Objections to the reforms also arise from the fact that they are an unhappy compromise that has pleased almost no one. The traditionalists want no changes at all, while others want to see more radical changes such as eliminating the German capitalization of all nouns (a reform proposal dating back to 1924; see the BVR Web link on right). The 1996 reforms went too far for some and not far enough for others.
While I can understand their frustration, I think many Germans forget that the reforms have never meant that people can't continue to write German any way they wish. There are no "spelling police"! Indeed, most adult Germans never changed their spelling habits at all. The only people compelled to use the new rules (after 2005) are those in government agencies and schools. Most German writers of note have clung to the old rules, publishing their works in the "classic" pre-1996 format. Even if you look at the magazines or newspapers reverting to the old spelling, you have to look hard to notice the few German words that are affected by the rule changes. I think Germans would be wiser to worry more about the growing influence of English on their language rather than spelling reform. After all, isn't Germany's second largest news magazine called "Focus"? (Ironically, Focus says it will stick with the new spelling.)
Hurra, damit wird das Chaos wohl perfekt! (Hurray, now the chaos is truly perfect!) - Comment from a reader on the 'Spiegel' decision
After years of living with the reforms, not everyone is in favor of a return to the old spelling and punctuation rules. They fear a state of confusion and chaos, in which there will be no rules for spelling German at all. While that may be an exaggeration, it's worth asking if a return to the "classic" spelling would really be better than the current situation. Things could get truly chaotic if Germany's newspapers, magazines, and other media are free to pick and choose which rules to drop and which to keep. Would that really be an improvement for readers or listeners?
The German TV broadcaster ARD doesn't think so. In an editorial at ARD's "tagesschau" Web site, Reinhard Hübsch wrote: "Die Rechtschreibreform ist unumkehrbar." ("Spelling reform is not reversible.") The SWR correspondent observed that even if most people want to go back, there are simply too many factors working against reversal of the reforms, not the least of which would be the huge cost. If textbook, dictionary, book, and other publishers had to return to the pre-1996 spelling and punctuation rules, Germany's consumers, taxpayers, cities, and states (Bundesländer) are in no financial position to undertake the massive expense of replacing almost everything in print today. Dropping the reforms would add up to millions of euros at a time when Germany's schools have already cut expenditures because of low state budgets.
Hübsch also points out that people can continue to spell the way they want to, as they have during the eight years of reform up to now. But if the expensive reversal were to take place, what would change? Not much. ("Aber was wird sich ändern? Nicht viel.") He concludes, "All the excitement over spelling reform is baseless. It will come - and thirty years from now many people will still be writing dass with an ß."
So who's right? Will spelling reform be long gone 30 years from now, or will Germans in 2034 wonder what all the fuss was about back in 2004? ("Was soll das ganze Theater?") I'm reminded of 1993, when post-Wall Germany was getting ready to convert all of its old East/West four-digit postal codes to new unified five-digit codes. German friends and acquaintances kept telling me what a disaster it would be and how it was never going to work. A month after the new five-digit codes went into effect no one was even talking about them.
Spelling reform is different in that everyone is still talking about it, but only time will tell if the reforms will stick or not. Will this new revolt of several more German periodicals spell the end of spelling reform? Is spelling more like Prohibition in the US, or the 1993 German postal code changes? As I wrote in an earlier article, even in follow-the-rules Germany it may not be possible to change the German language by edict.