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German spelling reform of 1996

 

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German spelling reform of 1996



 
 
The German orthography reform of 1996 (Rechtschreibreform) is based on an international agreement signed in Vienna in July 1996 by the governments of the German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
-speaking countries of Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
, Austria
Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
, Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein

The Principality of Liechtenstein is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked country alpine country microstate in Western Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and by Austria to the east....
 and Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
, the last-named being a quadrilingual country with a majority of German speakers. Luxembourg
Luxembourg

Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a small landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany....
, a trilingual country in which German is one of the 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.






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The German orthography reform of 1996 (Rechtschreibreform) is based on an international agreement signed in Vienna in July 1996 by the governments of the German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
-speaking countries of Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
, Austria
Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
, Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein

The Principality of Liechtenstein is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked country alpine country microstate in Western Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and by Austria to the east....
 and Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
, the last-named being a quadrilingual country with a majority of German speakers. Luxembourg
Luxembourg

Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a small landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany....
, a trilingual country in which German is one of the 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. Some people raised a campaign against the reform. In the resulting public debate even the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
Federal Constitutional Court of Germany

The Federal Constitutional Court is a special court established by the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, the Germany basic law....
 was called. In its decision of 14 July 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. Those activists who had demanded the ruling of the court now complain about the resulting general insecurity and the rise of Beliebigkeitsschreibung (arbitrary spelling). For example, the traditional Schloßstraße and the newly correct Schlossstraße can merge into the incorrect Schloßstrasse or Schlossstrasse. However Schlossstrasse is correct in Switzerland as ß is not used at all there.

New rules

The reform was an attempt to simplify German spelling and thus make it easier to learn, without substantially changing the familiar rules of the German language. The new rules concern the following areas:
  • correspondence between sounds and written letters (this includes rules for spelling loan words)
  • capitalization
  • 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

Rechtschreibreformbeistrassennamen
The reform aimed to systematise the correspondence between sounds (phoneme
Phoneme

In human language, a phoneme is the smallest posited linguistically distinctive unit of sound. Phonemes carry no semantic content themselves. In theoretical terms, phonemes are not the physical segment s themselves, but cognitive abstractions or categorizations of them....
s) and letters (grapheme
Grapheme

In typography, a grapheme is the fundamental unit in writing systems. Graphemes include letter , Chinese characters, numerals, punctuation marks, and all the individual symbols of any of the world's writing systems....
s), and to strengthen the principle that derived forms should follow the spelling of the root form.

ß and ss: the letter ß
ß

The letter ? is a letter in the German alphabet. Its German language name is Eszett or scharfes S , and is pronounced as an unvoiced s ....
 (which is a modernised typographical rendering of how a double s appeared in traditional Gothic script, never used in Switzerland) is to appear only after long vowels and diphthongs. The old orthography was illogical on that matter. In general in German, long stressed vowels are followed by single consonants, and short stressed vowels by double consonants. Notwithstanding this, in terminal position and before consonants ss was always written as ß, without regard to the length of the preceding vowel. In the new orthography, a short stressed vowel is to be followed by ss (or s plus other consonant), as most other consonants are also doubled after short stressed vowels (Fass [fas] – Fässer ['f?s?], by analogy to Ball [bal] – Bälle ['b?l?]; cf the old spelling: FaßFässer), in contrast to Maß [ma?s] – Maße ['mas??] like Tal [tal] – Täler ['t?l?].

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 [lo?s] – Lose ['lo?z?], Floß [flo?s] – Flöße ['flø?s?].

The frequent error of confusing the conjunction dass (previously "daß") and the relative pronoun das has remained a trap: Ich hoffe, dass du kommst. / das Haus, das dort stand (I hope that you will come. / the house which stood there)

As a consequence, the German spelling of Anschluss
Anschluss

The ' , also known as the ', was the 1938 unification of Austria into Gro?deutschland by Nazi Germany.Austria was merged into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938....
, for example, now matches the English spelling.
  • der Anschluß became der Anschluss
The so-called s rule statistically makes up for over 90% of actual changes. Since a trailing -ss was against the old rule, the -ss at the end of words, like dass or muss, is now the only sure and quick sign (unless the text is Swiss) to indicate reformed spelling -- all other changes are encountered much 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 + Fahrt (ship travel)


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 allow alternative spellings
  • rauh ? rau (rough) by analogy to 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.

