German Keyboard Layout

The German keyboard layout is a QWERTZ keyboard layout commonly used in Austria and Germany. It is based on one defined in a former edition (October 1988) of the German standard DIN 2137-2. The current edition DIN 2137-1:2012-06 standardizes it as the first (basic) one of three layouts, calling it "T1" (', "keyboard layout 1").

The German layout differs from the English (US and UK) layouts in four major ways:
* The positions of the "Z" and "Y" keys are switched. In English, the letter "y" is very common and the letter "z" is relatively rare, whereas in German the letter "z" is very common and the letter "y" is very uncommon. The German layout places "z" in a position where it can be struck by the index finger, rather than by the weaker little finger.
* Part of the keyboard is adapted to include umlauted vowels (''ä'', ''ö'', ''ü'') and the sharp s (''ß''). (Some newer types of German keyboards offer the fixed assignment → ẞ for its capitalized version.)
* Some of special key inscriptions are changed to a graphical symbol (e.g. is an upward arrow, a leftward arrow). Most of the other abbreviations are replaced by German abbreviations (thus e.g. "Ctrl" is translated to its German equivalent "Strg", for '). " Esc" remains as such. (See: " Key labels" below)
* Like many other non-American keyboards, German keyboards change the right Alt key into an Alt Gr key to access a third level of key assignments. This is necessary because the umlauts and some other special characters leave no room to have all the special symbols of ASCII, needed by programmers among others, available on the first or second (shifted) levels without unduly increasing the size of the keyboard.

