Daniel spotted this on the The Observer site and thought you should see it.

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Note from Daniel:

Los alemanes se resistes a las reformas ortográficas planificadas por un comité
lingüí­stico del gobierno! (Dedicado a todos nuestros planificadores
lingüísticos).
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To see this story with its related links on the The Observer site, go to
http://www.observer.co.uk

Germans bridle at language law
Luke Harding in Berlin
Sunday August 08 2004
The Observer


It is the language of Goethe, the Brothers Grimm and Bertolt Brecht. But an
official attempt to reform German has provoked an unprecedented denunciation of
the changes by writers, publishers and literary critics as 'stupid and
confusing'.

A committee of bureaucrats introduced the reforms - known as neue
Rechtschreibung, or new spelling - six years ago to make the complex language
easier to learn. Since then opposition to the changes has grown. It culminated
in Germany's two leading publishing houses, Axel Springer and Der Spiegel,
announcing on Friday that their publications would revert to the old spelling.

The reforms had failed, the publishers said, providing neither 'enlightenment
nor simplicity'. They urged other newspapers to follow the example of the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which had gone back to old spelling.

Leading literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki dismissed the changes last week as
a 'national catastrophe'. In an essay, he declared: 'Chaos has broken out ... In
no other major European country is the gap so deep between the language of the
people and the language of literature.'

Günter Grass and other members of Germany's literary establishment have
refused to allow their books to be printed using the new forms. Even page three
girls have joined the rebellion. A model called Theresa, wearing only orange
knickers, told Axel Springer's tabloid Bild she had her doubts about the wisdom
of abandoning classical German orthography.

Under the new rules, the old-fashioned double S or S-Zett in German - which
looks like a fat B - has been replaced in some cases with a double 'ss'. Other
words have been capitalised for the first time, while compound verbs like
radfahren - to ride a bike - have been split up, into Rad fahren.

Although the changes only affect 5 per cent of the vocabulary, they have
provoked widespread confusion. They also appear to have been rejected by most
Germans. But Professor Rudolf Hoberg, a member of the committee that introduced
the changes, was unapologetic. 'The changes are sensible. They make German
simpler. I believe the language is substantially better off as a result.'

Others are unconvinced. 'The reforms are simply stupid. These sorts of things
happen when the state meddles in areas which shouldn't concern it,' Dr Friedrich
Dietman, a writer and the vice-president of Saxony's Academy of Arts, said.

Germany's leaders have already gone over to the new spelling, which from next
August will become compulsory for every German official. But there are signs of
a growing political revolt, with the heads of three of the federal states - all
of them run by the right-wing opposition CDU party - announcing that they want
to go back to the old rules. The federal culture ministers will discuss the
subject in October.

What would Goethe, and other dead German authors, have made of the row? 'We only
agreed on a unified German spelling a century ago,' Roberg said. 'Goethe spelled
his name several different ways. I don't think he would have cared.'

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