why is andern in "den andern" not capitalized?

[edmont]

I don't understand why in the below sentence andern was not capitalized, since it seems to function as a noun.

Wir hätten der Menschheit die Kultur unserer Geistesgrößen bringen sollen, die Kultur, die den andern ach so fremd geblieben ist.

We should have brought to humanity the culture of our spiritual giants, the culture which alas has remained so foreign to the others.

Thank you for any assistance.

[Keswick (Contributor)]

It should be captialised, and it should be "den Anderen" rather than "den andern". I'd say this is either a colloquial influence, or a simple mistake. I don't know the style of the rest of the text, so I'm afraid I can't say for sure.

[edmont]

Keswick, thank you.
I believe the statement was made somewhere in the first two decades of the 1900s. Could it be that back then there were a few exceptions to the rule of capitalizing nouns?
- edmont

[Keswick (Contributor)]

Considering that this text is rather old, I'd say it's very likely that there used to be a different approach to the capitalisation of nouns back then.

[tiorthan]

Back then sounds like long ago but "den Anderen" has been capitalized for only 18 years, as of yet. The change was part of the 1998 spelling reform in Germany.

[Keswick (Contributor)]

The change was part of the 1998 spelling reform in Germany.

 ... I don't remember much about this spelling reform but this is surprising. Thanks for the info!

[edmont]

tiorthan and Keswick, thank you both!