reform are also common....
was the eight-year transitional period. Experience from other reforms that affected the behaviour of large groups of people (introduction of the metric system
Si
Si, si, or SI may refer to :- Measurement, mathematics and science :* International System of Units , the modern international standard version of the metric system...
, switching to the euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
's change from driving on the left to driving on the right on Dagen H
Dagen H
Dagen H , today mostly called "Högertrafikomläggningen" , was the day, 3 September 1967, on which traffic in Sweden switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right...
, and Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's and Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
's introduction of decimal currency
Decimal Day
Decimal Day was the day the United Kingdom and Ireland decimalised their currencies.-Old system:Under the old currency of pounds, shillings and pence, the pound was made up of 240 pence , with 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings in a...
) suggested that such reforms might very well be more effective with a shorter transitional period. When there is a longer transition period, it has been argued, many do not bother to familiarise themselves with the reforms, in the questionable hope that they might later be repealed. This tends to divide people into groups of early adopters and persistent resisters. Some experts suggest that the better course is to prepare well in advance and then make the change from one day to the next.
The above analysis, however, ignores the fact that the decision of the Ministers of Culture can ultimately affect only schools and public documents, since everyone else can simply write the way that they prefer. Thus, it is impossible to introduce a spelling reform "overnight". Even if the spelling of private individuals could be legislated, there are still billions of books and archived magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
s in libraries using the older spellings. Comparison with currency change or driving on one side of the road or the other is invalid anyway: in those cases the old behavior completely disappears after the change (the old money is either valueless or must be traded in soon, and it would be highly dangerous to continue driving on the "wrong" side of the road).
Public debate after the signing of the declaration of intent
The reforms did not attract much attention from the general public until after the international declaration of intent was signed. Animated arguments arose about the correctness of the decision, with schoolteachers being the first to be confronted with the implementation of the new rules. At the Frankfurt Book FairFrankfurt Book Fair
The Frankfurt Book Fair is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. As to the number of visitors, the Turin Book Fair attracts about as many visitors, viz. some 300,000....
(the largest in Germany) of 1996, Friedrich Denk, a teacher from Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, obtained signatures from hundreds of authors and scientists demanding the cancellation of the reform. Among the leading supporters were Günter Grass
Günter Grass
Günter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize-winning German author, poet, playwright, sculptor and artist.He was born in the Free City of Danzig...
, Siegfried Lenz
Siegfried Lenz
Siegfried Lenz is a German writer, who has written novels and produced several collections of short stories, essays, and plays for radio and the theatre. He was awarded the Goethe Prize in Frankfurt-am-Main on the 250th Anniversary of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's birth...
, Martin Walser
Martin Walser
At first the speech did not cause a great stir. Indeed, the audience present in Church of St. Paul received the speech with applause, though Walser's critic Ignatz Bubis did not applaud, as confirmed by television footage of the event...
, Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Hans Magnus Enzensberger , is a German author, poet, translator, and editor. He has also written under the pseudonym Andreas Thalmayr. He lives in Munich.- Life :...
, and Walter Kempowski
Walter Kempowski
Walter Kempowski was a German writer. Kempowski was known for his series of novels called German Chronicle and the monumental Echolot , a collage of autobiographical reports, letters and other documents by contemporary witnesses of the Second World War.-Childhood :Walter Kempowski was born in...
. The protest gained further nationwide significance through initiatives such as Wir Lehrer gegen die Rechtschreibreform (Teachers Against the Spelling Reform), which was headed by the teacher and activist Manfred Riebe.
In May 1997, the "Society for German Spelling and Language Cultivation – initiative against the spelling reform" (Verein für deutsche Rechtschreibung und Sprachpflege e. V. (VRS) – Initiative gegen die Rechtschreibreform) was founded in opposition to the German spelling reform.
The issue was taken up in the courts, with different decisions in different German states, so that the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court of Germany) was called upon to make a ruling. In May 1998 a group of 550 language and literature professors, led by Theodor Ickler, Helmut Jochems, Horst Haider Munske and Peter Eisenberg, two of the Reformers, Harald Weinrich
Harald Weinrich
Harald Weinrich is a German classical scholar, scholar of Romance philology and philosopher, known for the breadth of his writings. He is emeritus professor of the Collège de France, and held the chair of Romance literature from 1992 to 1998.His doctorate and Habilitation were from the University...
of the Collège de France
Collège de France
The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...