Capitalization

The reform aims to make the capitalization 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 does not take an Object . In more technical terms, an intransitive verb has only one verb argument , and hence has a valency of one....
 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 particle, not a direct object; that is, it is an attachment to the verb stem which changes or specifies the meaning of the verb.

Capitalization after a colon is now always allowed.

The polite capitalization of du, dich, dein, ihr, euch and euer (the cases of the familiar 2nd person) in letters is removed, but retained for Sie, Ihnen, and Ihr (the formal 2nd person).

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 bike)


Infinitive verbs with other verbs are separated:
  • kennenlernen ? kennen lernen (to get to know)


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 pre-existing forms:
  • vielversprechend ? viel versprechend (literally "much promising", but the meaning of the first word is "promising" in the sense of "up-and-coming", while the second meaning is "promising many things")


History


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 selection. Suggestions for reform were no longer limited to trying to decide doubtful cases, but rather proposals were made to simplify German spelling fundamentally, and thus simplify the task of learning to write.

Many of the suggested reforms called for the elimination of the capitalization of common nouns; a similar reform had been carried out in Nordic countries
Nordic countries

File:Location Nordic Council.svgThe Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and far northeastern North America, called the Nordic region, consisting of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories which include the Faroe Islands, Greenland and ?land....
 after World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. A study in the Netherlands
Netherlands

The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
 suggested, however, that the German system seemed to improve the reading speed of test groups.

Institutionalised reform talks since 1980

In 1980 the Internationaler Arbeitskreis für Orthographie (International Working Group for Spelling) was formed, with linguists from East and West Germany, Austria, and Switzerland taking part.

Their initial proposals were further discussed at two conferences in Vienna
Vienna

Vienna is the Capital of Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million...
, in 1986 and 1990, to which the Austrian government invited representatives from every region where German is spoken. In the closing remarks from the first of these meetings, capitalization reform was put off to a "second phase" of reform attempts, since no consensus had been reached.

In 1987 the Ministers of Culture of the federal states in West Germany charged the Institute for the German Language in Mannheim and the Society for the German Language in Wiesbaden with the task of coming up with a new system of rules. In 1988 these groups presented an incomplete but very wide-ranging set of proposed new rules (for example, the traditional Der Kaiser ißt den Aal im Boot would be changed to: Der keiser isst den al im bot) ("The Emperor eats the eel in the boat"), but these were quickly rejected by the general public and then 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 Germany (now united), Austria and Switzerland. On the basis of these hearings, the Working Group backed off the idea of eliminating the capitalization of all nouns, and also allowed the continued differing spelling of the homophones das ("the", "which") and daß ("that", conjunction, as in "I am glad that you came").

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.

Institution of the reform

On July 1 1996 all of the German states (Bundesländer), and 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 states introduced the new rules as of the 1996–1997 school year.

The various dictionaries raced to be the first with the new spelling, which turned out to be very profitable. For a time, dictionaries were showing up on the best-seller lists for German books. The market for school books was also given new life.

Transitional period

Some have suggested that the main cause of the current controversy over the spelling reform
Spelling 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 behavior of large groups of people (introduction of the metric system
Si

Si, si, or SI may refer to :...
, switching to the euro
Euro

The euro is the official currency of 16 out of 27 European Union member state of the European Union . The states, known collectively as the Eurozone are: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain....
, Sweden
Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
's change from driving on the left to driving on the right on Dagen H
Dagen H

Dagen H , today mostly referred to as H?gertrafikoml?ggningen , was the day, 3 September 1967, on which traffic in Sweden switched from driving on the left or right#Sweden....
, and Britain
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
's introduction of decimal currency
Decimal Day

Decimal Day was the day the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland decimalisation their Currency. It is also known as Decimalisation Day and D-Day....
) suggests that such reforms may be more effective the shorter the transitional period is. When there is a longer transition period, it has been argued, many do not bother to familiarise themselves with the reform, in the hope that it will later be repealed. This has the tendency of dividing the people into groups of early adopters and resisters. Some experts conclude that the ideal 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 offices, since anyone else can simply write the way 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 millions of books in libraries using the older spelling. Comparison to the currency change or driving on one side of the road or the other is debatable, anyway, since in those cases the old behavior completely disappears after the change (the old money is valueless or must be traded in; it is illegal and unsafe 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 Fair
Frankfurt Book Fair

