Prof. Dr. Roland Kaehlbrandt

Honorary Professor of Language and Society

Department of Philosophical and Aesthetic Education, Department of Educational Sciences. Main areas of work:

Language change in a dynamic society (factors, influences, trends; e.g. under-30 German, multicultural German, linguistic innovations and the spirit of the times) Language culture (dealing with norms and violations of norms; language awareness) Language policy (EU, cultural foreign policy) Language criticism (words and phrases as an expression of social developments) Language cultivation (initiatives, campaigns and projects from civil society) (especially in the German-speaking world, and additionally in France).

Phone: 02222 93211531

Porträtfoto in schwarz-weiß von Prof. Dr. Roland Kaehlbrandt

Further Activities

Publications

Book publications

(1999): German for Elites. A Language Guide. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart. (Paperback edition by Econ, Munich 2001).

(2001): Colorful German Bestiary. Lexicon of the Unavoidable Fellow Human Beings. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart. (Paperback edition by Ullstein, 2003).

Kaehlbrandt, Roland; Krämer, Walter (2007): The Year-Round Tomato and Other Plastic German. Lexicon of Language Confusions. Piper-Verlag, Munich, Zurich. (Paperback edition by Piper under the title “Plastic German”, 2009).

Kaehlbrandt, Roland; Krämer, Walter (2011): Lexicon of Beautiful Words. Piper-Verlag, Munich, Zurich (eighth edition in September 2017).

(2016): Logbook German – How We Speak, How We Write. Verlag Vittorio Klostermann; Frankfurt (monograph, two editions to date).

Lexicon of Beautiful Words (expanded new edition 2020, as of July 2023: four editions).

(2022): “German – a Declaration of Love. The Ten Great Strengths of Our Amazing Language”. Piper-Verlag, Munich (as of July 2023: SPIEGEL bestseller, seven editions).

Current articles in journals and daily newspapers

Pejorative Connotation. German Is Simple and Brilliant. In: DIE ZEIT, 5.11.2015.

Well hello, that’s not the issue. Pompous German, Moralistic German and Casual German. In: CICERO 12/2015.

“Hello! What’s up? All good!”. In: “Die Gegenwart”, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 1.8.2016.

There’s more to come. Language Change in a Dynamic Society. In: Forschung & Lehre 11/16. Also published in: Highlights of Science 2016. An almanac published by the German Association of University Professors and Lecturers.

145,000 words. The new Duden brings together a vocabulary. In: Frankfurter Rundschau, 19.8.2017.

Whisper asphalt on Germany’s expansion path. The political rhetoric of the parties in the federal election. In: Frankfurter Rundschau, 16./17.9.2017.

“Shorter, more casual, uncertain.”. In: Frankfurter Rundschau, 18.01.2019.

Popular: “quite honestly” and “actually”. How the usage and meaning of words are changing. In: Forschung und Lehre 2/2019.

“By far the best”, a language gloss. In: Forschung & Lehre 8/2020.

“New times need new words”. In: Frankfurter Rundschau, 12.8.2020.

“Opening up the world a little. Understanding, practicing and mastering academic language.” In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 8.7.2021.

“Neglected, although easy to read. German spelling.”. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 29.9.2021.

“The Future of Spelling.”. In: Profil, December 2021. (Journal of the German Philologists’ Association).

“German is underestimated”. Interview. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 31.1.2023.

“The little magicians” (about particles). In: Psychologie heute, 2/2023.

“You are a treasure” (portrait of the German language). In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, 7.3.2023.

“Thanks for the sympathy!” (about the baby boomers). In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 1.4.2023.