, Jean-Marie Zemb of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, and others, with a resolution requested the reversal of the reform by the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany.
On July 14, 1998, after one hearing on May 12, 1998, and involving only one teachers' organisation, the High Court declared that the introduction of the spelling reform by the Ministers of Culture was legal.
In the German state of Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...
, a majority of people who voted in a referendum on September 27, 1998, called for a return to traditional spellings. However, the prime minister of that state, Heide Simonis
Heide Simonis
Heide Simonis is a German politician. She is a member of the SPD.She was Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein from 1993 to 2005, the first woman to hold this position in any German state in Germany's history.-Life:...
, found a way to reverse the results of that referendum via a parliamentary vote in 1999.
While the new German dictionaries were published in July and August 1996, the critics of the language reform perceived themselves to be justified. They began to demand the reversal of the change at the federal level. However, the Ministers of Culture continued to refuse to accede to their demands. The editors of the Duden
Duden
The Duden is a German dictionary, first published by Konrad Duden in 1880.Currently the Duden is in its 25th edition and published in 12 volumes, each covering different aspects like loan words, etymology, pronunciation, synonyms, etc...
dictionaries also agreed that many of the problems in the traditional spelling system were due to the arcane rules that had been fabricated to explain it, thus lending their support to the new spelling system, which they said was and is more logical.
One of the public critics of the spelling reform was Josef Kraus, the president of the Deutscher Lehrerverband (German Association of Teachers).
Later developments
In 1997, an international committee was formed to handle any cases of doubt that might arise under the new rules. In 2004, the German Federal Education Minister, Edelgard Bulmahn, announced that this committee was to be given wide-ranging powers to make decisions about German spelling. Only in cases of extreme changes, such as the proposed capitalisation change, would the committee require the consent of the Ministers of Culture. This move was strongly criticised.Simultaneously, the committee released its fourth report on spelling reforms, reviewing the points of the reform in detail. However, this report was rejected by the Conference of Ministers of Culture in March 2004. The ministers also demanded that the committee work together with the "German Academy for Language and Poetry" in its future deliberations. The academy had been strongly critical of the reform from the beginning. The ministers also made changes to the composition of the international committee.
In July 2004, the Ministers decided to introduce some changes to the reform, making both the traditional and the new spellings acceptable. They also formed a Council for German Orthography - "38 experts from five countries", representing linguists, publishers, writers, journalists, teachers and parents. Taking the place of the existing international committee, the Council agreed unanimously to implement the uncontroversial parts of the reform, while allowing compromises on other changes: "writing compounds separately or as a single word, the use of lower and upper case, punctuation and syllabification". This modified reform came into effect by August 1, 2007.
Legal status
The spelling change is based on the international agreement of 1 July 1996, signed on behalf of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Strictly speaking, it is not a treaty. The signatories for Germany were the president of the "Conference of Ministers of CultureKultusministerkonferenz
The Kultusministerkonferenz is the assembly of ministers for education of each Bundesland state in Germany...
", Karl-Heinz Reck, and the parliamentary secretary of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Eduard Lintner. There have been no Bundestag
Bundestag
The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
(parliamentary) decisions on the reforms. Instead, as mentioned above, the German Supreme Court ruled that the reform in the public schools could be decided by the Ministers of Culture. Thus, as of 1 August 2005, the traditional spelling system is to be considered incorrect in the schools, except that two of the German states, Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
and North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...
, had both officially rejected the reform. Since 2006, the new rules have become compulsory at the Bavarian and North Rhine-Westphalian public schools as well. It is presumed that from the schools the writing reforms will spread to the German-speaking public.
State of implementation
, most German printed media use spelling rules that to a large extent comply with the reforms. These includes most newspapers and periodicals, and the German press agencies Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) and ReutersReuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
. Still, some newspapers, including Die Zeit
Die Zeit
Die Zeit is a German nationwide weekly newspaper that is highly respected for its quality journalism.With a circulation of 488,036 and an estimated readership of slightly above 2 million, it is the most widely read German weekly newspaper...
, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung is a major German language Swiss daily newspaper based in Zurich.One of the oldest newspapers still published, it originally appeared as Zürcher Zeitung, edited by Salomon Gessner, from January 12, 1780, and was renamed to Neue Zürcher Zeitung in 1821...
, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , short F.A.Z., also known as the FAZ, is a national German newspaper, founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt am Main. The Sunday edition is the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung .F.A.Z...
