The Council of German Orthography (RdR) announced this week that starting in 2025 apostrophes can be used to show possession in the German language.
The RdR is considered the highest authority on Standard High German spelling and grammar, and is relied on for school textbooks in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
But the council’s decision on apostrophe use has caused a stir in German media with commentators poking fun at the decision at best and decrying it as an assault on the German language at worst.
History of the so-called ‘idiot’s apostrophe’
In German language the possessive apostrophe is omitted in most cases. To show possession auf Deutsch it’s typically enough simply to add an ‘s’ without the extra punctuation.
So Florian’s computer, translated to German, is simply Florians Computer.
An exception is made for names that end with an ‘s’ or ‘z’ for clarity.
So Hans’ book is still Hans’ Buch.
But increasingly, German businesses have added apostrophes to their names for stylistic purposes – as in Karsten’s Kneipe or Kim’s Kiosk, for example.
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Language purists have been critical of these grammatically incorrect name choices. An apostrophe used in this way became known as a Deppenapostroph, or ‘idiot’s apostrophe', because only an idiot wouldn’t know that this doesn’t belong here.
But now the highest authority on Standard High German has weighed in to say that use of the idiot’s apostrophe in proper nouns is correct.
What’s the reaction?
According to reporting by the Guardian, the council had actually loosened the grammar rules around possession in 1996, meaning that apostrophes in proper names have already been correct for most of the past 30 years.
Still, the official announcement of the rule change this week was met with some harsh words.
An op-ed in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung called the move a “triumph of Anglicism in German grammar”.
Similarly, an article in Austria’s Der Standard criticised the council for “codifying grammar that is not widely accepted”, and meanwhile avoiding decisions about grammar used to denote gender-neutral language.
But not everyone is convinced that the adoption of the possessive apostrophe is worth all the disturbance.
“There is a long tradition of conservative circles fretting about international influences on the German languages,” Anatol Stefanowitsch, a linguist at Berlin’s Free University, told the Guardian.
For example, the Dortmund-based German language association Verein Deutsche Sprache maintains an index of Anglicisms which includes German alternatives, like Puffmais instead of “popcorn”.
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