General information

File:German-Keyboard-Layout-T2-Version2-large.png, upright=2.5, German keyboard layout "T2" according to DIN 2137-1:2012-06.
rect 2 2 101 101 Degree symbol
rect 2 102 101 201 Circumflex accent
rect 2 202 101 301 Multiplication sign
rect 206 2 305 101 Exclamation mark
rect 206 102 305 201 1 (number)
rect 206 202 305 301 Apostrophe
rect 410 2 509 101 Quotation mark
rect 410 102 509 201 2 (number)
rect 410 202 509 301 Square (algebra)
rect 614 2 713 101 Section sign
rect 614 102 713 201 3 (number)
rect 614 202 713 301 Cube (algebra)
rect 818 2 917 101 Dollar sign
rect 818 102 917 201 4 (number)
rect 818 202 1017 301 Dash#Em dash
rect 1022 2 1121 101 Percent sign
rect 1022 102 1121 201 5 (number)
rect 1022 202 1121 301 Inverted question and exclamation marks
rect 1226 2 1325 101 Ampersand
rect 1226 102 1325 201 6 (number)
rect 1226 202 1325 301 Inverted question and exclamation marks
rect 1430 2 1529 101 Slash (punctuation)
rect 1430 102 1529 201 7 (number)
rect 1430 202 1529 301 Braces (punctuation)
rect 1634 2 1733 101 Parentheses
rect 1634 102 1733 201 8 (number)
rect 1634 202 1733 301 Bracket
rect 1838 2 1937 101 Parentheses
rect 1838 102 1937 201 9 (number)
rect 1838 202 1937 301 Bracket
rect 2042 2 2141 101 quals sign
rect 2042 102 2141 201 0 (number)
rect 2042 202 2141 301 Braces (punctuation)
rect 2246 2 2345 101 Question mark
rect 2246 102 2345 201 ß
rect 2246 202 2345 301 Backslash
rect 2450 2 2549 101 Grave accent
rect 2450 102 2549 201 Acute accent
rect 2450 202 2549 301 Dot (diacritic)
rect 2654 2 3057 301 Backspace
rect 2 306 303 605 Tab key
rect 306 306 405 455 Q
rect 306 456 405 605 At sign
rect 510 306 609 455 W
rect 510 456 609 605 Caron
rect 714 306 813 455 E
rect 714 456 813 605 Euro sign
rect 814 356 913 555 Œ
rect 918 306 1017 455 R
rect 918 456 1017 605 Diaeresis (diacritic)
rect 1122 306 1221 455 T
rect 1122 456 1221 605 Macron (diacritic)
rect 1326 306 1425 455 Z
rect 1326 456 1425 605 Double acute accent
rect 1530 306 1629 455 U
rect 1530 456 1629 605 Breve
rect 1734 306 1833 455 I
rect 1734 456 1833 605 Tilde
rect 1834 356 1933 555 Dotless I
rect 1938 306 2037 455 O
rect 1938 456 2037 605 Ring (diacritic)
rect 2038 356 2137 555 Ø
rect 2142 306 2241 455 P
rect 2142 456 2241 605 Hook above
rect 2242 356 2341 555 Þ
rect 2346 306 2445 455 Ü
rect 2346 456 2445 605 Horn (diacritic)
rect 2446 356 2545 555 Long s
rect 2550 306 2649 405 Asterisk
rect 2550 406 2649 505 Plus and minus signs#Plus sign
rect 2550 506 2649 605 Tilde
rect 2754 306 3057 605 Return key
rect 2 610 355 909 Caps lock
rect 356 610 455 759 A
rect 356 760 455 909 Less than or equal to
rect 456 660 555 859 Æ
rect 560 610 659 759 S
rect 560 760 659 909 Greater than or equal to
rect 764 610 863 759 D
rect 764 760 863 909 Diameter#Diameter symbol
rect 864 660 963 859 Ð
rect 968 610 1067 759 F
rect 968 760 1067 909 Prime (symbol)
rect 1172 610 1271 759 G
rect 1172 760 1271 909 Double prime
rect 1376 610 1475 759 H
rect 1376 760 1475 909 Capital ẞ
rect 1580 610 1679 759 J
rect 1580 760 1679 909 Cedilla
rect 1784 610 1883 759 K
rect 1784 760 1883 909 Comma#Diacritical usage
rect 1988 610 2087 759 L
rect 1988 760 2087 909 Ogonek
rect 2088 660 2187 859 Ł
rect 2192 610 2291 759 Ö
rect 2192 760 2291 909 Dot below
rect 2396 610 2495 759 Ä
rect 2396 760 2495 909 Bar (diacritic)
rect 2600 610 2699 709 Apostrophe#Computing
rect 2600 710 2699 809 Number sign
rect 2600 810 2699 909 Registered trademark symbol
rect 2700 660 2799 859 Ə
rect 2804 606 3057 909 Return key
rect 2 914 247 1213 Shift key
rect 252 914 351 1013 Greater-than sign
rect 252 1014 351 1113 Less-than sign
rect 252 1114 351 1213 Vertical bar
rect 456 914 555 1063 Y
rect 456 1064 555 1213 Guillemet
rect 660 914 759 1063 X
rect 660 1064 759 1213 Guillemet
rect 760 914 859 1063 Quotation mark
rect 760 1064 859 1213 Quotation mark
rect 864 914 963 1063 C
rect 864 1064 963 1213 Copyright symbol
rect 1068 914 1167 1063 V
rect 1068 1064 1167 1213 Guillemet
rect 1168 914 1267 1013 Quotation mark
rect 1168 1014 1267 1113 Quotation mark
rect 1272 914 1371 1063 B
rect 1272 1064 1371 1213 Guillemet
rect 1372 914 1471 1013 Quotation mark
rect 1372 1014 1471 1113 Quotation mark
rect 1476 914 1575 1063 N
rect 1476 1064 1575 1213 Dash#En dash
rect 1680 914 1779 1063 M
rect 1680 1064 1779 1213 Micro-
rect 1884 914 1983 1013 Semicolon
rect 1884 1014 1983 1113 Comma
rect 1884 1114 1983 1213 ʻOkina
rect 1984 964 2083 1113 Ellipsis
rect 2088 914 2187 1013 Colon (punctuation)
rect 2088 1014 2187 1083 Full stop
rect 2088 1084 2187 1213 Zero-width non-joiner
rect 2188 964 2287 1113 Interpunct
rect 2292 914 2391 1013 Underscore
rect 2292 1014 2391 1113 Hyphen
rect 2292 1114 2391 1213 Soft hyphen
rect 2496 914 3057 1213 Shift key
rect 2 1220 347 1519 Control key
rect 352 1220 551 1519 Fn key
rect 556 1220 755 1519 Windows key
rect 760 1220 959 1519 Alt key
rect 964 1220 1063 1419 Space (punctuation)
rect 964 1420 1963 1519 Non-breaking space
rect 1880 1320 1979 1419 Thin space
rect 1984 1220 2183 1519 AltGr key
rect 2188 1220 2387 1519 ISO/IEC 9995#Level and Group selection
rect 2392 1220 2591 1519 Windows key
rect 2596 1220 2795 1519 Menu key
rect 2800 1220 3057 1519 Control key
desc bottom-right

The characters ², ³, , \, @, , , µ, ~, and € are accessed by holding the key and tapping the other key. The key on the left will not access these additional characters. Alternatively and pressing the respective key also produce the alternative characters in many environments, in order to support keyboards that only have one left key.

