Will “C for Caesar” and “E for Emil” be over soon? A new DIN standard could bring some cities in Germany on everyone’s lips – such as Cottbus, Essen, Nuremberg and Unna.
Berlin / Nuremberg – “Cottbus” instead of “Caesar” and “Iserlohn” instead of “Ida”? 26 cities in Germany can look forward to their names being included in the administrative alphabet.
“Because then the name of our city will be on everyone’s lips,” said a spokesman for the city of Nuremberg, which in future could stand for the letter “N” (instead of “North Pole”). The German Institute for Standardization (DIN) is working on a new version of the spelling table for business and administration with place names instead of first names.
DIN 5009 regulates which words are used to clarify letters when dictating. It is mainly used in business and administration, rescue services, police or aviation are not affected. Use is not mandatory, but it does appear in training courses and textbooks. It comprises 32 letters and groups of letters – from A for Ausgburg to Z for Zwickau, as well as “Ch”, “Sch”, “Eszett” and the three umlauts Ä, Ö, Ü.
City names as a compromise
So far, first names (“D for Dora”, “E for Emil”) have been used – 16 men’s and only six women’s names. “That does not correspond to today’s reality”, announced the institute. It is not possible to present all relevant ethnic and religious groups and then also to be gender-balanced. City names are a good compromise.
The design focuses primarily on places that have a car license plate with a letter. Attempts have been made to select the West German and East German federal states in a balanced manner. Chemnitz, Görlitz, Jena and five other of the 26 cities represent the federal states in eastern Germany. In addition, “Vogtland” is the only region under the designation as well as Berlin with the letter B.
The front runner with seven cities – such as Essen, Cologne and Wuppertal – is North Rhine-Westphalia, followed by Bavaria with four – for example Munich and Augsburg. The Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, Bremen, Hamburg and Saxony-Anhalt are left empty-handed according to the current status.
With “Eszett” and “Ypsilon” the simple designation of the letters remains. The umlauts are no longer called “annoyance”, “economist” and “arrogance”, but umlaut-A, umlaut-O and umlaut-U.
Joy in the cities
Many cities are delighted: “As a comparatively small city, we would particularly benefit from the associated level of awareness,” said Tübingen.
“DIN 5009 is currently being revised – and we are part of it,” said Regensburg’s Second Mayor Astrid Freudenstein in the “Mittelbayerische Zeitung”.
“We’re surprised, but it’s nice that Unna has been thought of,” said a city spokesman. The choice is likely due to the fact that “there aren’t that many cities with a U”. “When it becomes part of everyday language, everyone is talking about Xanten,” said the city in North Rhine-Westphalia. “O for Oldenburg, it sounds really good and between Nuremberg and Potsdam we feel really well looked after,” said a spokesman for the Lower Saxony city.
DIN has been working on the new dictation rules since last autumn. The reform was triggered by Michael Blume, Baden-Württemberg’s anti-Semitism officer. It bothers him that the current board still contains relics from the time of the National Socialists. In 1934 they removed all Jewish names: David became Dora, Nathan Nordpol, and Samuel Siegfried. The board was revised several times after 1945. But Nathan stayed outside, the North Pole inside – now it could become Nuremberg. The city announced that it was precisely because of the city’s history that the advance was welcomed.
The version with the place names presented at the end of July is a draft. Those interested can contact the German Institute for Standardization with ideas and comments. The final version is expected in mid-2022. dpa
