German Orthography Reform of 1996 - Actions of Opponents

Actions of Opponents

Some groups continue to work to repeal the reform, despite the transitional period having ended. In 2002, the Forschungsgruppe Deutsche Sprache (FDS) (German Language Research Group) was founded by the historian and author 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, in his opinion. "Language is a dynamic process. It must grow and develop." Friedrich Denk, together with the journalist and author Hans Krieger, as well as several other critics of the reform, founded the "Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung" (Council for German Spelling) on 22 August 2004.

Among politicians, Christian Wulff, then Minister-President of Lower Saxony, has also stated that Germany should go back to the traditional spelling. Peter Müller, the Minister-President of the Saarland said, "This spelling reform is a miscarriage, and it is not accepted by most people. Politicians have to accept this and have the power to remove this reform again completely." The Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union of Bavaria leaders Angela Merkel and Edmund Stoiber have also proposed repealing the reform.

The "German Academy for Language and Poetry" suggested a compromise proposal in 2003.

Read more about this topic:  German Orthography Reform Of 1996

Famous quotes containing the words actions of, actions and/or opponents:

    The course of my long life hath reached at last
    In fragile bark o’er a tempestuous sea
    The common harbor, where must rendered be
    Account for all the actions of the past.
    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)

    The higher the state of civilization, the more completely do the actions of one member of the social body influence all the rest, and the less possible is it for any one man to do a wrong thing without interfering, more or less, with the freedom of all his fellow-citizens.
    Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)

    Practically speaking, the opponents to a reform in Massachusetts are not a hundred thousand politicians at the South, but a hundred thousand merchants and farmers here, who are more interested in commerce and agriculture than they are in humanity, and are not prepared to do justice to the slave and to Mexico, cost what it may. I quarrel not with far-off foes, but with those who, near at home, coöperate with, and do the bidding of, those far away, and without whom the latter would be harmless.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)