European Centre for Research on Federalism

Beiträge zum deutschen Föderalismus [Articles on German federalism]

Orthografie und Demokratie im Bundesstaat Die Rechtschreibreform in Deutschland

Georg Weinmann

pp. 237-256

In Germany rules for spelling are closely connected with national identification and the shaping of regional policy profiles such as education policy. Against this background they are an issue primarily dealt with by the Länder and to a lesser extent by actors at the federal (Bund) level. In 1996 an international conference decided that some rules should be changed in order to keep pace with the development of the German language. Language policy of that kind is a complex process based on a multi-level institutional setting, sometimes competing approaches by the Länder, a significant influence of the federal constitutional court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) and by various forms of grass-roots democracy. The latest attempts to reform the rules for written German are a lively example for overcrowded policy making in a too complex and intransparent institutional system. From an output perspective the solutions found so far show that large parts of the German public perceive the federal system in Germany in some parts as inefficient and unable to renew itself in order to raise the quality of policy results and the level of legitimization.

Suggested citation for this article:
Weinmann, Georg 2006: Orthografie und Demokratie im Bundesstaat Die Rechtschreibreform in Deutschland, in: Europäisches Zentrum für Föderalismus-Forschung (ed.): Jahrbuch des Föderalismus 2006. Föderalismus, Subsidiarität und Regionen in Europa, Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, p. 237-256.