The accent keys , , are dead keys: press and release an accent key, then press a letter key to produce accented characters (ô, á, ù, etc.; the current DIN 2137-1:2012-06 extends this for e.g. ń, ś etc.). If the entered combination is not encoded in Unicode by a single code point (precomposed character), most current implementations cause the display of a free-standing (spacing) version of the accent followed by the unaccented base letter. For users with insufficient typing skills this behaviour (which is explicitly not compliant with the current DIN 2137-1:2012-06) leads to mistype a spacing accent instead of an apostrophe (e.g., ''it´s'' instead of correctly ''it's'').Markus Kuhn
Apostrophe and acute accent confusion
2001.

Note that the semicolon and colon are accessed by using the key.

The "T1" layout lacks some important characters like the German-style quotation marks ( and ). As a consequence, these are seldom used in internet communication and usually replaced by and .

The "T2" layout newly defined in DIN 2137-1:2012-06 was designed to overcome such restrictions, but firstly to enable typing of other languages written in the Latin script. Therefore, it contains several additional diacritical marks and punctuation characters, including the full set of German, English, and French-style quotation marks in addition to the typographic apostrophe, the prime, the double prime, and the okina.

The image shows characters to be entered using in the lower left corner of each key depiction (characters not contained in the "T1" layout are marked red). Diacritical marks are marked by a flat rectangle which also indicates the position of the diacritical mark relative to the base letter.

The characters shown at the right border of a keytop are accessed by first pressing a dead key sequence of AltGr plus the × multiplication sign. This X-like symbol may be thought of as an "extra" dead key or "extra" accent type, used to access "miscellaneous" letters that do not have a specific accent type like diaeresis or circumflex. Symbols on the right border shown in green have both upper-case and lower-case forms; the corresponding capital letter is available by pressing the Shift key simultaneously with the symbol key. For instance, to type the lower-case æ ligature, hold the AltGr key and type ×, then release both keys and type the (unshifted) A key. To type the upper-case Æ ligature, hold the AltGr key and type ×, then release both keys, hold Shift and type the (shifted) A key. An active Caps Lock can be used instead of the Shift key to obtain the Æ ligature and similar letters.

In addition, DIN 2137-1:2012-06 defines a layout "T3", which is a superset of "T2" incorporating the whole "secondary group" as defined in ISO/IEC 9995-3:2010. Thus, it enables to write several minority languages (e.g. Sami) and transliterations, but is more difficult to comprehend than the "T2" layout, and therefore not expected to be accepted by a broad audience beyond experts who need this functionality.

Key labels

Contrary to many other languages, German keyboards are usually not labeled in English (in fact, DIN 2137-1:2012-06 requires either the symbol according to ISO/IEC 9995-7 or the German abbreviation is to be used, with " Esc" as an exception). The abbreviations used on German keyboards are:

On some keyboards – including the original IBM PC/AT (and later) German keyboards – the asterisk (*) key on the numeric keypad is instead labeled with the multiplication sign (×), and the divide-key is labeled with the division sign (÷) instead of slash (/). However, those keys still generate the asterisk and slash characters, not the multiplication and division signs.

Caps lock

The behaviour of according to former editions of the DIN 2137 standard is inherited from mechanical typewriters: Pressing it once shifts all keys including numbers and special characters until the key is pressed again. Holding while is active unshifts all keys. Both and lack any textual labels. The key is simply labeled with a large down-arrow (on newer designs pointing to an uppercase A letter) and is labeled with a large up-arrow. The current DIN 2137-1:2012-06 simply requests the presence of a "capitals lock" key (which is the name used in the ISO/IEC 9995 series), without any description of its function.

In IT, an alternative behaviour is often preferred, usually described as "IBM", which is the same as on English keyboards – only letters are shifted, and hitting again releases it.

OS-specific layouts

Linux

Most Linux distributions include a keymap for German in Germany that extends the T1 layout with a set of characters and dead keys similar, but not identical to the "Outdated common secondary group" of ISO/IEC 9995-3:2002.

History

See also

* ISO/IEC 9995

Notes and references

{{Keyboard layouts

Latin-script keyboard layouts

de:Tastaturbelegung