, and the Süddeutsche Zeitung
Süddeutsche Zeitung
The Süddeutsche Zeitung , published in Munich, is the largest German national subscription daily newspaper.-Profile:The title literally translates as "South German Newspaper". It is read throughout Germany by 1.1 million readers daily and boasts a relatively high circulation abroad...
, created their own in-house orthography rules, while most other newspapers use approximately the rules set forth by the DPA. These in-house orthographies thus occupy a continuum between "old spelling with new rules for ß
ß
In the German alphabet, ß is a letter that originated as a ligature of ss or sz. Like double "s", it is pronounced as an , but in standard spelling, it is only used after long vowels and diphthongs, while ss is used after short vowels...
" and an (almost) full acceptance of the new rules.
In books, the implementation's success depends on the book's subject, and it often varies within a publishing house. Approximately 80% of newly-published books use the new system. Schoolbooks and children's books generally follow the new spellings, while the text of novels is presented as the authors prefer. Classic works of literature are typically printed without any changes, unless they are specifically editions intended for use in the schools.
Since dictionaries adopted the new spellings early on, there is no currently in-print, standard reference work available for traditional spellings. However, Theodor Ickler, a Professor of German at the University of Erlangen, has produced a new dictionary that aims to meet the demands of simplification without the need to impose any new spellings. There is also a lively commerce in used copies of the older Duden dictionaries. As of the 2004 edition, the Duden dictionary includes the most recent changes proposed by the Ministers of Culture.
Actions of opponents
There are still active groups working to repeal the reform, despite the transitional period having ended. The year 2002 saw the foundation of the Forschungsgruppe Deutsche Sprache (FDS) (German Language Research Group) by the historian and author Reinhard Markner, with the support of some leading writers and intellectuals. In 2003, the Bavarian Minister of Culture, Hans Zehetmair, declared that the reform was a mistake, in his opinion. "Language is a dynamic process. It must grow and develop." Friedrich Denk, together with the journalist and author Hans KriegerHans Krieger
Hans Krieger is a German writer, essayist, journalist of influential weekly papers such as Die Zeit, broadcaster and poet. He lives and works in Munich.-Life:...
, as well as several other reform critics, founded the "Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung" (Council for German Spelling) on August 22, 2004.
Among politicians, Christian Wulff
Christian Wulff
Christian Wilhelm Walter Wulff is the President of Germany and a politician of the Christian Democratic Union. He was elected President on 2010 and publicly swore the oath of office on . A lawyer by profession, he served as Premier of the state of Lower Saxony from 2003 to 2010.-Early life and...
, then Minister-President of Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
, has also stated that Germany should go back to the traditional spelling. Peter Müller, the Minister-President of the Saarland
Saarland
Saarland is one of the sixteen states of Germany. The capital is Saarbrücken. It has an area of 2570 km² and 1,045,000 inhabitants. In both area and population, it is the smallest state in Germany other than the city-states...
said, "This spelling reform is a miscarriage, and it is not accepted by most people. Politicians have to accept this and have the power to remove this reform again completely." The Christian Democratic Union
Christian Democratic Union (Germany)
The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...
and Christian Social Union of Bavaria
Christian Social Union of Bavaria
The Christian Social Union in Bavaria is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It operates only in the state of Bavaria, while its sister party, the Christian Democratic Union , operates in the other 15 states of Germany...
leaders Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel is the current Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005.From 2005 to 2009 she led a...
and Edmund Stoiber
Edmund Stoiber
Edmund Rüdiger Stoiber is a German politician, former minister-president of the state of Bavaria and former chairman of the Christian Social Union...
have also proposed repealing the reform.
The "German Academy for Language and Poetry" suggested a compromise proposal in 2003.
In Germany
According to a report on the television magazine "Panorama" on July 21, 2004, "Even six years after its introduction, 77% of Germans consider the spelling reform not to be sensible. This came out of a representative poll. A majority of adults reject the new rules (for example 81% of those between 30 and 40 years old). In the meantime, only one out of every five German citizens (21%) feels that the spelling reform is acceptable."In Switzerland
The German debate about the spelling reform produced much surprise among Swiss media companies, rather than agreement. In SwitzerlandSwitzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, the reform has had a less noticeable impact since the letter "ß
ß
In the German alphabet, ß is a letter that originated as a ligature of ss or sz. Like double "s", it is pronounced as an , but in standard spelling, it is only used after long vowels and diphthongs, while ss is used after short vowels...
