German orthography reform of 1996

The German spelling reform (Rechtschreibreform) was an international agreement signed in 1996 by the governments of the German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland), concerning the reform of German spelling. Luxembourg, a trilingual country with German as one of its official languages, has not endorsed the reform.

History of German spelling regulation

The Duden monopoly

In 1880 the Prussians regulated German spelling on the basis of Konrad Duden's dictionary. Duden's dictionary continued to be the deciding factor when the German parliament (Bundesrat) produced rules for spelling throughout the German empire in 1902.

In the following decades, German spelling was essentially decided de facto by the editors of the Duden dictionaries. After World War II, this tradition was followed with two different centers: Mannheim in West Germany and Leipzig in East Germany. By the early 1950s, a few other publishing houses began to attack the Duden monopoly in the West by putting out their own dictionaries, which did not always hold to the "official" spelling of the Duden. In response, the Ministers of Culture in West Germany officially declared the Duden spellings as binding as of November, 1955.

The Duden editors used their power cautiously, because they considered their primary task to be the documentation of usage, not the creation of rules. At the same time, however, they found themselves force to make finer and finer distinctions in the production of German spelling rules.

Debate over the need for reform

The scholarly debate over correct spelling was polarized in the late 60s, because the young men and women of that generation rejected spelling regulation as repressive and a means for social selection. Suggestions for reform were no longer limited to trying to decide doubtful cases, but rather proposals were made to fundamentally simplify German spelling and thus simplify the task of learning to write.

Many of the reform suggestions called for the elimination of German's capitalization of all nouns, replacing it with a system like that in English, where only proper nouns are capitalized. Various Scandinavian countries had done just that after World War II.

A study in the Netherlands suggested that the German system seemed to improve the reading speed of test groups. The test subjects could read text samples in their native tongue more quickly if they were written with all nouns capitalized than with the English capitalization system. The report was quite influential, and in Great Britain it was soon suggested that this capitalization be taken over into English, though the attempt to do so failed completely.

Institutionalized reform talks since 1980

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

Their initial proposals were further discussed in two conventions in Vienna in 1986 and 1990, to which the Austrian government invited representatives from every world region where German is spoken. In the closing remarks from the first of these meetings, the capitalization reform was put off to a "second phase" of reform attempts, since no consensus had been reached.

In 1987, the German Ministers of Culture 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, "Der Kaiser im Boot" would be changed to "Der Keiser im Bot"), that 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 Workgroup 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 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 Workgroup backed off of the idea of eliminating the capitalization of all nouns, and also allowed the continued differing spelling of the homonyms das (the) and daß (that).

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), 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 in school books was also given an impulse.

Transitional period

Some have suggested that the main cause of the current controversy over the spelling reform may spring from the eight-year transitional period. Experience from other reforms that affect the behavior 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, etc.) show that such reforms are more effective the shorter the transitional period is. When there is a longer transitional period, many don't bother to learn the reform in the hopes that it will later be canceled. This has the tendency of dividing the people into groups of early adopters and resisters. Many experts say 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 the 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 the libraries using the older spelling. Comparison to the currency change or driving on one side of the road or the other does not apply here, 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 accord

The reforms did not come into the eye of the general public until after the international accord was signed. Animated arguments arose about the correctness of the decision. At the Franfurt Book Convention (the largest in Germany) of 1996, hundreds of authors and scientists signed a declaration demanding the stoppage of the reform.

The issue was taken up in the courts, with different decisions in different states, so that the German Supreme Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) was called upon to make a ruling. On July 14, 1998, they declared that the introduction of a spelling reform by the Ministers of Culture was legal.

In the state of Schleswig-Holstein a referendum of September 27, 1998 called for a return to the old spelling. However, the leader of the government, Heide Simonis, managed to reverse the decision of the referendum via a parliamentary vote in 1999. Bavaria also had a public initiative to reverse the change, but nothing came of the attempt.

As the new dictionaries were published in July-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 State Ministers of Culture continued to refuse to accede to their demands. The editors of the Duden also agreed that many of the problems in the old 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 styled as "more logical".

In May 1998 a group of 550 language and literature professors demanded the reversal of the reform.