The Frankfurt Book Fair is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. It is held annually in mid-October in Frankfurt, Germany....
 (the largest in Germany) of 1996, Friedrich Denk, a teacher from Bavaria
Bavaria

Bavaria , with an area of and almost 12.5 million inhabitants, is a region located in the southeast of Germany and is the largest States of Germany of Germany by area....
, obtained signatures from hundreds of authors and scientists demanding the cancellation of the reform. Among the leading supporters were Günter Grass
Günter Grass

G?nter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize in Literature-winning Germany author and playwright.He was born in the Free City of Danzig . Since 1945, he has lived in West Germany , but in his fiction he frequently returns to the Danzig of his childhood....
, Siegfried Lenz
Siegfried Lenz

Siegfried Lenz is a Germany writer who has written twelve novels and produced several collections of short story, essays, and Play for radio and the theatre....
, Martin Walser
Martin Walser

Martin Walser is a Germany writer. He became famous for describing the conflicts his anti-heroes have in his novels and stories....
, 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....
 and Walter Kempowski
Walter Kempowski

Walter Kempowski was a German writer. Kempowski was chiefly 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....
. 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 states, so that the Bundesverfassungsgericht (German Supreme Court) 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 Coll?ge de France, and held the chair of Romance literature from 1992 to 1998 ....
 of the Collège de France
Collège de France

The Coll?ge 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 Ecoles....
, 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 12 May 1998 the president of the German Academy for Language and Poetry, Christian Meier, tried to defame the reform of 1996 by contrcuting a tradition from the German spelling reform of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the colloquial English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party , which established a Totalitarianism dictatorship that existed from 1933 to 1945....
 or Drittes Reich (Third Reich) of 1944.. Truly, the idea of a spelling reform was not originally nationalist; in the 1920es there had been pleas for a spelling reform on democratic background.

On July 14 1998, after one hearing on 12 May 1998 and involving only one teachers' organisation, the court declared that the introduction of the spelling reform by the Ministers of Culture was legal. The decision was not backed up by the legislature.

In the state of Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein is the Northern Germany of the sixteen States of Germany of Germany. Its capital city is Kiel, other notable cities are L?beck and Flensburg....
 a majority voting in a referendum on September 27 1998 called for a return to the traditional spelling. However, the Premier of the state, Heide Simonis
Heide Simonis

Heide Simonis is a Germany politician. She is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.She was Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein from 1993 to 2005, the first and till today the only woman to hold this position in any German state in Germany's history....
, managed to reverse the decision of the referendum via a parliamentary vote in 1999.

As the new dictionaries were published in July and August 1996 the critics of the reform felt themselves 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 language dictionary, first published by Konrad Duden in 1880.Currently the Duden is in its 24th 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 they had produced to explain it, thus lending their support to the new spelling, which was said to be more logical.

One of the public critics of the spelling reform is Josef Kraus, the president of the Deutscher Lehrerverband.

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 capitalization change, would the committee require the agreement of the Ministers of Culture. This move was strongly criticised.

Simultaneously, the committee released its fourth report on the spelling reform, 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 their 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 the traditional spelling of certain words and phrases the preferred spelling, with the new spelling still being acceptable. They also confirmed that the transition phase would end on August 1 2005. A Council for German Spelling was instituted on this date, taking the place of the existing international committee. This decision was unanimous and would require a unanimous vote to change, which seems highly unlikely at this point.

Legal status

The spelling change is based on the international agreement of July 1 1996 signed by Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Strictly speaking it is not a treaty. Signers for Germany were the president of the Conference of Ministers of Culture, Karl-Heinz Reck, and the parliamentary secretary of the federal Ministry of the Interior, Eduard Lintner. There has been no parliamentary decision on the reform. Instead, as mentioned above, the German Supreme Court ruled that the reform in the schools can be decided by the Ministers of Culture. Thus, as of August 1 2005 the traditional spelling system is to be considered incorrect in the schools, except in two of the German states, Bavaria
Bavaria

Bavaria , with an area of and almost 12.5 million inhabitants, is a region located in the southeast of Germany and is the largest States of Germany of Germany by area....
 and North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine - Westphalia is the westernmost and - in terms of population and economic output - the largest States of Germany of Germany. North Rhine - Westphalia has over 18 million inhabitants, contributes about 22% of Germany's gross domestic product and comprises a land area of 34,083 km? ....
, which have both officially rejected the reform. It is presumed that from the schools it will spread to the German public. However, since 2006 the new rules are also obligatory at Bavarian and North Rhine-Westphalian schools.

