Editing SS (section)

===Development of a capital form <span class="anchor" id="Capital form"></span>===
[[File:Eszett Leipziger Duden 1957.png|thumb|Uppercase ß on a book cover from 1957]]
[[File:Gießener Zeitung Logo.svg|class=skin-invert-image|thumb|Logo of {{Interlanguage link|Gießener Zeitung|lt=''Gießener Zeitung''|de}} ("{{lang|de|GIEẞENER ZEITUNG}}", 2008 design)]]
[[File:Straßenschild-Versal-ß.jpg|thumb|Street sign with {{lang|de|Versal-Eszett}} ("{{lang|de|MÜHLFELDSTRAẞE}}") in {{lang|de|[[Heiligkreuzsteinach]]}} (2011 photograph)]] 
Because {{angbr|ß}} had been treated as a ligature, rather than as a full letter of the German alphabet, it had no capital form in early modern typesetting. Moreover, [[allcaps]] was not normally used in Fraktur printing.<ref name="Long debate" /> There were, however, proposals to introduce capital forms of {{angbr|ß}} for use in allcaps writing (where {{angbr|ß}} would otherwise usually be represented as either {{angbr|SS}} or {{angbr|SZ}}). A capital was first seriously proposed in 1879, but did not enter official or widespread use.<ref>{{lang|de|Signa – Beiträge zur Signographie}}. Heft 9, 2006.</ref> The Orthographic Conference of 1903 called for the use of {{angbr|SZ}} in allcaps until a capital letter could be proposed.<ref name="Long debate" /> Historical typefaces offering a capitalized {{lang|de|eszett}} mostly date to the time between 1905 and 1930. The first known typefaces to include capital {{lang|de|eszett}} were produced by the {{lang|de|Schelter & Giesecke}} foundry in Leipzig, in 1905/06. {{lang|de|Schelter & Giesecke}} at the time widely advocated the use of this type, but its use nevertheless remained very limited.

The preface to the 1925 edition of the {{lang|de|[[Duden]]}} dictionary expressed the desirability of a separate glyph for capital {{angbr|ß}}:
{{quote|{{lang|de|Die Verwendung zweier Buchstaben für einen Laut ist nur ein Notbehelf, der aufhören muss, sobald ein geeigneter Druckbuchstabe für das große ß geschaffen ist.}}<ref>{{lang|de|Vorbemerkungen, XII.}} In: {{lang|de|Duden – Rechtschreibung. 9. Auflage, 1925}}</ref>}}
{{quote|The use of two letters for a single phoneme is makeshift, to be abandoned as soon as a suitable type for the capital ß has been developed.}}

The {{lang|de|Duden}} was edited separately in [[East Germany|East]] and [[West Germany]] during the 1950s to 1980s. The East German {{lang|de|Duden}} of 1957 (15th ed.) introduced a capital {{angbr|ß}} in its typesetting without revising the rule for capitalization. The 16th edition of 1969 still announced that an uppercase {{angbr|ß}} was in development and would be introduced in the future. The 1984 edition again removed this announcement and simply stated that there is no capital version of {{angbr|ß}}.<ref>{{lang|de|Der Große Duden. 25. Auflage, Leipzig 1984, S. 601, K 41.}}</ref>

In the 2000s, there were renewed efforts on the part of certain [[typographer]]s to introduce a capital, {{angbr|ẞ}}. A proposal to include a corresponding character in the [[Unicode]] set submitted in 2004<ref>{{cite web |url=http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n2888.pdf |author=Andreas Stötzner |title=Proposal to encode Latin Capital Letter Double S (rejected) |access-date=2021-06-25 }}</ref> was rejected.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2004/04361.htm#101-C22 |title=Approved Minutes of the UTC 101 / L2 198 Joint Meeting, Cupertino, CA – November 15-18, 2004 |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2005-02-10 |publisher=[[Unicode Consortium]] |access-date=2021-06-25 |quote=The UTC concurs with Stoetzner that Capital Double S is a typographical issue. Therefore the UTC believes it is inappropriate to encode it as a separate character.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/alloc/nonapprovals.html |title=Archive of Notices of Non-Approval |author=<!--Not stated--> |publisher=[[Unicode Consortium]] |access-date=2021-06-25 |quote=2004-Nov-18, rejected by the UTC as a typographical issue, inappropriate for encoding as a separate character. Rejected also on the grounds that it would cause casing implementation issues for legacy German data.}}</ref> A second proposal submitted in 2007 was successful, and the character was included in Unicode version 5.1.0 in April 2008 ({{unichar|1E9E|Latin capital letter sharp s}}).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3227.pdf |title=DIN_29.1_SCHARF_S_1.3_E |access-date=2014-01-30}}
{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1E00.pdf |title=Unicode chart |access-date=2014-01-30}}</ref> The international standard associated with Unicode (UCS), [[ISO/IEC 10646]], was updated to reflect the addition on 24 June 2008. The capital letter was finally adopted as an option in standard German orthography in 2017.<ref name="DRR und W-2017"/> As of 2024, {{angbr|ẞ}} is now the preferred option for depicting the character in capital letters, with {{angbr|SS}} as a second option.<ref name="Amtliches Regelwerk"/>