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Modernised German Spelling

The German 'reading version' represents a pendant to the foreign-language translations. They are intended to facilitate an understanding of the Mozart family's eighteenth-century written language, which includes both dialect and numerous historical usages, often with contemporaneous orthography that is no longer easy to understand. These expressions are, accordingly, rendered in modern German. Foreign words such as 'sinfonia' or 'accademia', for example, are as 'Sinfonie' and 'Akademie', respectively. The historical writing style also makes the insertion of personal pronouns and auxiliary verbs necessary; these are indicated by square brackets ('habe [ich] erhalten'). Modal particles have occasionally been omitted. Longer passages or even whole sections of letters in foreign languages have been translated, the codes occasionally used by the Mozarts have been deciphered, and work or book titles standardized and indicated by inverted commas.

The rendering of the letter texts follows modern orthography and punctuation (Duden, 24th edition). The following standardizations are applied throughout:

1. Upper case for all personal pronouns (Du, Dir, Euch, Ihr)
2. Standard symbols for brackets and abbreviations
3. Realization of common abbreviations (h: -> Herr, Sr: -> Seiner)

Since the German reading version and original texts can be consulted side-by-side, personal names and the names of places, all of which can easily be located in the database, have not been standardized.

Anja Morgenstern
Stiftung Mozarteum, Salzburg
Editor original German text, diplomatic transcription and modernised German spelling
(translation: Cliff Eisen)

Please use the following reference when citing this website:
Eisen, Cliff et al. In Mozart's Words, 'Modernised German Spelling' <http://letters.mozartways.com>. Version 1.0, published by HRI Online, 2011. ISBN 9780955787676.