We teachers against the spelling reform

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The initiative "We teachers against the spelling reform" was a nationwide citizens' initiative of German teachers who opposed the spelling reform of 1996 .

History and activities

The citizens' initiative was founded on February 20, 1997 in Nuremberg by German teachers from various federal states.

The initiative expressed its opinion in letters to the editor, cover letters to politicians and state organs and in contributions to discussions. In doing so, she worked with the citizens' initiative “ We against the spelling reform ”, in particular with study director Friedrich Denk from Weilheim in Upper Bavaria. The coordinator was the Nuremberg senior teacher Manfred Riebe.

From this initiative, decentralized regional teacher initiatives were formed in Baden-Württemberg , Bavaria , Berlin , Hesse , Lower Saxony , North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate , as well as the Schwerte foreign language teacher initiative, the Mainz university teacher initiative and the Berlin university working group "Cultural Self-Determination" . In May 1997, some of the members organized themselves into the Association for German Orthography and Language Maintenance. V. (VRS).

On February 25, 1997, the initiative sent a petition to the Conference of Ministers of Education , requesting that the spelling reform be withdrawn. The teachers claimed that the reform was reducing the quality of the written language. The representatives of the people were ignored and the budget committees of the federal and state governments , the federal audit office and the state audit offices were not involved. The teachers weren't even asked.

When the ministers of education did not deal with the petition and instead demanded a ban on petitions , the initiative called on the ministers of education to resign. This generated a greater response from the press. The Bavarian Ministry of Culture under Hans Zehetmair argued in a press release on March 4, 1997 against the initiative that these teachers had not performed their official duties in the past two years (1995–1997), that they had not familiarized themselves with the proposed new regulations and were only now " awakened from deep sleep ”.

After the unsuccessful petition to the Conference of Ministers of Education from 27./28. In February 1997 the teachers' initiative wrote another petition to the German Bundestag to withdraw the spelling reform. In Laufach , the further posting of the petition to the German Bundestag on the bulletin board was prohibited after nine Laufach teachers had signed the petition to the Bundestag.

The teachers' initiative started on October 11, 1997 at the poetry reading “For the unity of orthography” with Ota Filip , Wulf Kirsten , Reiner Kunze , Loriot , Gerhard Ruiss, Albert v. Schirnding in appearance, which Friedrich Denk had organized in Weilheim in Upper Bavaria . There, the publisher Matthias Dräger presented a documentation of 21 initiatives of the grassroots movement against the spelling reform that the teacher initiatives and the VRS had jointly published: “ The 'silent' protest. Resistance to the spelling reform in the shadow of the public ”.

On January 23, 1998, the initiative was represented at the Mannheim hearing of the Interstate Commission for German Spelling by its then member Theodor Ickler . Almost all proponents of the reform were invited. The conversation took place on the premises of the Institute for German Language (IDS).

At the invitation of FDP chairman Wolfgang Gerhardt to prepare for the session of the German Bundestag on the spelling reform on March 26, 1998, Theodor Ickler (teachers' initiative), Werner H. Veith (Mainz university teachers' initiative) and Manfred Riebe (teachers' initiative and VRS) traveled on February 6, 1998 together for a conversation about the spelling reform in Bonn and gave him a lecture on the problem. Gerhardt, former President of the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs, complained that there has not yet been an institution similar to the Académie Française in Germany that protects the “ elegance of written language ” against such “ pimples on the face ”.

On March 26, 1998, the German Bundestag passed the resolution: “ It is true that the spelling of the German language can ultimately only be learned regularly. However, the standardization required for this may only take up the development of the language that has arisen and documented through social agreement in the German-speaking area, but cannot itself regulate it sovereignly and thus force changes. The language belongs to the people. The state is limited to establishing procedures for determining the language actually used. "

The rector of the Carl Zeiss Oberschule Berlin-Lichtenrade, Gisa Berger, the head of the Berlin teachers 'initiative against the spelling reform, received the Citizens' Oscar 1998 from the Passauer Neue Presse on February 12, 1998 as part of a large gala in the Prince-Bishop's Opera House in Passau for moral courage for their stand against the spelling reform. The laudator was the writer and former PEN President Gert Heidenreich .

In November 1997 the Federal Constitutional Court requested the initiative to submit a written statement in the context of a constitutional complaint by a couple from Kiel against the spelling reform. For this purpose, the Federal Constitutional Court sent a detailed catalog of questions. The main processor of the questionnaire was Helma Dietz, director of studies and German studies at the Josef-Hofmiller-Gymnasium in Freising, who, as a specialist supervisor in German, had been given insight into the work of colleagues and trainee teachers and into many school assignments since 1972.

