Deutsch
Österreich
Italiano
English
Français
Español
Nederlands
Português
Polski
Duden
Short biography: Konrad Alexander Friedrich Duden
The philologist Konrad Alexander Friedrich Duden (01/03/1829 - 08/01/1911) tried throughout his life to standardize German spelling.
Konrad Duden attended high school in Wesel from 1837 to 1846, where he graduated from high school. He then studied philosophy, classical philology and German languages ​​and literature in Bonn. After successfully completing his teaching examination in 1854, he initially worked as a private tutor in Frankfurt am Main and in Genoa. From 1859 he taught at the grammar school in Soest, where he was appointed prorector. His reform efforts were already evident, for example, in the fact that he replaced traditional Hebrew classes with English classes.
In 1968 he moved to Schleiz (Thuringia) as a high school director, where the spelling problems of his time became clear to him. Every high school, every publishing house and every office had agreed internally on their own house orthography, since there was no overriding regulation in the German Empire, founded in 1871. In the following year, Konrad Duden presented his views on the subject in the publication \"Die deutsche Rechtschriften\", to which he attached a dictionary with rules. Thus, Konrad Duden made a name for himself as an expert on orthographic issues. In 1876 he was invited to the 1st Orthographic Conference, where he acted as a representative of the moderate phonetic trend, which was mainly based on the formula \"Write as you speak\". Duden found this to be democratic because, in his opinion, it was the best way for everyone (regardless of social background and education) to learn orthography. Duden rejected the historical principle preferred by his opponents, which was mainly based on the spelling of Middle High German, as aristocratic. The conference failed and the resolutions were rejected by the majority of the members of the Bundesrat of the German Reich, which resulted in individual measures being taken by the federal states.
Konrad Duden (from 1876 he headed the Königliches Gymnasium, Hersfeld) recognized that uniform regulation was not possible without the consent of Prussia. In 1880 he wrote his \"Complete Orthographic Dictionary of the German Language\". This dictionary, which is based on the Prussian rules and includes the Bavarian rules, was published by Verlag Bibliographic Institute, Leipzig. This was mainly intended to enforce uniform school orthography, but with its approximately 27,000 keywords it could also be used outside of school. Thus, the basis for a uniform German spelling was created, which is why Konrad Duden is considered its \"father\" today. The dictionary quickly caught on and was published in a total of 6 editions by the turn of the century. These were mostly edited by Konrad Duden alone.
In 1901, representatives of the German federal states and Austria-Hungary came together for the 2nd Orthographic Conference, in which Konrad Duden also took part. The German culture ministers then agreed on a uniform spelling, and Austria and Switzerland followed suit. This should become official from 1903. The result of the conference was to be quickly incorporated into the \"Orthoographic Dictionary of the German Language\", which is why the Konrad Duden publishing house provided a number of employees. Thus the Duden editorial team was born, which continued to develop his dictionary even after his death.
From 1902 (with the 7th edition) Konrad Duden\'s work was actually the definitive dictionary for German spelling, and the 8th edition in 1905 was still edited under Konrad Duden. Even after he had retired from teaching, he continued to devote himself to his life\'s work.When he died on August 1st, 1911, the almost finished manuscript for the 9th edition of the Duden was lying on his desk. This was published in 1915 under the title \"Duden - spelling of the German language and foreign words\". This standard work has remained the recognized dictionary for German orthography to this day.
After his death, Konrad Duden was erected a monument in Bad Hersfeld. His \"Ur Duden\" became the classic \"Duden - The German Spelling\" with meanwhile 130,000 keywords. Thus, the \"Duden\" is still the most important reference work for all linguistic doubts in the entire German-speaking area.
