Removed Nazi Thoughts: Introduced New Spelling Board

Created: 05/22/2022, 06:26

By: Anna Lorenz

Already heavily discussed in advance, the German Institute for Standardization eV now presented the new German spelling table.

The reason for the change was primarily Nazi ideas.

Berlin – On May 13, the German Institute for Standardization (DIN) presented the new German spelling table in Berlin.

The board, known as part of DIN 5009 for "Announcements and dictation of texts and characters", is now based on city names.

Only the Ypsilon retains its special position - for the sake of simple practicality.

New spelling table – unreality and Nazi ideology have disappeared from the alphabet thanks to innovation

The reasons for changing the spelling table, which has so far mainly used first names, are complex.

According to the dpa , the unequal distribution of names - six women's versus 16 men's names -

did not correspond to today's reality of life , according to the

Furthermore, according to the institute in its press release, the objection by the anti-Semitism commissioner of the state of Baden-Württemberg, Dr.

Michael Blume, has been of great importance.

He had pointed out that Jewish first names had been deliberately removed from the spelling system as part of National Socialism.

The other way around, the Nazis also included announcement words on the board that brought with them a background that corresponded to their attitude.

In addition, in the course of the redesign, care was taken not only to use well-known, fluent and clearly pronounceable city names, but also to create a balanced picture in which the federal states were represented equally.

The new spelling table is therefore based on city names, which are mainly based on the well-known German vehicle registration plates.

"We received a lot of well-founded comments from the public about the first draft of the spelling table, especially about the announcement words," says Eberhard Rüssing, chairman of the responsible working committee.

Although the claim of an even distribution of the announcement words to the federal states was not fully satisfied due to the complete absence of Bremen, the institute is confident.

According to DIN, other European countries have also had good experiences with a city-based system.

New spelling board: city names as default, two strikes and an exception for the "Y"

"City names are very catchy and, unlike first names, not subject to fashion," according to the DIN committee, whose working group includes experts from the fields of business, education and the public sector.

Above all, the keen interest of the public, together with the suggestions received, which was included in the process, was emphasized.

The new spelling board uses mostly city names.

© picture alliance/dpa/DIN |

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The most striking innovation is prima facie the exchange of umlaut titles.

While it used to be "Ä like apples", "Ö like economist" and "Ü like overconfidence", the spelling table now provides for the umlaut to be named for the corresponding letter.

According to DIN, the reason is the unknown or non-existence of corresponding cities.

However, the new system still offers a geography lesson to all those who are not familiar with, for example, “Quickborn”, “Ingelheim” or “Salzwedel” – all of which are in the segment between 20,000 and 30,000 inhabitants.

Furthermore, the "Sch like school" and the partly still used "Ch like Charlotte" were deleted.

Only the "Y" remains "Y as in Ypsilon", and the "ß" as "Eszett" found its way back into the latest version of the spelling alphabet.

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It remains to be seen to what extent the new table will prevail.

Irrespective of this,

reports , the institute is determined to symbolically publish another plaque that goes back to the Weimar Republic and contains Jewish first names.

That shouldn't be a problem, because the new spelling alphabet, which is intended "for business and administration", is not binding in principle - the international spelling system, commonly known as "Alpha-Bravo-Charlie", is also popular.