Despite criticism, the proponents of the reform are unwilling to budge, expressing only their disappointment that their proposal to change the capitalization system was not included in the reform.

Later developments

In 1997, an international committee was formed to handle any cases of doubt that might remain under the new rules. In 2004, 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, like the proposed capitalization change, would they be require the agreement of the State Ministers. This move was strongly criticized.

Simultaneously, the committee released their 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 a strong critic 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 make some changes to the reform, making the old 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 will be 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 fedreral Ministry of the Interior, Eduard Lintner. There is no law governing spelling, but this is not necessary, since the Supreme Court ruled that the reform in the schools can be decided by the ministers of Culture. Thus as of August 1, 2005, the old spelling will be considered incorrect in the schools. It is presumed that from there, it will spread to the German public.

State of implementation

As of 2004, more than 300 newspapers and magazines continue to use the old spelling, have switched back to the old spelling, or have announced plans to switch back. Most importantly, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the most widely-read newspaper in Germany, returned to the old spelling in 2000 after a one-year test. A minority of the media have fully implemented the reform, while another group were already relatively close to the new rules with their house rules. Of all the rules, the most accepted one was the new rule for the use of the eszet ß. (See below).

In books, the implementation depends on the specific subject, and often varies within a publishing house. Schoolbooks and children's books generally follow the new spelling, while novels are spelled as the authors prefer. Classics are typically printed without changes, unless they are specific school editions. Approximately 80% of newly published books use the new system.

Since the dictionaries switched to the new spelling early on, there is no standard reference work available for the old spelling, but a Theodor Ickler has produced a candidate. 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 ministeres.

Actions of opponents

There are still active groups working to cancel the reform, despite the near end of the transitional period. In 2003, Bavarian Minister of Culture Hans Zehetmair declared that the reform was a mistake. "Language is a dynamic process. It must grow and develop."

Lower Saxony's Minister President Christian Wulff also stated that Germany should go back to the old spelling. Peter Müller, Minister President of Saarland said, "This spelling reform is a miscarriage and is not accepted by most people. Politics has to accept this and have the power to remove this reform again completely." The CDU and CSU chiefs Angela Merkel and Edmund Stoiber have also moved to undo 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 minister presidents have threatened to remove language reform from the competence of the ministers of culture, and in this way to capsize the reform plans. This has been followed by many publishing houses announcing returns to the old spelling.

Acceptance of the reform

In Germany

According to the German Supreme Court, a spelling reform is only legitimate if it is accepted by the people. There is currently a heavy debate as to whether that is true in this case.

As mentioned earlier, many newspapers have already abandoned the new spelling, and one state attempted to abandon it via referendum.

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. Especially older people 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 in order.

In Austria and Switzerland

The German debate about the spelling reform produced surprise among the Swiss media outlets, rather than agreement. In Switzerland, the reform is taken almost for granted. The "conflict" in Germany is presented as something far-removed from Swiss reality. In Swiss schools, the students have been using only the reformed spelling for the past six years, with special exceptions that were granted for Swiss German. Most Swiss newspapers and magazines have house spelling rules. A return to the old rules in Switzerland would, according to some experts, only lead to confusion and costs for reconverting school books and media.

Austrian media considers the subject to be open to discussion, with no decision having been made. A return to the old spelling would still be possible. Many media outlets in Austria use house rules rather than the official spelling rules. A Gallup poll conducted in August 2004 indicated that 62% of Austrians would favor a return to the old spelling. The Kronen-Zeitung (largest newspaper in Austria) announced on August 16, 2004, that it would return to the classical spelling rules.

Rules

The spelling reform is an attempt to simplify the orthography and make it easier to learn, without substantially changing the familiar rules of the German language. The bulk of the reforms concern:

changing ß to ss (Schloss instead of Schloß) after short vowels, while retaining it after long vowels;
re-analysing certain compound words as separate words, (ab sein instead of absein);
unmerging letters in compound words (Stemmmeißel instead of Stemmeißel);
the regularisation of loan words (Cornedbeef instead of Corned beef); and
germanizing of loan words (Ketschup instead of Ketchup, Orthografie instead of Orthographie)