The original version of DEK was created by an expert committee in 1924, based on the ideas of earlier systems like those of Gabelsberger, Faulmann, and Stolze-Schrey.

The latest reform of the Einheitskurzschrift was concluded in Vienna in 1962 after many years of work and officially introduced into the German educational system in Mainz in 1968 by the German Kultusministerkonferenz (State Conference on Education) as the Wiener Urkunde (“Vienna Document”) titled Systemurkunde der Deutschen Einheitskurzschrift - Wiener Urkunde - vom 1.

This may be considered largely the brainchild of Georg Paucker, who (as representative of the German Confederation of Trade Unions) applied himself particularly to the reform negotiations regarding the Verkehrsschrift.

For example, the German form of to be, 3rd person singular indicative present tense ist is a single dot on the upper line.

Eilschrift and particularly Redeschrift employ contractions and other simplifications to a far greater extent, making rates of up to 475 syllables per minute possible.

For instance, in a parliament most speeches start with Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, Herr Präsident (or Frau Präsidentin respectively).

Another widespread optimization is to omit writing punctuation marks and indicate units of speech by blank lines instead.

DEK faced a lot of criticism, especially during the prime of shorthand; for example, the heavier versions of consonant-graphemes and the complex ruleset were said to slow down learning-speed.

[citation needed] As a result, there have been efforts to create simpler shorthand systems that can be learned more quickly but may not achieve comparable speeds.