I changed /etc/vconsole.conf to "ch-de", then I created a new user and opened a session with the new user. The issue persists. cat /etc/vconsole.conf in the new session gave "KEYMAP=ch-de" because I had changed it. All the other commands stayed the same - with the "nodeadkeys" string. Yast only offers one variant of German (Switzerland) unlike German, where there is a dead keys variant.