Empfehlungen zur Schreibung geographischer Namen in österreichischen Bildungsmedien

„The choice of certain name forms for geographical features is always also an expression of personal attitudes, scientific convictions, political intentions and juridical frameworks. Recommendations as presented by this publication are not to impede individual decisions. But it is also true that in daily editorial, journalstic or educational work standards are helpful, since individual decisions can be difficult, and standards facilitate communication and accelerate working procedures.” These sentences taken from the explanatory part of this volume characterise precisely the purpose of this publication. It is to offer a guideline, which is accepted with pleasure, since it would otherwise be necessary to enter into complicated considerations. It is also to contribute to a certain standardisation in writing geographical names in Austrian school atlases and to a, if not standadised so at least well-founded use of geographical names in educational media in general, certainly also in newspapers and electronic media. It is because geographical names have symbolic power that they should be used with care. Their use can nowadays also be founded on an already sound basis of scientific research. This research constitutes of course also the basis for the recommendations presented in this volume. But as regards the main content of this publication, i.e. recommendations for the use of German exonyms in the sense of German names for geographical features outside the German-speaking area, they take into account also current trends in the public media. This is done because the use of names is permanently changing. It is subject to fashions, political and other influences.