State of implementation

, most German print media use rules that to a large extent comply with the reform. This includes most newspapers and periodicals, and the German press agencies DPA and Reuters
Reuters

Reuters Group Limited is a United_Kingdom-based, Canadian controlled news agency and former financial market data provider that provides reports from around the world to newspapers and broadcasters....
. Still, some newspapers, including Die Zeit
Die Zeit

Die Zeit is a Germany 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....
, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Neue Zürcher Zeitung

The Neue Z?rcher Zeitung is a major German language Switzerland daily newspaper based in Z?rich.It is one of the oldest newspapers still published, appearing as Z?rcher Zeitung, edited by Salomon Gessner, from January 121780 and renamed to Neue Z?rcher Zeitung in 1821....
, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , also known as F.A.Z., is a national List of newspapers in Germany, founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt am Main....
 and Süddeutsche Zeitung
Süddeutsche Zeitung

The S?ddeutsche Zeitung is the largest Germany quality newspaper. It is published in Munich....
, created their own in-house orthographies, while most other newspapers use more or less the rules set by the DPA. These in-house orthographies thus occupy a continuum between "old spelling with new rules for ß
ß

The letter ? is a letter in the German alphabet. Its German language name is Eszett or scharfes S , and is pronounced as an unvoiced s ....
" and (almost) full acceptance of the new rules.

In books, the implementation depends on the book's subject, and 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 spelling, while the text of novels is spelled as the authors prefer. Classic works are typically printed without changes, unless they are specifically editions intended for use in schools.

Since dictionaries adopted the new spelling early on, there is no standard reference work available for traditional spelling. However, Theodor Ickler, Professor of German at the University of Erlangen, has produced a dictionary that aims to meet the demands of simplification without the need to impose any new spellings. There is also a lively trade in used copies of the older Duden dictionaries. The newest Duden (2004) 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 historian and writer 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. "Language is a dynamic process. It must grow and develop." Friedrich Denk, together with journalist and author Hans Krieger, 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 Wulff is a Germany politician and Premier of Lower Saxony since March 4, 2003....
, Premier of Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony lies in northern Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen States of Germany of Germany. In rural areas Low German is still spoken, but the number of speakers is declining....
, also stated that Germany should go back to the traditional spelling. Peter Müller
Peter Müller

Peter M?ller or Peter Mueller is the name of:*Peter Mueller , of Tampa Florida died in airplane crash at Culver Academies*Peter Mueller , NHL player for the Phoenix Coyotes...
, Premier of Saarland
Saarland

Saarland is one of the 16 States of Germany of Germany. The capital is Saarbr?cken. It has an area of 2570 km? and 1,045,000 inhabitants. In both area and population it is the smallest of the German Fl?chenl?nder , i.e., those that are not City States ....
 said, "This spelling reform is a miscarriage and is not accepted by most people. Politicians have to accept this and have the power to remove this reform again completely." The CDU
Christian Democratic Union (Germany)

The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a christian democracy and conservatism political party in Germany.Along with its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union of Bavaria, the CDU forms the CDU/CSU faction in the Bundestag....
 and CSU
Christian Social Union of Bavaria

The Christian Social Union in Bavaria is a Christian Democracy and conservatism 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

, is the Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 9 April 2000, and Chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary party group from 2002 to 2005....
 and Edmund Stoiber
Edmund Stoiber

Edmund R?diger Stoiber is a Germany politics, former minister-president of the States of Germany of Bavaria and former chairman of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria....
 also proposed to repeal the reform.

The German Academy for Language and Poetry suggested a compromise in 2003. Many critics consider this reform of the reform to be a second-best choice.

Several state premiers have threatened to remove language reform from the competence of the Ministers of Culture, seeking in this way to capsize the reform plans. This has been followed by many publishing houses announcing returns to the traditional spelling.

