The small East German town of Zeitz, not far from Leipzig, is currently having an image problem. The official abbre­viation is ZZ and can be found everywhere in the city. What initially looks typo­gra­phically interesting and somehow funny has been rather difficult to handle since the Ukraine war. When I ask the residents of Zeitz about it, they always say, no, we have the letters twice, that doesn’t count. This cute attempt to prevent any association made me wonder when are letters good and when are they evil? Can letters be evil or good at all? Similar radicalizations of letters can be found in the anarchic A or the fascist-Croatian U. Letter combinations like the Nazi double S or racist triple K also evoke resentment and fears.

Please don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to offend anyone. But some­one who deals with letters on a daily basis and is cer­tainly a grammar­phile finds it inte­res­ting when certain letters suddenly become taboo. I’m fascinated by the fact that it’s not a specifi­cally designed symbol, it’s just letters. And it doesn’t really matter how these letters are shaped, as long as the letter is reco­gnizable.