", which was the most prominent part of the reform, had not been in much use anyway. Most Swiss newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s and magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
s follow house style that, in the case of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung is a major German language Swiss daily newspaper based in Zurich.One of the oldest newspapers still published, it originally appeared as Zürcher Zeitung, edited by Salomon Gessner, from January 12, 1780, and was renamed to Neue Zürcher Zeitung in 1821...
, Switzerland's leading daily paper, diverges substantially from the official rules. The Schweizer Monatshefte company returned to the traditional Swiss spelling in 2004.
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein
The Principality of Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked alpine country in Central Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over , and it has an estimated population of 35,000. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan...
follows the same spelling system as Switzerland.
In Austria
Austrian media companies consider the orthography reform subject to be open to discussion, with no final decision having been made. A return to the traditional spelling would still be possible. Many media outlets in AustriaAustria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
use house style rather than the official spelling rules. A Gallup poll conducted in August 2004 indicated that 62% of Austrians would favour a return to the traditional spelling. The Kronen-Zeitung company (the most widely read newspaper in Austria) announced on August 16, 2004, that it would return to the classical spelling rules — but in the end, it did not.
See also
- German orthographyGerman orthographyGerman orthography, although largely phonemic, shows many instances of spellings that are historic or analogous to other spellings rather than phonemic. The pronunciation of almost every word can be derived from its spelling, once the spelling rules are known, but the opposite is not generally the...
- German languageGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
- Rat für deutsche RechtschreibungRat für deutsche RechtschreibungThe Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung , or RdR, is the main international body regulating the German language.With its seat being in Mannheim, Germany, the RdR was formed in 2004 as a successor to the Zwischenstaatliche Kommission für deutsche Rechtschreibung in order to comprise proponents as well...
(RdR; German for "Council for German Orthography") - SpellingSpellingSpelling is the writing of one or more words with letters and diacritics. In addition, the term often, but not always, means an accepted standard spelling or the process of naming the letters...
- Spelling reformSpelling reformMany languages have undergone spelling reform, where a deliberate, often officially sanctioned or mandated, change to spelling takes place. Proposals for such reform are also common....
- Language planningLanguage planningLanguage planning is a deliberate effort to influence the function, structure, or acquisition of languages or language variety within a speech community. It is often associated with government planning, but is also used by a variety of non-governmental organizations, such as grass-roots...
- German orthography reform of 1944German orthography reform of 1944The planned German spelling reform of 1944 was a failed attempt to amend German orthography. Although one million copies of the new rules were printed by 1944 for school use, the reform was never introduced...
- Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement of 1990Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement of 1990The Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement of 1990 is an international treaty whose purpose is to create a unified orthography for the Portuguese language, to be used by all the countries that have Portuguese as their official language...
- Otto BaslerOtto BaslerOtto Basler was a German philologist.Basler studied German, Romance studies, English and History at the University of Freiburg. In World War I he was a reserve officer...
German titles
Due to the nature of the topic, most books and papers regarding theGerman spelling reform appeared in the German language. The following list includes authors who are responsible for the definition of the imposed changes.
- Gerhard Augst; Karl Blüml; Dieter Nerius; Horst Sitta (Hrsg.): Zur Neuregelung der deutschen Orthographie. Begründung und Kritik. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1997, VI, 495 S., ISBN 3-484-31179-7
- Hanno Birken-Bertsch; Reinhard Markner: Rechtschreibreform und Nationalsozialismus. (= Reform of German orthography and National Socialism). Ein Kapitel aus der politischen Geschichte der deutschen Sprache. [Eine Veröffentlichung der Deutschen Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung]. Göttingen: Wallstein-Verlag, 2000, 134 S., ISBN 3-89244-450-1 – Note: This book includes a comparison with the German spelling reform of Nazi GermanyNazi GermanyNazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
or Drittes Reich ("Third Reich") of 1944. Anmerkung: Dies Buch enthält einen Vergleich mit der Reform der deutschen Rechtschreibung von 1944 – online - Hanno Birken-Bertsch und Reinhard Markner: Sprachführer. Über den Sonderweg der deutschen Rechtschreibreformer. In: Junge WeltJunge Weltjunge Welt is a German daily newspaper published in Berlin. The jW describes itself as a left and Marxist newspaperIt was first published on 12 February 1947 in the Soviet Sector of Berlin. junge Welt became the official newspaper of the Central Council of the Free German Youth on 12 November 1947...
