Not sure who decides how you spell German words? The council for german orthography, backed by six German-speaking states and regions, maintains the official rules. They have been binding for schools and administration since 1 July 2024.
This page belongs to the german language guide, where related explainers on German writing are collected.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Council founded | 2004 |
| Supporting members | 6 state bodies, plus Luxembourg in an advisory role |
| Current rulebook binding for schools and administration | Since 1 July 2024 |
| Size of the official wordlist | About 7,000 entries |
| Text collection behind the wordlist | More than 14 billion word occurrences |
| Deadline for binding use in German schools | School year 2027/28 at the latest |
These figures come from the council’s page on rules and wordlist and from the KMK notice of 12 July 2024. They can change, so check the sources before you rely on them.
What the council is and who backs it
The Council for German Orthography (Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung) was set up in 2004 as the successor to the Intergovernmental Commission for German Orthography. It builds on the Vienna declaration of intent of 1 July 1996, according to the KMK’s July 2024 notice.
Six bodies carry the council, as listed in the same notice:
- the Federal Republic of Germany,
- the Republic of Austria,
- the Swiss Confederation,
- the autonomous province of Bolzano-South Tyrol,
- the German-speaking Community of Belgium,
- the Principality of Liechtenstein.
Luxembourg is represented with an advisory voice only. That mix explains why the rulebook speaks of standard German “with its country-specific forms” rather than of one national variety.
The council’s task is to keep spelling uniform across the German-speaking area and to develop it only as far as is essential. That includes constantly watching how people write, clarifying doubtful cases and preparing evidence-based proposals for changes to the rulebook.
Its office sits at the Leibniz Institute for the German Language in Mannheim, as shown in the council’s press release of 3 July 2024.
How a spelling change becomes binding
The council proposes, but it does not decide alone. Its proposals only gain binding force for schools and public administration when the responsible state bodies approve them, as the KMK notice explains.
The latest revision shows the path step by step:
- The council observes writing practice and works out a draft. The wordlist has been built since 2017 on observations from the Orthographic Core Corpus at the Leibniz Institute.
- Affected institutions are heard on the draft. For the latest revision, this hearing ran from August to October 2023.
- The council adopts the final version. It did so on 15 December 2023 in Mainz, according to its press release of 15 December 2023.
- The state bodies approve. According to the council’s July 2024 release, they had agreed by the end of June 2024.
- Transitional periods apply. They are organised by the state bodies themselves.
In Germany, the KMK (Kultusministerkonferenz) is one of the two responsible state bodies and had approved the revision at the end of April. Its notice of 12 July 2024 says binding use in schools should follow by the 2027/28 school year at the latest.
What did the 2024 revision change?
The council has proposed updates to the rulebook three times since 2004, published in 2011, 2017 and 2024, according to its rules page. The 2024 version is a fundamental reworking: the wordlist, which had stayed largely unchanged since 1996 apart from small adjustments, was replaced by a new concept.
The council’s own summaries highlight these points:
- New loanwords entered the wordlist, such as timen, mailen, liken, Cappuccino and Fake News in several spellings (July 2024 release).
- Germanised variants that are hardly found in current writing were dropped, for example Jogurt, Spagetti and Tunfisch (December 2023 release).
- The punctuation chapter was restructured and simplified, with one rule change: infinitive groups are now separated by a comma as a binding rule.
- The wordlist draws on a collection of more than 14 billion word occurrences from the whole German-speaking area (KMK notice).
The wordlist now holds about 7,000 entries, according to the council’s rules page. Where it lists variant spellings such as aufgrund and auf Grund, or Biografie and Biographie, they always stand side by side with equal standing.
Where the official rules apply
The rulebook regulates spelling inside schools and administration, the institutions for which the state has regulatory competence. That is how the council describes it on its rules page.
Beyond those institutions, the same page calls the rulebook a guideline for everyone who wants to follow uniform spelling. It names these groups:
- the legal system and courts,
- universities that train future teachers,
- companies, publishers and editorial offices,
- private persons.
So the rules bind schools and public bodies, while for everyone else they work as a shared reference rather than a legal duty.
The rulebook describes standard German, so regional speech such as the swabian dialect is a separate subject. If you want to see how individual rules work in practice, the german spelling rules article is the next stop.
The council’s position on gender characters
This is a sensitive topic, so here is only what the council itself has said. On 26 March 2021, it did not recommend adding the asterisk, underscore, colon or similar shortened forms inside words to the rulebook at that time, according to its 2021 press release.
The same release calls gender-fair language a societal task that cannot be solved by spelling rules alone. It adds that the rulebook applies to schools, administration and the legal system.
In its release of 3 July 2024, the council stated that these word-internal characters do not belong to the core inventory of German orthography. It said the follow-on problems cannot yet be sufficiently assessed and that the development must be watched further.
The KMK notice of 12 July 2024 repeats that the council will keep observing the public discussion. This page takes no side in that debate and only reports the published positions as of those dates.
Frequently asked questions
Is the council a government body?
Show answer
The council is carried by the six bodies listed above. Its proposals become binding for schools and administration only through decisions of the responsible state bodies, as the KMK notice states.
Do I have to follow the official rules in private writing?
Show answer
The rulebook regulates spelling in schools and administration. For companies, publishers and private persons, the council’s rules page describes it as a guideline for those who wish to follow uniform spelling.
Since when are the current rules binding?
Show answer
According to the council’s rules page, the current rulebook has been binding for schools and administration since 1 July 2024, with transitional periods organised by the state bodies. The KMK notice of 12 July 2024 gives the 2027/28 school year as the latest date for binding use in German schools.
Can a word have more than one correct spelling?
Show answer
Yes. The council’s rules page says that variant spellings always stand side by side with equal standing, for example aufgrund and auf Grund.
Where can I read the official rules?
Show answer
The rulebook and wordlist are publicly available on the council’s own website, as the KMK notice of 12 July 2024 points out.
