German Orthographic Conference of 1901

{{Short description|German conference}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}

The German Orthographic Conference of 1901 (the Berlin II Orthographic Conference; {{langx|de|Zweite Orthographische Konferenz}} or {{lang|de|II. Orthographische Konferenz}}) was a conference of orthography that took place in Berlin 17-19 June 1901. The results of the conference became official in the German Empire in 1902.Peter von Polenz: Deutsche Sprachgeschichte vom Spätmittelalter bis zur Gegenwart – Band III – 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Walter de Gruyter, 1999, p. 240Wolfgang Kopke: Rechtschreibreform und Verfassungsrecht. J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck) Tübingen, 1995, p. 28Edited by Werner Besch, Anne Betten, Oskar Reichmann, Stefan Sonderegger: Sprachgeschichte: Ein Handbuch zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und ihrer Erforschung – 2., vollständig neu bearbeitete und erweiterte Auflage – 3. Teilband (Hanbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft, Band 2.3), Walter de Gruyter, 2003, p. 2495 (chapter "Geschichte der Interpunktionssysteme im Deutschen").

The standardized German spelling that resulted from the conference was largely based on the Prussian school spelling, but also on the Orthographic Conference of 1876.

The conference results removed numerous existing variant forms.

Soon after the conference, its results were criticized by people{{who|date=June 2015}} who believed there should be further changes.{{clarify|date=March 2018}}

The spelling was used in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, apart from the replacement of {{lang|de|ß}} with {{lang|de|ss}} in Switzerland in later years.

The {{lang|de|Erziehungsrat des Kantons Zürich}} stopped the teaching of ß in schools in 1935 with the Canton of Zürich being the first to do so, and the {{lang|de|Neue Zürcher Zeitung}} as the last Swiss newspaper stopped using {{lang|de|ß}} in 1974. However, some Swiss book publishers still use {{lang|de|ß}}.Ulrich Ammon: Die deutsche Sprache in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz. Das Problem der nationalen Varietäten. Walter de Gruyter, 1995, p. 254Edited by Gerhard Helbig, Lutz Götze, Gert Henrici, Hans-Jürgen Krumm: Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Ein internationales Handbuch. 1. Halbband. Walter de Gruyter, 2001, p. 496f.

It was not until 95 years later that German spelling was changed again with the German spelling reform of 1996.