vom 3. April 2001 – online - Friedrich Denk: Frankfurter Erklärung zur Rechtschreibreform. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung vom 19. Oktober 1996 – online
- Friedrich Denk: Kein Schlußstrich. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Nr. 293 vom 16. Dezember 2006, S. 18 – online
- Wolfgang Denk: 10 Jahre Rechtschreibreform. Überlegungen zu einer Kosten-Nutzen-Analyse. Masterarbeit im Fachbereich 09 Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen der Fachhochschule München. München, 5. September 2006, 172 Seiten – PDF Download
- Matthias Dräger: Rechtschreibreform: Matthias Dräger über den Volksentscheid in Schleswig-Holstein. „Ein Sprung in die Jauchegrube“. Interview von Thorsten Thaler. In: Junge FreiheitJunge FreiheitThe Junge Freiheit is a German weekly newspaper for politics and culture, that describes itself as liberal-conservative...
, Nr. 40 vom 25. September 1998, S. 3 – online - Peter Eisenberg: Das Versagen orthographischer Regeln. Über den Umgang mit dem Kuckucksei. In: Hans-Werner Eroms; Horst Haider Munske (Hrsg): Die Rechtschreibreform. Pro und Kontra. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1997, 264 S., ISBN 3-503-03786-1, S. 47–50
- Peter Eisenberg (Hrsg.): Niemand hat das letzte Wort. Sprache, Schrift, Orthographie. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2006, 121 S., ISBN 978-3-8353-0059-0 (Valerio 3/2006, Publikation der Deutschen Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung) – online
- Hans-Werner Eroms; Horst Haider Munske (Hrsg): Die Rechtschreibreform. Pro und Kontra. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1997, 264 S., ISBN 3-503-03786-1
- Frankfurter Allgemeine ZeitungFrankfurter Allgemeine ZeitungThe Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , short F.A.Z., also known as the FAZ, is a national German newspaper, founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt am Main. The Sunday edition is the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung .F.A.Z...
für Deutschland (Hrsg.): Die Reform als Diktat. Zur Auseinandersetzung über die deutsche Rechtschreibung. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurt am Main, Oktober 2000, 119 S. - Peter Gallmann, Horst Sitta: Die Neuregelung der deutschen Rechtschreibung. Regeln, Kommentar und Verzeichnis wichtiger Neuschreibungen. Mannheim / Leipzig / Wien / Zürich: Dudenverlag, 1996, 316 S. (= Dudentaschenbuch, Band 26)
- Peter Gallmann, Horst Sitta: Handbuch Rechtschreiben. 4. Auflage. Zürich: Lehrmittelverlag des Kantons Zürich, 1998, 216 Seiten, ISBN 3-906718-50-6
- Rolf Gröschner: Zur Verfassungswidrigkeit der Rechtschreibreform. In: Eroms, Hans Werner / Munske, Horst Haider (Hrsg.): Die Rechtschreibreform. Pro und Kontra. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1997, 264 S., ISBN 3-503-03786-1, S. 69–79
- Jan Henrik Holst: Abschaffung der Rechtschreibreform – eine Chance für die deutsche Sprachgemeinschaft. Hamburg, 6. Oktober 2006 Download
- Theodor Ickler: Die sogenannte Rechtschreibreform. Ein Schildbürgerstreich. 2. Auflage, St. Goar: Leibniz-Verlag, 1997, 206 Seiten, ISBN 3-931155-09-9 (Download PDF, 750 kBByteThe byte is a unit of digital information in computing and telecommunications that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, a byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the basic addressable element in many computer...
