German Orthography Reform of 1996 - State of Implementation

State of Implementation

As of 2004, most German printed media use spelling rules that to a large extent comply with the reforms. These includes most newspapers and periodicals, and the German press agencies Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) and Reuters. Still, some newspapers, including Die Zeit, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and the Süddeutsche Zeitung, created their own in-house orthography rules, while most other newspapers use approximately the rules set forth by the DPA. These in-house orthographies thus occupy a continuum between "old spelling with new rules for ß" and an (almost) full acceptance of the new rules.

In books, the implementation's success depends on the book's subject, and it often varies within a publishing house. Approximately 80% of newly-published books use the new system. Schoolbooks and children's books generally follow the new spellings, while the text of novels is presented as the authors prefer. Classic works of literature are typically printed without any changes, unless they are specifically editions intended for use in the schools.

Since dictionaries adopted the new spellings early on, there is no currently in-print, standard reference work available for traditional spellings. However, Theodor Ickler, a Professor of German at the University of Erlangen, has produced a new dictionary that aims to meet the demands of simplification without the need to impose any new spellings. There is also a lively commerce in used copies of the older Duden dictionaries. As of the 2004 edition, the Duden dictionary includes the most recent changes proposed by the Ministers of Culture.