Lessing-Othmer

Lessing-Othmer is a romanization of Mandarin Chinese that was introduced by F. Lessing [de] and Dr. W. Othmer, who in 1912 printed their book „Lehrgang der nordchinesischen Umgangssprache“ („Course in the North Chinese Colloquial Language“) through the „Deutsch-Chinesische Druckerei und Verlagsanstalt“ in Qingdao while it was a German colony.

In 1979, the State Council of the People's Republic of China for Romanization ruled that translations of foreign-language publications should utilize Lessing-Othmer romanization in German-speaking countries, and Pinyin in English-speaking countries.^[1]