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Berlin / Karlsruhe (dpa) - For decades they provided clarity when spelling names on the phone - now Anton, Berta and Caesar have had their day.
The German Institute for Standardization (DIN) has been working on the "Dictation Rules" standard since autumn - and with it the official spelling table as part of it.
"We are on schedule with the revision of DIN 5009 and expect the draft to be published in the third quarter of the year," says Julian Pinnig from the institute in Berlin.
A good dozen experts deal with the names for the letters.
They come from education and training, insurance or postal companies.
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Concrete names for the individual letters are not yet revealed. Just this much: in the future, cities should ensure the correct spelling of words, email addresses or file numbers instead of first names. Instead of W for Wilhelm, it could then be Wiesbaden or Worms. Cities that are clearly distinguishable and reflect the diversity of the country come into question. The background to the city names is also the change in social reality. From the point of view of DIN standards, a spelling table with the previous first names does not sufficiently reflect the cultural diversity of the population in Germany.
The reform was triggered by Michael Blume, Baden-Württemberg's anti-Semitism officer.
It bothers him that the current board still contains relics from the time of the National Socialists.
In 1934 they removed all Jewish names: David became Dora, Nathan Nordpol, and Samuel Siegfried.
The board was revised several times after 1945.
But Nathan stayed outside, North Pole inside.
North Pole sounds unsuspicious, but for Blume it is an example of how anti-Semitism works.
“There are many areas that were poisoned by the Nazis.
They become traditions that nobody thinks about anymore. "
The North Pole, for example, is the place “from which, according to the alternative historiography of the Nazis, the Aryans come”, says Blume.
"With this knowledge we have to delete the North Pole from the spelling table."
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Because the spelling table was getting on in years anyway, the DIN experts turned everything upside down.
Firefighters, secretariats, commercial and other professions who still use the spelling board mainly for their communication would have wished for something from their environment.
German cities are part of that.
But with the decision in favor of the cities, Nathan is also out.
In order to draw attention to the changeful history of the spelling board and to set an example, the institute would like to symbolically publish an additional board that goes back to the time of the Weimar Republic - this should contain all Jewish first names again.
"By changing to city names, it is possible to keep the spelling table up to date in the long term, because city names do not change as quickly as trends in first names," says Kathrin Kunkel-Razum, the head of the Duden editorial team.
Even if older people will no longer get used to it - the language expert is convinced that young people and immigrants can do more with K for Cologne than with Konrad.
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Kunkel-Razum expects that old and new tablets will be used in parallel for a while.
At some point an international board could establish itself: "For the moment, the hurdles for this seem to be very high, the international board is based on the English alphabet and has so far mainly been used in international radio communications by the military and in the sea."
In addition, not all languages have the same letters.
Ä like anger is just typically German.
Like the standardization of spelling in general for around 130 years, says Blume.
It does not rule out that people will simply use everyday words when spelling their e-mail addresses and that the official board will be changed for the last time.
"That is precisely why it is important that the Nazis then don't have the last word."
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210420-99-273735 / 2
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