{"id":11129,"date":"2019-10-10T11:00:11","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T11:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=11129"},"modified":"2019-10-16T19:33:47","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T19:33:47","slug":"how-and-why-to-write-the-s-in-all-caps-in-german","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/how-and-why-to-write-the-s-in-all-caps-in-german\/","title":{"rendered":"How and Why To Write The \u00df in All Caps In German"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’ve been learning German, you’ve probably come across the weird symbols in German. From the\u00a0Umlauts<\/a> \u00e4, \u00f6, \u00fc\u00a0<\/em>to the\u00a0Eszett\u00a0<\/em>(\u00df<\/em>). When it comes to\u00a0gro\u00dfschreiben\u00a0<\/em>(capitalizing) these special symbols, it’s pretty easy with the\u00a0Umlauts<\/em>: \u00c4, \u00d6, \u00dc<\/em>. But the \u00df<\/em>? There’s more of a story than you might think! Let’s dive in.<\/p>\n

First of all, what would we even call this thing? In German, you can call it:<\/p>\n

das gro\u00dfe \u1e9e<\/em><\/p>\n

das gro\u00dfe scharfe S<\/em><\/p>\n

das versale \u00df<\/em><\/p>\n

das gro\u00dfe SZ<\/em><\/p>\n

das gro\u00dfe Eszett<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00df-Majuskel<\/em><\/p>\n

Quite a list. They all just come down to a\u00a0big \u1e9e<\/strong>. So we’ll simply call it gro\u00dfes \u1e9e<\/em> in the following.<\/p>\n

So what happened to this\u00a0gro\u00dfes \u1e9e<\/em>, and why is it even worth writing a post about?<\/p>\n

A\u00a0Streit\u00a0<\/em>About Nothing?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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A Plenarsitzung<\/em> (plenary session) in the German Reichsparlament<\/em> (Reich Parliament) in 1912 (Image public domain, from Commons.wikimedia.org)<\/p><\/div>\n

For more than 2 Jahrhunderte <\/em>(centuries), Germans led a Debatte\u00a0<\/em>(debate) about the\u00a0Schrift<\/em> (script) of the German language. There were those pleading for the ungebrochene Schrift\u00a0<\/em>(unbroken script) Antiqua<\/em>, and the gebrochene Schrift <\/em>(broken-up script), in Germany also known as Fraktur<\/em>.\u00a0Fraktur <\/em>consists of the typical ornate blackletter typefaces typical of the early Buchdruck <\/em>(letter press). Antiqua<\/em>, developed in the 15th Jahrhundert<\/em>, only became more popular in Germany in the 18th and 19th Jahrhundert<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The difference between gebrochene<\/em> and ungebrochene Schrift <\/em>lies in how the roundings of the letters look. Compare the u\u00a0<\/em>and the\u00a0t\u00a0<\/em>below. The lines of the u\u00a0<\/em>are “broken up” where the lines of the letter bend in Fraktur<\/em>. In\u00a0Antiqua<\/em>, the lines follow a round shape, they flow – hence\u00a0ungebrochen<\/em>. Fraktur also uses more ornate capital letters, compare the\u00a0F\u00a0<\/em>and the\u00a0A\u00a0<\/em>in the two words.<\/p>\n

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Fraktur<\/em>, written in the Fraktur<\/em> font style (Image by Manuel Strehl at Commons.wikimedia.org under license CC BY SA 3.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

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Antiqua<\/em>, written in the Antiqua<\/em> font style (Image by Manuel Strehl at Commons.wikimedia.org under license CC BY SA 3.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

The\u00a0Streit<\/em> was about aesthetics, nostalgia and nationalism.\u00a0Fraktur\u00a0<\/em>was not used much elsewhere in Europe, and so it is sometimes referred to as “German script”. Foreign works, especially the influential French stuff from the Aufkl\u00e4rung <\/em>(Enlightenment) era and works coming after the French Revolution, were set in Antiqua<\/em>. In 1911, this Streit <\/em>peaked when the German Parliament hotly debated whether to adopt Antiqua <\/em>or to stick with Fraktur<\/em> as the official German font. Antiqua <\/em>lost narrowly by 85-82.<\/p>\n

And so the\u00a0Streit\u00a0<\/em>quibbled on. Until we arrived at a strange moment of history in 1943: one of the worst people that ever lived actually ended<\/span> a dispute!<\/p>\n

You see, when the Nazis occupied territories outside of the German-reading world, they also exported their Schrift. <\/em>Which was Fraktur<\/em>! The people in occupied territories were often used to\u00a0Antiqua<\/em>, and so that German stuff was simply hard to read. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, wanted to publish the\u00a0Wochenzeitung\u00a0<\/em>(weekly paper)\u00a0Das Reich<\/em>. A paper made for people in occupied lands, too. And to make sure the intended audience would actually read it, he set it in Antiqua<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In 1941, then, Hitler made the decision that not only material intended for foreigners was going to be set, but everything!<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, Hitler blamed the Jews for Fraktur<\/em>. He said Fraktur\u00a0<\/em>consists of Schwabische Judenlettern <\/em>(Swabian Jew letters), which is entirely made up. Fraktur<\/em> was invented by Christians. But it gave him a convenient scapegoat.1<\/a><\/sup>Hitler himself also disliked the gothic-inspired Fraktur<\/em>. According to Hitler, it was not fitting for a time of iron and steel.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The German Apotheken<\/em> (pharmacies) use a Fraktur<\/em> “A” as their logo to this day (Image by Concord at Commons.wikimedia.org under license CC BY SA 4.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

