I find myself preferring to read trivial texts that are linguistically flawless over clever ones that are riddled with mistakes. Why do faulty texts often remind me of that lovesick character from the famous Loriot sketch, who has a noodle stuck to his face during his declaration of love? The Germanist Stefan Winterstein investigates the suspicion that the state of German orthography is not particularly good today and outlines a whole panorama of possible causes. However, he also attempts to answer the even more fundamental question of what this peculiar apparatus of orthography actually is. Orthography is on everyone's lips, but perhaps in hardly anyone's mind; it is ignored, despised, and ridiculed, unreflectively accepted and fervently defended. But what is it, what purpose does it serve, how does it work, and what should or could it be? An approach.