Emil is replaced by Essen, Friedrich by Frankfurt and Charlotte by Chemnitz.

This is how you could spell it in the future when the German Institute for Standardization (DIN) realizes a new version of the spelling alphabet.

Instead of first names, according to the institute's plan, city names should in future be used to announce and dictate texts and characters.

The committee orients itself for the standard DIN 5009 on the city abbreviations of vehicle registration plates with only one letter. Accordingly, M goes to Munich, but the letter H does not go to Hamburg ("HH"), but to Hanover. "The one-letter distinctive signs are mostly from the most famous German cities," says Julian Pinnig, spokesman for DIN. These are easy to remember. DIN received suggestions about possible schemes that it should use for city selection. So you could have orientated yourself on the size.

The 15 experts in the committee chose the system of motor vehicle signs because it was clear and comprehensible. This avoids criticism that the cities were chosen subjectively. The draft can be commented online until September 20th, after which the comments will be evaluated. The board is expected to be officially reformed in mid-2022 - the first time since 1996. The dictation work was created as early as 1890.

The reason for the reform is a note from the anti-Semitism commissioner for the state of Baden-Württemberg, Michael Blume: “For decades, a spelling tablet was handed down in Germany from which the National Socialists had erased all German-Jewish names.

It was time to work through that together and to end it. ”Blume, who sits on the DIN committee, was alluding to unfortunate traditions.

The "S for Siegfried" introduced by the Nazis had at least officially become "S for Samuel" again in the 1950s, and "Zacharias" also came back.

"N as in North Pole" still replaces "Nathan" today, and "Dora" is used instead of "David".

Representing the reality of life is difficult

The committee has been working on the reform since 2020. Initially, the suggestion was to return to the alphabet table before the Nazi era or to change just a few first names. However, it is difficult to depict today's reality, says Eberhard Rüssing, chairman of the responsible working committee. “The current table contains 16 male and only six female first names, other contemporary names are completely missing. In turn, good experiences have been made with city names in other European countries. ”The Netherlands, France and Italy, for example, are already using city names as a means of dictation.

Another possibility would have been to establish the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) spelling table in Germany. However, German special characters and umlauts are missing, such as the Sch and the Ö. The committee also doubts that "Québec" for Q and "Zulu" for Z make sense for Germans.

The new spelling board is aimed primarily at professional users in business and administration.

It continues to play a role, particularly in training commercial professions, and is printed, for example, in textbooks.

Other user groups such as emergency services, the police and the aviation industry are not affected - and neither are private individuals, of course.

It remains to be seen whether the reform will lead to a rethink.

In any case, the institute would be happy about it, says spokesman Pinnig.

"It is a voluntary offer to think about language and its origin."

Balance between East and West

The cities included in the new spelling table look forward to the reform. "As a comparatively small town, we would particularly benefit from the level of awareness associated with this," said the German press agency from Tübingen. A similarly enthusiastic voice comes from the Lower Rhine: "When it becomes common usage, Xanten is on everyone's lips."

Especially in North Rhine-Westphalia there is reason to be happy. A total of seven cities from the largest German state are in the draft of DIN, for example Essen, Cologne and Düsseldorf. It follows Bavaria with four cities. As things stand, Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, Bremen, Hamburg and Saxony-Anhalt are left empty-handed. "We have tried to create a balance between the eastern and western federal states," says Pinnig. On the board are seven cities from the eastern federal states, including Cottbus, Jena, Potsdam and Zwickau.

The committee selected a total of 28 city names - in addition to the letters in the alphabet, there are also dictation aids for special characters and umlauts. However, it remains with "Y as in Ypsilon" and "ß as in Eszett". “Anger”, “Economist” and “High spirits” become “Umlaut-A”, “Umlaut-O” and “Umlaut-U”. Another exception is Görlitz - the one-letter vehicle registration number for G would be Gera. However, the risk of confusion with the city of Jena (for J) would be too high.