German shorthand
The German stenography was a form of shorthand that from 1970 in the GDR was taught and used. It was a further development of the German Unified Shorthand (DEK) created in 1924 . The shorthand after Wilhelm Stolze , which was used in the 19th century and is considered an ancestor of the German unified shorthand and thus also of German shorthand, was also called German shorthand .
history
It is assumed that since 1956 at the latest in the GDR there have been considerations to reorganize the subject matter of shorthand. In 1967 a “proposal by the system committee of the German Society for Stenography and Typing for a simplification of the traffic writing of German shorthand (uniform shorthand)” was published. In the same and in the following years, experimental courses for practical testing were set up. The knowledge gained from this was incorporated into the system change. In 1969 further changes were made to the proposals, which were tested accordingly. In 1970, the Ministry of National Education issued the "Certificate of German Stenography of June 1, 1970" ( GDR Law Gazette , Part Ⅱ, p. 468), which was the binding basis for teaching German shorthand from September 1, 1971 .
With the end of the GDR in 1990, the fate of German shorthand was sealed. Due to a number of circumstances, she had no chance of survival. The textbooks of all three levels were suddenly unusable because of the texts they contained with socialist ideology . A revision, if it could have been started at all in view of the lack of financial support from the state, would have taken a long time. In contrast, it was an easy undertaking for the large West German specialist publishers to supply the entire GDR with their textbooks within a few weeks. So it happened.
The leading systems theorist in East Germany were to turn time either very old or they had to under the new social conditions primarily take care of securing their material existence, so they had no time for obtaining the German shorthand or for creating a new system form taking into account the advantages of the Viennese certificate and German shorthand to fight. With very few exceptions, neither the leading shorthand theorists of the Federal Republic nor the top management of the German Stenographers Association had any interest in changing the DEK. And so German shorthand disappeared very quickly from teaching without the need for a legal regulation. Today, German shorthand is only used by most of those who learned it in the GDR.
Compared to DEK
The basic structure of the German shorthand corresponds to the DEK in the version of the Vienna document from 1968. The number of characters is the same apart from a few differences. The same shortening techniques are also used. There are three writing levels in both DEK and German shorthand. In German shorthand, they are referred to as memo, dictation and speech and thus correspond to the three main uses of shorthand .
In addition to adapting to linguistic terms , the most important goal of the system reform was to simplify the first stage. This was achieved, among other things, by the abolition of the Aufstrich-t and the elimination of the associated connection rules. The two-stage upstroke-t is only introduced in the speech.
The symbol for s is not a full circle, but rather resembles a half-step h of the DEK. This eliminates the need for the DEK rules for connecting small characters to s. The base point of the s is always decisive for connecting the following symbol . Left-handed s occurs only in abbreviations in the first two font levels. In the speech s is written as an aftermath as a left-handed circular loop.
Another noticeable difference compared to the DEK is the symbol for st, which corresponds to the abbreviation du of the DEK, is always used and can be placed in superscript or subscript without difficulty. Thus, according to stenology, str is followed by the two-stage execution of st, which means that a different form had to be found for the abbreviation under the DEK.
The DEK rr character is used in German shorthand as rt in all three stages . From the dictation onwards, it also has the meaning -rer.
The list of abbreviations in German shorthand also differs from that of the DEK. For example, in German shorthand, the DEK abbreviation for the suffix -ung was dispensed with. The DEK abbreviation is no shorter than the written form, but due to the numerous associated regulations and merging of characters, it involves considerable additional learning effort.
literature
- Walter Kaden, Helmut Hähnel: Stenographic Dictionary . Verlag die Wirtschaft, Berlin 1985 (GDR LSV No. 0397 / Order No. 675 9178).
- Helmut Hähnel: Commentary on the German Stenography Certificate from June 1, 1970 . Verlag die Wirtschaft, Berlin 1985 (GDR LSV No. 0397 / Order No. 675 121 3).
- Burkert, H. Dieter: In rebus stenograficis: on tradition, systematics and perspective of shorthand at the end of their age . Verlag die Blaue Eule, Essen 2002, ISBN 3-89206-044-4 , "Shorthand in the GDR - Contemplation and Comparison: Attempting an Introductory Overview - 'Coburg Lecture', 1979 (1990)" on pp. 236-255.