) - Theodor Ickler: Kritischer Kommentar zur „Neuregelung der deutschen Rechtschreibung“. Mit einem Anhang zur „Mannheimer Anhörung“, 2. durchgesehene und erweiterte Auflage, Erlangen und Jena: Verlag Palm & Enke, 1999 (Erlanger Studien, Band 116), 289 Seiten, ISBN 3-7896-0992-7
- Theodor Ickler: Regelungsgewalt. Hintergründe der Rechtschreibreform, St. Goar: Leibniz, 2001, 312 S., ISBN 3-931155-18-8 (Download PDF, 1,9 MB)
- Theodor Ickler: Normale deutsche Rechtschreibung. Sinnvoll schreiben, trennen, Zeichen setzen, 4. erweiterte Auflage, St. Goar: Leibniz Verlag, 2004, 579 S., ISBN 3-931155-14-5 (Früher u.d.T.: Ickler, Theodor: Deutsche Einheitsorthographie 1999 und: Das Rechtschreibwörterbuch, 2000)
- Theodor Ickler: Rechtschreibreform in der Sackgasse: Neue Dokumente und Kommentare, St. Goar: Leibniz, 2004, 276 S., ISBN 3-931155-22-6 (Download PDF, 1,7 MB)
- Theodor Ickler: Falsch ist richtig. Ein Leitfaden durch die Abgründe der Schlechtschreibreform, München: Droemer, 2006, 271 S., ISBN 978-3-426-27391-3
- Helmut Jochems; Theodor Ickler: Die Rechtschreibreform. Ein Schildbürgerstreich. In: Pädagogische Rundschau, Jg. 51 (1997), Heft 6, S. 764–766
- Helmut Jochems: Die Rechtschreibreform ist seit dem 1.8.1998 amtlich. Was heißt das? Was ist jetzt zu tun? In: Schule in Frankfurt (SchiFF), Nr. 40, November 1998, S. 6–10 – online
- Helmut Jochems: Schlußstrich oder Schlussstrich? Die neue deutsche Rechtschreibung im zweiten Jahr ihrer Erprobungsphase. In: Schule in Frankfurt (SchiFF), Nr. 42, Dezember 1999, S. 9–11 – online
- Wolfgang Kopke: Rechtschreibreform und Verfassungsrecht. Schulrechtliche, persönlichkeitsrechtliche und kulturverfassungsrechtliche Aspekte einer Reform der deutschen Orthographie. Zugleich: Dissertation, Universität Jena, 1995. Tübingen: Mohr, 1995, XII, 452 S., ISBN 3-16-146524-5
- Hans Krieger: Der Rechtschreib-Schwindel. Zwischenrufe zu einem absurden Reformtheater, 1. Auflage, 1998, 152 S., 2. erweiterte Auflage, mit neuen Texten zur aktuellen Entwicklung. St. Goar: Leibniz-Verlag, 2000, 207 S., ISBN 3-931155-11-0 Aufsatzsammlung des Feuilletonchefs der Bayerischen Staatszeitung
- Hans Krieger: „Klar, schlicht und stark“ – Sollen wir schreiben wie die Nationalsozialisten? Das verdrängte Vorbild der Rechtschreibreform. In: Süddeutsche ZeitungSüddeutsche ZeitungThe Süddeutsche Zeitung , published in Munich, is the largest German national subscription daily newspaper.-Profile:The title literally translates as "South German Newspaper". It is read throughout Germany by 1.1 million readers daily and boasts a relatively high circulation abroad...
vom 2. Oktober 2000 [“Clear, simple and powerful” – Shall we write like the National SocialistsNazismNazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
? The suppressed model of the Reform of German orthography] – online - Heide Kuhlmann: Orthographie und Politik. Zur Genese eines irrationalen Diskurses. Magisterarbeit. Hannover, 1999 – online
- Christian Meier: „Opfer der Spaßgesellschaft“. Christian Meier über die aktuelle Lage im Rechtschreibkampf, den Reform-Widerstand der Deutschen Akademie und die hiesige Lesekultur. Interview von Moritz Schwarz. In: Junge Freiheit Nr. 34, 18. August 2000. S. 3 – online
- Horst Haider Munske: Orthographie als Sprachkultur. Frankfurt am Main; Berlin; Bern; New York; Paris; Wien: Peter-Lang-Verlag, Europäischer Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1997, 336 Seiten, ISBN 3-631-31142-7
- Horst Haider Munske: Neue Rechtschreibwörterbücher im Irrgarten der Rechtschreibreform. Wie soll man selber schreiben und publizieren in diesem Rechtschreibchaos? [Darin: „Alles Rotgedruckte ist falsch! Man vermeide die roten Giftpilze im Duden!“] In: Schule in Frankfurt (SchiFF), Nr. 44, Juni 2001 – online
