One of the reasons this book was in editing for so long was attributed to the three language balancing act. Really it is more like five languages and it has to do with spelling. Mostly place names vary widely not only in spelling but also the name itself. Not only are we dealing with German, French, and English sources but you have to add in Dutch and American English. The big surprise however is German. The German language in imperial Germany was not standardized. Just as the individual states retained much of their unique cultural foundations, so did the language. The myth that one could just look things up in a standardized dictionary was far from the truth. There were a slew of dictionaries and official languages that followed state or dialectic (Mundart) lines such as the Wörterbuch der Elsässischen Mundarten.
In 1876, Prussia tried to bring the dialects together, but the various states rejected the attempt. In 1879, Bavaria published its own grammar guide, followed by Austria and Prussia one year later. Using the Bavarian and Prussian rules, Konrad Duden published a more widely accepted dictionary. Its use spread slowly and only Württemberg accepted it. Today the term “Duden” refers to the standardized dictionary of German language.
The General German Language Association was not founded until 1885, well after the foundation of the empire. In June 1901, in order to make sure uniform grammar and spelling were adopted in all German-speaking states (including Austria and Switzerland), a second conference was called to promote spelling and grammar reform (Beratungen über die Einheitlichkeit der deutschen Rechtschreibung). Better known as II Orthographische Konferenz, the results of the conference gained a much wider acceptance and, in 1901, a lot of “th’s” were abolished and replaced by a simple “t” (e.g., Thal became Tal or Fürstenthum that became Fürstentum). In several words and names, “k” replaced “c” except in Cassel and Cöln. Many other letter “c’s” in words with a French background were turned into “z’s, “ie” replaced the “i” that had a long pronunciation. These standards were generally accepted and turned into official regulations by December 1902.
The Kaiser initially opposed the changes and demanded that official documents be written in both forms until 1911. Many publishers did not adopt the changes because they did not wish to change their typeset. In theory, the Study Group for German Word Research (Arbeitsgemeinschaft für deutsche Wortforschung) did not reconcile this until 1939. That is why there are different spellings in texts written between 1871 and 1918. Additionally, there was an unbelievably convoluted way for alphabetization that is often encountered where certain letter groups such as “sch” were treated as a single letter.
