  250px|right the duden () is a dictionary of the german language, first published by konrad duden in 1880. the duden is updated regularly, with new editions appearing every four or five years.  it is in its 26th edition and in 12 volumes, each covering different aspects such as loanwords, etymology, pronunciation, synonyms, etc. the first of these volumes, die deutsche rechtschreibung (), has long been the prescriptive source for the spelling of german. ==history== ===konrad duden=== in 1872, konrad duden, headmaster of a gymnasium (secondary school) in schleiz, thuringia, published a german dictionary called the schleizer duden, the first duden. in 1880 he published the vollstÃ¤ndiges orthographisches wÃ¶rterbuch der deutschen sprache ("complete orthographical dictionary of the german language"); this seminal treatise was declared the official source for correct spelling in the administration of prussia the same year. the first edition of this duden contained 28,000 entries. ===from 1901 to 1996=== in 1902 the bundesrat confirmed the duden as the official standard for german spelling; austria-hungary and switzerland soon followed suit. in the ensuing decades, the duden continued to be the de facto standard for german orthography. after world war ii this tradition continued separately in east and west germany in leipzig and mannheim. in west germany, some publishing houses began to attack the duden "monopoly" in the 1950s, publishing dictionaries that contained alternative spellings. in reaction, in november 1955 the ministers of culture of the states of germany confirmed that the spellings given by the duden would continue to be the official standard. ===east german duden (leipzig)===  in 1954, the first published duden appeared in mannheim, the western counterpart to the traditional duden printing city of leipzig. the first east german duden appeared in leipzig in 1951 but was largely ignored as illegitimate by west germany. the printing continued in both mannheim and leipzig until the fall of the berlin wall in 1989. the differences between the two versions of duden printed during this period appear in the number of entries (stichwÃ¶rter). when the printing of the two dudens began, in 1954 and 1951, the number of stichwÃ¶rter included was roughly the same. as the split between the printers continued, the east german duden slowly began diminishing t
1880_books German_dictionaries German_language