Helmut Stief

Helmut Stief (born May 6, 1906 in Siegen , † October 2, 1977 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German stenographer and inventor of the stenography system Stiefography , also called Stiefo and Rational Stenography.

Life

Helmut Stief attended the secondary school in his hometown of Siegen. He left this in 1921 to learn the carpentry trade in a furniture factory . After a three-year apprenticeship, which included practical and commercial training, Stief attended the one-year commercial college in the city of Siegen in 1924 to perfect his commercial knowledge. On Easter 1925 he left school with the best report in the class. He then went into his father's business, who had furniture sales, as a traveler and trade correspondent . Eventually, Stief switched to journalism . He then carried out this activity until he was called up as a soldier in 1943. During the Second World War he was employed in positions where he could use his excellent shorthand skills. After the war, Stief was hired by the Thuringian state government as press officer and shortly thereafter promoted to director of the Thuringian state parliament .

In 1948 Helmut Stief was sentenced by the Soviet occupying power to a total of 130 years for alleged activity as an agent, belonging to a party that was banned in the Soviet occupation zone . Stief spent his imprisonment as a political prisoner in Bautzen prison . In 1956 he was released.

Helmut Stief finally moved to Frankfurt am Main and worked there as a press and parliamentary stenographer. He wrote several shorthand textbooks and gave lessons in the system he developed , especially at adult education centers.

Work in the shorthand field

Even as a child, Helmut Stief was fascinated by the fact that a friend of his sister could write at the speed of a person. Through this experience he made the decision to learn shorthand.

Training and competition writing

In 1920 he learned the Gabelsberger shorthand . In 1922 he reached 120 syllables per minute in his first competition and won his first prize. He had done the best work in the calligraphy that was held at the same time. In 1923 he managed to win a prize with 200 syllables. At the stenographic association day of South Westphalia he received the challenge price for a writing speed of 240 syllables per minute.

At the higher commercial school in 1924, Stief had to learn the Stolze-Schrey shorthand system as a compulsory subject , with which he managed 220 syllables per minute. In the following years he also gave lessons in Stolze-Schrey.

In 1924 the German unified shorthand was created and replaced the Stolze-Schrey system while Stief was still in school at the commercial college. He had been teaching in standard abbreviation since November 1924 and had trained between 300 and 400 students by the end of 1926. In June 1925, at the age of 19, at the German Stenographers' Day in Munich , Stief achieved the maximum performance of 220 syllables in standard shorthand .

Another new German peak achievement in the still new standard shorthand was achieved by Helmut Stief on October 3, 1926 at the Association Day of Rhenish-Westphalian Stenographers in Dortmund , when he wrote 360 ​​syllables. By his own admission, he achieved this by practicing for a few hours a day. His principle was: "Success can only come through regular practice in practice, and then it will come safely."

World records by step

In the competition of the South Westphalia Association Day in January 1927, as a 20-year-old, Stief managed 440 syllables per minute, which was also the world's highest performance. He did an almost flawless job. Up until this point in time, only the Gabelsbergeraner Opfermann and the Stolze-Schreyaner Frangen managed to write at this speed in Germany. Now this also succeeded with the German unified shorthand.

Repeatedly, Stief beat his own world record, namely in 1928 in a competition at the conference of the industrial association on November 13, 1927 in Recklinghausen with 450 syllables and on March 4, 1928 at the conference of the industrial association in Essen with 480 syllables per minute. Stief held this world record for 34 years, from 1928 to 1962.

Creation of the stepography

For many years, Helmut Stief taught German unity shorthand. As a result, he came to the conclusion that the standard abbreviation has too extensive a set of rules, requires too long and too great a learning curve and is therefore difficult to learn. Stief's goal was to create a system that could be learned quickly and easily. Within eight years, Helmut Stief created a new stenography system, which he called the word play Stiefographie (to shorthand). The stepography was first published and taught in 1966. In addition to the basic typeface without abbreviations, Stief also developed a business typeface (current designation "advanced typeface") for very high writing speeds. Even though he was a senior, Stief wrote 300 syllables per minute using stepography.

By 1977, Stief had already found 40,000 followers of his system. It continues to be taught in distance learning and at adult education centers.

literature

• German Youth Association for Unified Shorthand (Ed.): Helmut Stief - Siegen, the 20 year old 360 syllable writer. In: The waiting. Journal of the German Youth Association for uniform shorthand, 10/1927, pp. 105-106.
• Stief, Helmut: Stiefography, the shorthand alphabet of the German language. Learning instructions for the basic script. Frankfurt am Main 1975, 27th edition.
• Stief, Helmut: Rational shorthand. Aufbaauschschrift I, Hanau 2006, 22nd edition.
• Stief, Helmut, among others: History of stepography. Hanau (1977) - with biography
• Association for stepography - Rationelle Kurzschrift e. V. (Ed.): Perfect stepographer. In: The lightning. The newspaper in stepography. 12/1977, p. 4.
• Vriesen, Gustav: Helmut Stiefs 480 syllable achievement. In: Deutsche Stenographenzeitung 4/1931, pp. 52–56.
• Fight for craquelure . In: Der Spiegel . No. 45 , 1966, pp. 174 ( online - October 31, 1966 , also on Helmut Stief).

Web links

• Literature by and about Helmut Stief in the catalog of the German National Library
• Hamburger Abendblatt 300/1976 (December 24, 1976), p. 22; u. a. to Stief's world record in shorthand
• stiefo compact explains briefly the rules of shorthand stepography