- Horst Haider Munske: Die angebliche Rechtschreibreform, St. Goar: Leibniz-Verlag, 2005, 163 Seiten, ISBN 3-931155-13-7
- Horst Haider Munske: Lob der Rechtschreibung. Warum wir schreiben, wie wir schreiben. München: Beck, 2005, 141 S., ISBN 3-406-52861-9
- Thomas Paulwitz: Chaos-Regeln. Die Rechtschreibreform ist gescheitert. Gibt es jetzt eine Reform der Reform? In: Junge Freiheit Nr. 11 vom 8. März 2002, S. 2 – online
- Thomas Paulwitz: Der Rechtschreibrat ist gescheitert. Eine Bewertung der neuesten Reform der Rechtschreibreform. In: Deutsche Sprachwelt – Ausgabe 23 vom 20. März 2006, S. 4 – Download PDF
- Stephanus Peil: Die Wörterliste. St. Goar: Leibniz-Verlag, 1997, 28 S., ISBN 3-931155-07-2; 10., überarb. Auflage: Die Wörterliste. Ein Vergleich bisheriger und geplanter Schreibweisen. Westerburg, In den Gärten 5: S. Peil, 1998, 42 S. – online
- Elke Philburn: »New rules chaos« – Die deutsche Rechtschreibreform in Großbritannien. In: Schule in Frankfurt (SchiFF), Nr. 47, November 2003 – online
- Reichs- und Preußisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Erziehung und Volksbildung [Hrsg.]: Regeln für die deutsche Rechtschreibung nebst Wörterverzeichnis. Unveränderte Neuauflage von 1940, Berlin: Weidmann, 1941
- Reichsministerium für Wissenschaft, Erziehung und Volksbildung [Hrsg.]: Regeln für die deutsche Rechtschreibung und Wörterverzeichnis. Berlin: Deutscher Schulverlag, 1944
- Manfred Riebe: Die sogenannte deutsche Rechtschreibreform und die Reform der Reform. In: europa dokumentaro Nr. 13. März 2000, S. 10–13 – online
- Manfred Riebe: Unlogisch und verwirrend. Vor einem Jahr wurde in den meisten Medien die neue Rechtschreibung eingeführt. In: Junge Freiheit Nr. 31/32 vom 28. Juli / 4. August 2000; S. 11 – online
- Manfred Riebe: Es ist nie zu spät. Die Front gegen die Rechtschreibreform wird breiter. In: Junge Freiheit Nr. 30 vom 16. Juli 2004, S. 2 – online
- Manfred Riebe; Norbert Schäbler; Tobias Loew (Hrsg.): Der „stille“ Protest. Widerstand gegen die Rechtschreibreform im Schatten der Öffentlichkeit, St. Goar: Leibniz-Verlag, Oktober 1997, 298 S., ISBN 3-931155-10-2 – Dokumentation von 21 Initiativen gegen die Rechtschreibreform
- Maria Theresia Rolland: Streitobjekt Sprache. In: Manfred Riebe; Norbert Schäbler; Tobias Loew (Hrsg.): Der „stille“ Protest. St. Goar: Leibniz-Verlag, 1997, S. 190 f.
- Maria Theresia Rolland: Korrekte Informationsvermittlung durch Rechtschreibreform gefährdet. In: NFD, Information – Wissenschaft und Praxis, 48 (1997) 5; S. 289–293
- Maria Theresia Rolland: Sprache in Theorie und Praxis. Gesammelte Aufsätze 1995–1997. Würzburg: Königshausen und Neumann, 1999, 247 S., ISBN 3-8260-1585-1
- Wolfgang Roth: Zur Verfassungswidrigkeit der Rechtschreibreform. Zugleich Anmerkungen zum Urteil des BVerfG vom 14.7.1998 – 1 BvR 1640/97. In: Bayerische Verwaltungsblätter, Heft 9, 1. Mai 1999, S. 257–266
- Michael Schneider: Geschichte der deutschen Orthographie – unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Entwicklung seit 1994. Universität Marburg, 2001, 30 S. – PDF
- Alexander Siegner (Hrsg.): Rechtschreibreform auf dem Prüfstand. Die Rechtschreibreform – Jahrhundertwerk oder Flop? Mit Beiträgen von Reiner Kunze; Stephanus Peil; Theodor Ickler u.a. – St. Goar: Leibniz-Verlag, 1997, 55 S., ISBN 3-931155-08-0
- Dieter SteinDieter SteinDieter Stein is a German journalist, publisher, editor-in-chief and founder of the right wing newspaper Junge Freiheit....