The initiative was then represented by Theodor Ickler on May 12, 1998 together with the VRS at the hearing by the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe. Until December 1998 Ickler was a member of the teachers' initiative and the association for German spelling and language maintenance.

It was also the initiative's teachers who founded the Berlin Association for German Spelling and Language Care (BVR) in 1997 and the Association for Language Care in 2000 . V. (VfS), 2002 the German language research group. V. (FDS) and in 2004 the Council for German Spelling e. V. (RDR).

literature

  • Manfred Riebe; Norbert Schäbler; Tobias Loew (Ed.): The "silent" protest. Opposition to the spelling reform in the shadow of the public . St. Goar: Leibniz-Verlag, 1997, 298 pages, ISBN 3-931155-10-2 . Documentation of 21 initiatives against the spelling reform.
  • Gert Heidenreich : A timely one. Laudation for the award of the Citizen Oscar 1998 for special achievements to Ms. Gisa Berger . In: Passauer Neue Presse 14./15. February 1998, p. 34
  • Theodor Ickler: Critical commentary on the 'new regulation of German spelling' , with an appendix to the 'Mannheim hearing', 2nd reviewed and exp. Edition, Erlangen and Jena: Verlag Palm & Enke, 1999, 289 pages, ISBN 3-7896-0992-7 (Erlanger Studies, Volume 116) - PDF
  • Helma Dietz among others: The spelling reform in school practice. Statement of the nationwide initiative "We teachers against the spelling reform" on the questionnaire of the Federal Constitutional Court on the spelling reform for the hearing on May 12, 1998 , 18 pages. Excerpts from: Association for German Spelling and Language Maintenance e. V. (VRS): Our fight against the spelling reform, referendum in Schleswig-Holstein, Nuremberg 1998, pp. 10-13

See also

Web links

Supporting documents and comments

  1. ^ Association for German Spelling and Language Maintenance e. V. (VRS): Our fight against the spelling reform, referendum in Schleswig-Holstein , processing and commentary: Manfred Riebe, Nuremberg 1998, p. 33 f.
  2. Berlin University Working Group "Cultural Self-Determination" ( Memento from June 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Petition from the teachers' initiative as an open letter to the Conference of Ministers of Education
  4. Günter Ott: The gezauste spelling reform. Augsburg: Zabel against Denk . In: Augsburger Zeitung of February 27, 1997. Quote: " While an initiative by Bavarian teachers in an open letter to the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (meeting today in Bonn) called for the reform to be withdrawn ... "
  5. dpa: Teachers and ministers are fighting over the spelling reform . In: Main-Echo, Aschaffenburg March 5, 1997
  6. Awakened from deep sleep, press release from the Bavarian Ministry of Culture of March 4, 1997
  7. ^ With literature and sarcasm against the unpopular reform. Well-known German authors read “For the unity of orthography” in Weilheim . In: Weilheimer Tagblatt of October 13, 1997. Quote: " Thanks and joy to the numerous supporters of the initiative founded by Denk" WIR against the spelling reform ", confidence that it will 'fail because of its miserability'. This confidence was also shared by Denk's committed colleagues ...: Matthias Dräger, who initiated a referendum in Schleswig-Holstein, Prof. Carsten Ahrens and his wife Gabriele Ruta, who did the same for Lower Saxony, the Swiss journalist Stefan Aerni, who Pedagogue Manfred Riebe and high school student Johannes Weller, who mobilized teachers and students nationwide against the reform. "
  8. ^ Theodor Ickler: Regelungsgewalt , 2001, p. 136
  9. German Bundestag Printed Matter 13/10183, 13.Wahlperiode, March 24, 1998, Decision Recommendation and Report of the Legal Committee (6th Committee), spelling in the Federal Republic of Germany PDF
  10. Gert Heidenreich: A timely one. Laudation for the award of the Citizen Oscar 1998 for special achievements to Ms. Gisa Berger . In: Passauer Neue Presse from 14./15. February 1998, p. 34
  11. ^ Helma Dietz et al: The spelling reform in school practice. Statement of the nationwide initiative "We teachers against the spelling reform" on the questionnaire of the Federal Constitutional Court on the spelling reform for the hearing on May 12, 1998 , excerpt from: Verein für deutsche Rechtschreibung und Sprachpflege e. V. (VRS): Our fight against the spelling reform, referendum in Schleswig-Holstein , Nuremberg 1998, pp. 10-13.
  12. ^ Association for German Spelling and Language Care eV (VRS): Our fight against the spelling reform, referendum in Schleswig-Holstein , processing and commentary: Manfred Riebe, Nuremberg 1998, pp. 15 f., 29 f.