Anyway, from then on, Antiqua <\/em>was to be the Normal-Schrift\u00a0<\/em>(normal script)! And slowly, but surely,\u00a0Fraktur\u00a0<\/em>largely disappeared from Germany.2<\/a><\/sup>It is now really a remnant of past times, an artifact of German history. Some Fraktur<\/em> fonts are even specifically seen as being Nazi fonts. <\/span><\/p>\n

How did we get the\u00a0gro\u00dfe \u1e9e?<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Majuskelschrift in Fraktur (above) and Antiqua (below) (Image by author)<\/p><\/div>\n

So that tangent about the\u00a0Streit\u00a0<\/em>between Antiqua<\/em> and Fraktur\u00a0<\/em>actually matters for our\u00a0gro\u00dfes \u1e9e.\u00a0<\/em>Normally to highlight a certain part of a text, you can put it in Majuskelschrift <\/em>(all-caps script). However, with the ornate Gro\u00dfbuchstaben <\/em>(capital letters) of Fraktur<\/em>, you couldn’t really do that. So in the\u00a0Fraktur<\/em> times, it was conventional to use Sperrsatz <\/em>(spacing) to highlight text.<\/p>\n

But you see, then Antiqua <\/em>became more popular. Which actually allowed you to use Majuskelschrift<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And that’s all fine. But here’s the thing:<\/p>\n

German words have never began with a\u00a0\u00df<\/em>. So a\u00a0Gro\u00dfes \u1e9e\u00a0<\/em>was never necessary with\u00a0Fraktur<\/em>. But then\u00a0Antiqua\u00a0<\/em>came around, and even became normal in Nazi times and beyond.3<\/a><\/sup>There was a Streit <\/em>too about introducing the gro\u00dfe \u1e9e <\/em>that started at the end of the 19th century.<\/span> What to do when you write a word like Stra\u00dfe\u00a0<\/em>in all caps?<\/p>\n

Of course, we\u00a0stritten <\/em>(fought) about that, too.<\/p>\n

It began at the end of the 19th\u00a0Jahrhundert<\/em>. Shouldn’t we introduce a\u00a0gro\u00dfe \u1e9e\u00a0<\/em>into the German language?<\/p>\n

Well, we didn’t for a long time. And during that time, a\u00a0gro\u00dfes \u1e9e\u00a0<\/em>was written either as the regular\u00a0\u00df (STRA\u00dfE),\u00a0<\/em>more commonly with double S (STRASSE)\u00a0<\/em>or, where\u00a0SS\u00a0<\/em>would be confusing, with\u00a0SZ\u00a0<\/em>(STRASZE<\/em>).<\/p>\n

That was the rule for a full century. In 2006 then, with the neue deutsche Rechtschreibung\u00a0<\/em>(new German spelling rules), it simply became:<\/p>\n

Bei Schreibung mit Gro\u00dfbuchstaben schreibt man SS<\/em><\/p>\n

(When writing a capital letter, one writes\u00a0SS<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Why? Simply because the board that sets these rules doesn’t simply invent new\u00a0symbols, they said.<\/p>\n

But the development took up steam, and in the reform of 2017, the above became the following:<\/p>\n

Bei Schreibung von Gro\u00dfbuchstaben schreibt man\u00a0SS. Daneben ist auch die Verwendung des Gro\u00dfbuchstabens\u00a0\u1e9e\u00a0m\u00f6glich. Beispiel:\u00a0Stra\u00dfe\u00a0\u2013\u00a0STRASSE\u00a0\u2013\u00a0STRA\u1e9eE.<\/em><\/p>\n

(When writing a capital letter, one writes\u00a0SS<\/em>. Furthermore, using the capital letter \u1e9e is possible. Example: Stra\u00dfe \u2013 STRASSE \u2013 STRA\u1e9eE.<\/em>)<\/em><\/p>\n

So we have a large variant of the \u00df\u00a0<\/em>in the German Rechtschreibung\u00a0<\/em>(spelling rules) now!<\/p>\n

How to write the \u1e9e<\/em>?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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A normal \u00df<\/em> left and a capital \u1e9e<\/em> right (Image by author)<\/p><\/div>\n

The difference between the\u00a0\u00df\u00a0<\/em>and the \u1e9e\u00a0<\/em>is that the\u00a0gro\u00dfe \u1e9e\u00a0<\/em>is in line with the height of surrounding\u00a0Gro\u00dfbuchstaben<\/em>, and it is a bulged version of the normal\u00a0\u00df<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Depending on the font, the gro\u00dfe \u1e9e <\/em>even adds in a little Fraktur<\/em>-flair, by breaking the upper curve. Like in the picture above. I recommend doing this when writing by hand, since it really sets the small and capital letters apart.<\/p>\n

How to write it in a word processor?<\/p>\n

You can either use the numpad combination, holding ALT and typing 7838 on your numpad, and releasing ALT.<\/p>\n

If you don’t have a numpad, you can always resort to the quick and dirty copy-paste by searching it online.<\/p>\n

Or, if you have a German keyboard, you can get there with a key combination (on Windows, that is).<\/p>\n

Normally, you get a capital letter by holding SHIFT and typing the letter. On German keyboards, holding SHIFT and typing the \u00df gives you a ?. Not what we want. When holding SHIFT + ALT GR + \u00df, you get the \u1e9e!<\/p>\n

Have you used the gro\u00dfes \u1e9e<\/em> before? What do you think about writing it big like this, or do you prefer the SS variant? Let me know in the comments below!<\/strong><\/p>\n