Acceptance of the reform


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 every fifth German citizen (21%) feels that the spelling reform is acceptable."

In Switzerland

The German debate about the spelling reform produced surprise among the Swiss media outlets, rather than agreement. In Switzerland, the reform has had a less noticeable impact since the letter ß
ß

The letter ? is a letter in the German alphabet. Its German language name is Eszett or scharfes S , and is pronounced as an unvoiced s ....
, which was the most prominent part of the reform, had not been in use anyway. Most Swiss newspapers and magazines follow house spelling rules which, in the case of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Neue Zürcher Zeitung

The Neue Z?rcher Zeitung is a major German language Switzerland daily newspaper based in Z?rich.It is one of the oldest newspapers still published, appearing as Z?rcher Zeitung, edited by Salomon Gessner, from January 121780 and renamed to Neue Z?rcher Zeitung in 1821....
, Switzerland's leading daily paper, diverge substantially from the official rules. The Schweizer Monatshefte returned to the traditional Swiss spelling in 2004.

Liechtenstein follows the same spelling as Switzerland.

In Austria

Austrian media consider the subject to be open to discussion, with no decision having been made. A return to the traditional spelling would still be possible. Many media outlets in Austria use house rules rather than the official spelling rules. A Gallup poll
Gallup poll

The Gallup Poll is the division of The Gallup Organization that regularly conducts public opinion polls in the United States and more than 140 countries around the world....
 conducted in August 2004 indicated that 62% of Austrians would favour a return to the traditional spelling. The Kronen-Zeitung (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 they didn't.

Reform of the reform

In March 2006 the Deutsche Welle
Deutsche Welle

Deutsche Welle or DW, is Germany International broadcasting. It Broadcastings news and information on shortwave, Internet and satellite radio in 29 languages ....
 reported on the Second German Spelling Reform: "Spelling Reform Spells Trouble for Germany".

See also

  • German orthography
    German orthography

    German orthography , although largely phoneme, shows many instances of spellings that are historic or analogic to other spellings rather than phonemic....
  • German language
    German language

    German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
  • Spelling
    Spelling

    Spelling is the writing of a word or words with the necessary Letter and diacritics present in an accepted standard order. It is one of the elements of orthography and a prescriptive element of language....
  • Spelling reform
    Spelling 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....
  • Language planning
    Language planning

    Language planning refers to deliberate efforts to influence the behaviour of others with respect to the acquisition, structure, or functional allocation of language....


Bibliography

  • German dictionary plus grammar. [German spelling reform incorporated; the complete two-in-one reference]. 2nd edition. Glasgow: Harper Collins, 1999, 1151 S., ISBN 0-00-472358-9
  • Jan Henrik Holst: German politicians' decision on March 30, 2006: Nazi orthography becomes obligatory in German schools! If children spell German the usual way, they will get "mistakes". Strong protest necessary! Hamburg, 6. October 2006.
  • Sally A. Johnson: Spelling trouble? Language, ideology and the reform of German orthography. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, LTD, 2005, 208 p., ISBN 1-85359-785-6
  • Diethelm Prowe: Review of Sally Johnson, Spelling Trouble? Language, Ideology and the Reform of German Orthography. In: H-German, H-Net Reviews, November, 2005.
  • Elke Philburn: Rechtschreibreform still spells controversy. In: Debatte. Review of Contemporary German Affairs, Bd. 11. No. 1, 2003, S. 60 – 69.


German Titles

Due to the nature of the topic, most books and papers regarding the German 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
    National Socialism

    National Socialism typically refers to Nazism, which was the ideology of the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler.National Socialism typically promotes uniting the working class of a specific ethnic, national, or racial group into a proletarian nation while socialism the industry, providing an extensive welfare state and opposing capitalism, com...
    ). 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 Germany
    Nazi Germany

    Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the colloquial English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party , which established a Totalitarianism dictatorship that existed from 1933 to 1945....
     or Drittes Reich ("Third Reich") of 1944. Anmerkung: Dies Buch enthält einen Vergleich mit der Reform der deutschen Rechtschreibung von 1944 –
  • Hanno Birken-Bertsch und Reinhard Markner: Sprachführer. Über den Sonderweg der deutschen Rechtschreibreformer. In: Junge Welt
    Junge Welt

    junge Welt is a Marxism Germany daily newspaper published in Berlin. It was first published on 12 February 1947 in the Soviet Sector of Berlin....
     vom 3. April 2001 –
  • Friedrich Denk: Frankfurter Erklärung zur Rechtschreibreform. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung vom 19. Oktober 1996 –
  • Friedrich Denk: Kein Schlußstrich. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Nr. 293 vom 16. Dezember 2006, S. 18 –
  • 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 –
  • Matthias Dräger: Rechtschreibreform: Matthias Dräger über den Volksentscheid in Schleswig-Holstein. „Ein Sprung in die Jauchegrube“. Interview von Thorsten Thaler. In: Junge Freiheit
    Junge Freiheit

    The Junge Freiheit is a Germany weekly newspaper for politics and culture....
    , Nr. 40 vom 25. September 1998, S. 3 –
  • 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) –
  • 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 Zeitung
    Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

    The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , also known as F.A.Z., is a national List of newspapers in Germany, founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt am Main....
     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
  • Theodor Ickler: Die sogenannte Rechtschreibreform. Ein Schildbürgerstreich. 2. Auflage, St. Goar: Leibniz-Verlag, 1997, 206 Seiten, ISBN 3-931155-09-9 ( PDF, 750 kB
    Byte

    A byte is a basic unit of measurement of Computer storage in computer science. In many computer architectures it is a Byte addressing memory address space....
    )
  • 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 ( 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 ( 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 –
  • 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 –
  • 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 Zeitung
    Süddeutsche Zeitung

    The S?ddeutsche Zeitung is the largest Germany quality newspaper. It is published in Munich....
     vom 2. Oktober 2000 [“Clear, simple and powerful” – Shall we write like the National Socialists
    Nazism

    Nazism, officially National Socialism , refers to the ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Workers? Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945....
    ? The suppressed model of the Reform of German orthography
    ] –
  • Heide Kuhlmann: Orthographie und Politik. Zur Genese eines irrationalen Diskurses. Magisterarbeit. Hannover, 1999 –
  • 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 –
  • 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 –
  • 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 –
  • Thomas Paulwitz: Der Rechtschreibrat ist gescheitert. Eine Bewertung der neuesten Reform der Rechtschreibreform. In: Deutsche Sprachwelt – Ausgabe 23 vom 20. März 2006, S. 4 –
  • 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. –
  • Elke Philburn: »New rules chaos« – Die deutsche Rechtschreibreform in Großbritannien. In: Schule in Frankfurt (SchiFF), Nr. 47, November 2003 –
  • 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 –
  • 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 –
  • 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 –
  • 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. –
  • 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 Stein
    Dieter Stein

    Dieter Stein is a Germany journalist, publisher and chief editor and founder of the conservative newspaper Junge Freiheit.Stein grew up in Bavaria and Baden-W?rttemberg and studied political science and history at Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg from 1986 to 1993....
     (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 Sprache. Hagen: Reiner Padligur Verlag, 1996, 448 S., ISBN 3-922957-46-3
  • Hermann Zabel (Hrsg.): Widerworte. "Lieber Herr Grass
    Günter Grass

    G?nter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize in Literature-winning Germany author and playwright.He was born in the Free City of Danzig . Since 1945, he has lived in West Germany , but in his fiction he frequently returns to the Danzig of his childhood....
    , 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



Orthography in the German Wikipedia

  • Orthographie
  • Hausorthographie
  • Rechtschreibreform
  • Neue deutsche Rechtschreibung
  • Vorlage:Alte Rechtschreibung – That means: traditional orthography
  • Traditionelle deutsche Rechtschreibung
  • Liste der Druckmedien in alter Rechtschreibung – That means: traditional orthography
  • Deutsche Rechtschreibung
  • Wikipedia:Rechtschreibung
  • Kategorie:Rechtschreibung
  • Kategorie:Deutsche Rechtschreibung


Societies for German Language

  • Bund für deutsche Schrift und Sprache (BfdS)
  • Neue Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft zu Köthen/Anhalt
  • Verein für Sprachpflege e. V. (VfS)


Language Journals

  • Deutsche Sprachwelt (DSW)
  • in German type


Activities concerning the Spelling reform



Web pages concerning the Spelling reform