German spelling rules exclude * and : in gender‑neutral text

As an option to neutralize referential ... society, group, family, etc.) and epicene nouns, i.e. personal nouns with a fixed grammatical gender that can refer to any extra-linguistic gender....

The German language is full of male and female nouns. Officials and businesses are tweaking words, including adding asterisks, to make them inclusive.

Hendrik, a lawyer who wouldn't give his last name for fear of getting in trouble with his employer, says he can't stand the gender star or any other punctuation marks — such as a colon or an underscore — that are sometimes used to denote multiple genders instead of an asterisk.

Der Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung lehnt es weiter ab, den Genderstern oder andere geschlechtergerechte Sprachzeichen in das amtliche Regelwerk aufzunehmen. Das geht nach Angaben der Nachrichtenagentur KNA aus einem mehrheitlich beschlossenen ...

Darin sind sich die Mitglieder ... und Sternchen geben sie dennoch nicht. ... Eine offizielle Anerkennung des Gendersterns gibt es vom Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung noch nicht....

Schriftsteller dürfen schreiben, wie sie wollen. Das macht der Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung jetzt deutlich. Doch zugleich wird klargestellt: Es gibt keine Rechtfertigung dafür, dass manche Bundesländer die Regeln aus politischen Gründen ...

These pronouns are not gendered depending on who is speaking, or who is being addressed. Similarly, plural articles are not gendered in German, and the definite article die is used for groups no matter their gender. Ein-words like meine are also neutral: meine Studierenden.

The gender star has also been used by the German Green Party since 2015, and the Berlin Senate since 2017. In 2019, Christiane Hohenstein of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences/ZHAW was asked in an interview if she thought the gender star was a good solution to include not only male and female but also non-binary identities. She responded positively, comparing its use to how the asterisk symbol is used in database queries and praising its ability to express greater inclusivity...

Other nonstandard typographic conventions exist in German for promoting gender-inclusivity, including use of a slash, colon, parentheses, an underscore (called the gender gap), or an asterisk (the gender star).

State authorities in Bavaria will no longer be allowed to use symbols like asterisks and colons in nouns to make them more inclusive.

But the GfdS, Germany's most prominent state-sponsored language association, said the asterisk "does not conform either to German grammar or to the rules of spelling." It therefore recommended that the asterisk, and other forms of gender ...

Inserting * stars into German words to make them gender neutral amounts to "nonsense," a German language association asserts. Other experts say linguistic equality and removal of patriarchal mindsets remains paramount.