(Hrsg.): Rettet die deutsche Sprache. Beiträge, Interviews und Materialien zum Kampf gegen Rechtschreibreform und Anglizismen. Edition JF – Dokumentation, Band 9, Berlin 2004, 192 Seiten, ISBN 3-929886-21-9 (mit Beiträgen u.a. von Theodor Ickler, Walter Krämer, Christian Meier, Thomas Paulwitz, Karin Pfeiffer-Stolz, Manfred Riebe) - Verein für Deutsche Rechtschreibung und Sprachpflege e. V. (VRS) – Initiative gegen die Rechtschreibreform: Unser Kampf gegen die Rechtschreibreform. Volksentscheid in Schleswig-Holstein. Bearbeitung und Kommentar: Manfred Riebe. Nürnberg: VRS, Dezember 1998, 34 S.
- Johannes Wasmuth: Verbot der Werkänderung und Rechtschreibreform. In: Zeitschrift für Urheber- und Medienrecht (ZUM) Nr. 11/2001, S. 858–865
- Hagen A. Wegewitz: Verfassungsunmittelbare Bindungswirkung abstrahierbarer Auslegungen des Grundgesetzes. Theorie der Bindungswirkung und Methodik zur Ermittlung der tragenden Gründe von Bundesverfassungsgerichtsentscheidungen am Beispiel einer argumentationstheoretischen Analyse der Entscheidungen zur Rechtschreibreform. Zugleich: Dissertation Universität Jena, 2002. Frankfurt am Main; Berlin; Bern; Bruxelles; New York; Oxford; Wien: Lang, 2003, 366 S., ISBN 3-631-50688-0
- Hermann Zabel (Hrsg.): „Keine Wüteriche am Werk“. Berichte und Dokumente zur Neuregelung der deutschen Rechtschreibung. Hrsg. in Verbindung mit der Gesellschaft für deutsche SpracheGesellschaft für deutsche SpracheThe Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache , or GfdS, with its headquarters in Wiesbaden is Germany's most important government-sponsored language society...
. Hagen: Reiner Padligur Verlag, 1996, 448 S., ISBN 3-922957-46-3 - Hermann Zabel (Hrsg.): Widerworte. "Lieber Herr GrassGünter GrassGünter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize-winning German author, poet, playwright, sculptor and artist.He was born in the Free City of Danzig...
, Ihre Aufregung ist unbegründet". Antworten an Gegner und Kritiker der Rechtschreibreform. Aachen: Shaker, 1997, 184 S., ISBN 3-8265-2859-X - Jean-Marie Zemb: Für eine sinnige Rechtschreibung. Eine Aufforderung zur Besinnung ohne Gesichtsverlust. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1997, 154 S., ISBN 3-484-73047-1
External links
Related articles in the German Wikipedia
- Spelling reform
- German spelling
- 20th century German spelling
- New German spelling
Societies for the German language
- Bund für deutsche Schrift und Sprache (BfdS)
- Forschungsgruppe Deutsche Sprache e. V. (FDS) (German Language Research Group)
- Lebendige deutsche Sprache e. V. (LDS)
- Verein „Muttersprache“, Wien
- Neue Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft zu Köthen/Anhalt
- Society for German spelling and language cultivation – initiative against the spelling reform
- Sprachkreis Deutsch, Bern
- Verein für Sprachpflege e. V. (VfS)
Language journals
- Deutsche Sprachwelt (DSW)
- „Die deutsche Schrift“, Vierteljahreshefte zur Förderung der deutschen Sprache und Schrift in German type
- „Wiener Sprachblätter“, Zeitschrift für gutes Deutsch
Activities concerning the spelling reform
- Rechtswissenschaftler für die bewährte Rechtschreibung. Petition zur Beendigung des Rechtschreibreformprojekts, Februar 2004 – PDF
- Hagen A.Wegewitz: 35 Urteile zur Rechtschreibreform, PDF
Web pages concerning the spelling reform
- Ralph Babel: Rechtschreibung (Orthographie)
- Jürgen Langhans: Rechtschreibreform, nein danke!
- Liste der reformfreien Zeitungen, Zeitschriften und Verlage
- Hans-Jürgen Martin: Rechtschreibung und „Rechtschreibreform”
- Ulrich Werner: Rechtschreibreform
- WIR für gute Rechtschreibung
- German Spelling Dictionary
- Fragen Sie Dr. Bopp
- Blog mit Tipps zur Rechtschreibung und „Rechtschreibreform”
- Deutsche Rechtschreibung von PONS