It is a dying profession, but still indispensable in German parliaments – shorthand. There are only a few hundred full-time stenographers in Germany, says Regina Hofmann, President of the German Association of Stenographers. The currently fastest of them works in Munich: Stefan Schubert.
The 56-year-old has been writing the debates in the Bavarian state parliament since 1990, and his job hasn’t gotten any easier since then. “There are no longer any politicians who are particularly easy to write,” says Schubert. Because in politics as in everyday life, a clear development can be heard over the past 30 years: people are talking faster and faster. This is particularly true in Parliament, where speaking time at the desk is almost always limited.
So it’s a good thing that speed isn’t a big problem for Schubert: He’s the reigning German shorthand master in shorthand. At the most recent competition at the end of May in Worms in Rhineland-Palatinate, the 76 fastest writers competed against each other in different speed classes. In the highest level, the so-called master class, a text is read faster and faster until the speaker reaches a speed of 475 syllables per minute after ten minutes. For comparison: In everyday life, people only speak around 300 syllables per minute.
Stefan Schubert is the fastest stenographer in Germany.
(Photo: Sven Hoppe/dpa)
At this rate, the text must be articulated very clearly for the stenographers, says Schubert. Finally, what is written is translated and proofread. The winner is then determined on the basis of errors and deviations from the original text.
But shorthand is being taught in fewer and fewer places today. According to the President of the Stenografiebund, Hofmann, shorthand was still part of several training courses up until the 1990s, for example in office communication training. In the meantime, those interested have to look around for courses themselves, for example at shorthand clubs or adult education centres. Because of the pandemic, there are also numerous online courses, says Hofmann. Nevertheless, there are increasing problems with young people. Hardly anyone needs hand shorthand in everyday life, and recruiting interested parties at events has been difficult in recent months due to Corona.
Shorthand still has some advantages over modern technology. For example, the stenographers can record and classify heckling during conversations, says Hofmann. You can also omit phrases that are not relevant. That is why there are still freelancers who work with the typeface, for example in courts, in supervisory board meetings and as journalists.
Learning the language isn’t that easy, says Hofmann. Learning shorthand could take more than a year. But it is always up to personal commitment how quickly you improve. Shorthand master Schubert learned shorthand at school. He was enthusiastic from the start, says the economist. Writing whole words with just a few strokes appealed to him – also because he could use shorthand as a secret code. Because letters are reduced there and entire terms are sometimes abbreviated with ticks and lines. If you don’t know how to use shorthand, you usually only see a single scrawl in it.
In the Bavarian state parliament, 13 stenographers take turns during debates. They sit directly in front of the lectern and, as in this case, record the words of Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger.
(Photo: Sven Hoppe/dpa)
According to the parliamentary administration, Schubert is now one of 13 stenographers in the Bavarian state parliament. They take notes in the plenum for ten minutes each. After that, they have two hours to translate their protocols into Standard German. Then they record again what is said in the plenum. Schubert says he no longer has to think about the spelling of words and sentences. That goes from the “brain into the hand”.
Nevertheless, there is also a special challenge for him in his work in the state parliament – the dialects of the members of parliament in Bavaria. He basically translates them mentally into High German and only then writes the text in shorthand, says Schubert. He only writes down individual sayings, idioms and accents in the respective dialect.