At its meeting in Munich on Tuesday, the cabinet decided on the necessary changes to the General Rules of Procedure for the Authorities of the Free State of Bavaria (AGO). The AGO already obliged the state authorities and thus also the schools to apply the official regulations for German spelling in official correspondence, but this regulation has now been “added to clarify” it, it said.
“Language must be clear and understandable”
“For us the clear message is that language must be clear and understandable,” said State Chancellor Florian Herrmann (CSU). But the ban is also about “keeping the spaces of discourse open in a liberal society.” On the other hand, ideologically influenced language, for example when it comes to gender, has an exclusionary effect. In certain social milieus there are also many missionary users in the use of language that are not compatible with an open society.
Accordingly, multi-gender spellings using internal word symbols such as gender gap, gender star, colon or media point are expressly inadmissible. “This applies regardless of any future decisions by the German Spelling Council on the question of the use of special characters,” the State Chancellery said.
“It is clear that teachers have to adhere to it,” emphasized Herrmann. In all official correspondence, including letters for parents and all internal communication and also in lessons. This is a clear and consistent line, “which we are pursuing with a sense of proportion.” It is particularly important to the state government that no one is disadvantaged if he or she forgoes gender-sensitive language.
Special characters inside the word “not recommended”
The Council for German Spelling most recently did not recommend the use of special characters inside words in a decision of December 15, 2023 and pointed out that these are interventions in word formation, grammar and orthography that can impair the comprehensibility of texts.
The official regulation of spelling is also the basis for teaching in Bavarian schools. The Ministry of Culture will therefore inform schools about the new, more precise requirements for the use of gender language in schools and lessons that also apply to them.
