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Deutsches Institut für Normung

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"DIN" redirects here. For other uses, see Din (disambiguation).
Deutsches Institut für Normung
HeadquartersBerlin
CountryGermany
Membership3,518 (2022)
[edit on Wikidata]
DIN headquarters is a modern 7-story office building with their logo on the front
Head office of the German Institute for Standardization in Berlin-Tiergarten

Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V. (DIN; in English, the German Institute for Standardisation) is a German non-profit organization and acting as national organization for standardization. DIN is the German ISO member body. DIN is headquartered in Berlin. There are around thirty thousand DIN Standards, covering nearly every field of technology.

History

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Founded in 1917 as the Normenausschuß der deutschen Industrie (NADI, "Standardisation Committee of German Industry"), the NADI was renamed Deutscher Normenausschuß (DNA, "German Standardisation Committee") in 1926 to reflect that the organization now dealt with standardization issues in many fields; viz., not just for industrial products. In 1975 it was renamed again to Deutsches Institut für Normung, or 'DIN' and is recognised by the German government as the official national-standards body, representing German interests at the international and European levels.

The acronym, 'DIN' is often incorrectly expanded as Deutsche Industrienorm ("German Industry Standard"). This is largely due to the historic origin of the DIN as "NADI". The NADI indeed published their standards as DI-Norm (Deutsche Industrienorm). For example, the first published standard was 'DI-Norm 1' (about tapered pins) in 1918. Many people still mistakenly associate DIN with the old DI-Norm naming convention.

One of the earliest, and probably the best known, is DIN 476 — the standard that introduced the A-series paper sizes in 1922 — adopted in 1975 as International Standard ISO 216. Common examples in modern technology include DIN and mini-DIN connectors for electronics, and the DIN rail.

DIN SPEC 3105, published in 2020, is "the first German standard to be published under an open license (CC-BY-SA 4.0) [...] to implement an open standardisation process".[1]

DIN organisation

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DIN is a nonprofit organization by German law. The nonprofit owns DIN Solutions GmbH, which produces the DIN contents and DIN Media (formerly Beuth Verlag), which sells the DIN-standard manuals. DIN is shareholder of DIN Bauportal GmbH and DQS Holding GmbH.[2]

DIN standard designation

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The designation of a DIN standard shows its origin (# denotes a number):

  • DIN # is used for German standards with primarily domestic significance or designed as a first step toward international status. E DIN # is a draft standard and DIN V # is a preliminary standard.
  • DIN EN # is used for the German edition of European standards.
  • DIN ISO # is used for the German edition of ISO standards.
  • DIN EN ISO # is used if the standard has also been adopted as a European standard.

Some of the DIN standards dating back i the time of Nazi Germany. For example, Standard DIN 5001, which describes the German Phonetic spelling code, was heavily edited by the Nazis. Until 1934, spelled "D" for David, "S" for Samuel, "Z" for Zacharias and "N" for Nathan. However, this went against the Nazis' ethnic-racial ideology and they decided to revise the letter board. Till today the DIN 5001 is still not completly modified and "S for Siegfried" is the standard.[3]

Examples of DIN standards

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Main article: List of DIN standards

Access to standards

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DIN standards are not free public accessabel. DIN is selling the subscriptions with the descriptions of the DIN-standards via DIN Solutions GmbH and DIN Media.

For four EN standards, which are available as DIN-EN standards for a fee from DIN Media GmbH (formerly Beuth Verlag),[4][5][6][7] the European Court of Justice (ECJ) decided on March 5, 2024 that these must be made available free of charge because these standards are part of European Union law. [8]

Critics

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How DIN creates standards is not transparent. The majority of the standardization committees consist of representatives of the companies that are affected by the standards. DIN keeps secret who is on the committees.[9]

In 2023, the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building launched an initiative to question the specifications of the German Institute for Standardization because the standards are considered a cost driver. “A central goal is to speed up planning and construction and reduce construction costs in order to create more affordable housing. “The building standards are now being reviewed,” said a spokesman for Klara Geywitz’s (SPD) ministry in 2023.[10]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Bonvoisin, Jérémy; Molloy, Jenny; Haeuer, Martin; Wenzel, Tobias (2020-04-15). "Standardisation of Practices in Open Source Hardware". Journal of Open Hardware. 4. arXiv:2004.07143. doi:10.5334/joh.22. S2CID 215768760.
  2. ^ Organigram DIN Gruppe - pdf
  3. ^ Zips, Martin (2019-11-06). "In Deutschland wird nationalsozialistisch buchstabiert". Süddeutsche.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  4. ^ "DIN EN 71-4:2013-05". dinmedia.de (in German). DIN Media GmbH. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
  5. ^ "DIN EN 71-5:2015-12". dinmedia.de (in German). DIN Media GmbH. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
  6. ^ "DIN EN 71-12:2013-07". dinmedia.de (in German). DIN Media GmbH. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
  7. ^ "DIN EN 12472:2006-03; German version of EN 12472:2005". dinmedia.de (in German). DIN Media GmbH. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  8. ^ "JUDGMENT OF THE COURT (Grand Chamber), 5 March 2024 (*), (Appeal – Access to documents of the institutions of the European Union – Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 – Article 4(2) – Exceptions – Refusal to grant access to a document whose disclosure would undermine the protection of commercial interests of a natural or legal person, including intellectual property – Overriding public interest in disclosure – Harmonised standards adopted by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) – Protection deriving from copyright – Principle of the rule of law – Principle of transparency – Principle of openness – Principle of good governance), In Case C‑588/21 P,". curia.europa.eu. European Court of Justice (ECJ). 2024-03-05. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  9. ^ Deutscher Bundestag Drucksache 19/7292, 19. Wahlperiode, 22.01.2019
  10. ^ https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/immobilien-wie-din-normen-das-bauen-verteuern-und-was-dahinter-steckt-/29269956.html


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