Sutterlin!

[Matt Starr]

x

[Tim DC]

Hi Matt, doesn't look like Sutterlin at all, it is pretty the same as the "modern" script used today. I'm sure a German member can help you fluently.

[Matt Starr]

x

[CWP]

Suetterlin is a very distinctive form of writing that is impossible to read if you don't know what you're looking at. You'll know it when you see it.

Chris P.

[Bill Murray]

Sutterlin et al

Please forgive me for my ignorance of the various forms of the German language, but is there a posting somewhere here that gives a "road map" of the different ways the German language is written? I did a search but did not come up with the answer I am looking for.

I am reasonably fluent in my own language, American English, and as well , British,Canadian and Australian English, all of which have their own "twists" to the basic language. I am also fluent in "West Coast and
Stockholm" Swedish and Peruvian Spanish, which also are derivatives of the original mother tongue.
I do not think I can help anyone in the German language but it would be interesting to me to know the different dialects.
Cheers
Bill

[Tim DC]

Bill, I don't think there are big differences between the dialects in Germany, certainly not in the written language from 1933-1945.

Here's a key to the Sutterlin alphabet



Further reading: http://www.peter-doerling.de/Lese/Sutterlin0.htm

[Bill Murray]

Thanks, Tim:

Probably more than I needed to know. And...I misspoke when using the word dialects as that has to do with the spoken language more than the written one.

One point of interest here, I have a huge collection of Swedish books and magazines from 1900 to 1940 or so and the written language is very much different than today's written Swedish. Maybe Sweden went through the same process in the late 1930's early 1940's. I shall have to ask some of my Swedish friends.

Thanks again for the information even though it won't help me to translate any better.

Bill

[Walter Sp]

Hi Matt,

I will try to help you with this card inscription. First of all - the writer is male and probably the husband of the receipent. Hope there are not to many mistakes in my translation

the writer's name is 'Edwin'

he wrote:

Berlin, 24. September 1935

meine liebe Frieda (dear Frieda)

bisher ist aller sehr befriedigend verlaufen (till now everything went great)

wahrscheinlich treffe ich heute Nacht ein (probably I will arrive tonight)

- hoffentlich nicht bei verschlossener Haustür (hopefully not at a locked door)

dir und den Kindern herzliche Grüße (cordial greetings to you and the kids)

dein Edwin (yours Edwin)


greetings

Walle
[/QUOTE]

[Matt Starr]

x

[DocumentsGuy]

German handwriting script

Although I'm not 100% certain, the handwriting style appears to be a version of "Antiqua" mixed with some unique letters from the Fraktur (also called Gothic) handwriting style. Sütterlin, as previously mentioned, is bloody awful to read. Most young Germans can't read it either, only the older generation.

[Gary Wilkins]

"German Script" Handwriting types & Fraktur Font (Typer face)

The "Deutsche Schrift" (German Script), as the old script writing forms were called, was never really standardized. There were a number of forms that tended to be most prevalent, even inter-regional, but it really depended on which particular form a given instructor in a particular school had learned, and preferred to use, unless the school itself specified a particular form for instruction. There was no government applied, universal standard. The most common forms in use were two very right slanted forms know as "Offenbacher"-Schrift (developed by Rudolf Koch), and the loosely labelled "Kurrent"- Schrift. If you could read one, the other was no problem, but the writing techniques and heights of the lower case letters were different and some of the inter-letter connections differed slightly, as well. They had a severe rightward slant (60 to 70 degrees), and there were variations between the height ratios for high standing letters (d, l. t, h, etc.) and the smaller letters (vowels and c, n, m, etc.). There were of course, also many personal variations - no one writes totally textbook in a casual letter, every time! Personal idiosyncracies always crept in.

As I mentioned, both of these two script forms had a very attractive and fancy looking - but very difficult to attain (for children learning in school) rightward slant. When writing these scripts in a public place, I have had women come up to me and say, "wow! for a man, you have very beautiful handwriting!" (chauvinism in reverse?)
Just after 1900 another form was introduced by a well recognized writing teacher
Meanwhile, a fellow named Ludwig Sütterlin had worked out a different script with the intention of making something easier for kids to learn - they could then later apply a significant slant and change the size ratios, if desired. The new script was vertical, not slanted. The smaller letters were higher in relation to the standing letters, and all letters with a round body were made much wider - "fatter" as it were. Otherwise, the letters themselves, and the stem connections, were pretty much the usual. This script became very popular with children, and even adults began using it. It was eventually adopted in Prussia in the 1920s as the official, standard script instruction for all schools, and by the 30s was pretty much in use all over the country, sometimes with a little of the slant from the older scripts added. Eventually, even some English style cursive letters slipped in with some people, and you get a mix.
Hitler, however, did not like the German Script, and passed an edict in 1941 forbidding its use. From this point on, instruction in schools switched to a western style (i.e. more universal script siimilar to the form used in Britain and the US). Thus, kids pasing through the German school system from 1941 onward never learned to read / write the script, while soldiers and others who had used it much of their lives continued to do so - only a few tried switching over (hence the mixture in Soldbuchs and Wehrpasses - though the script remained predominant, in my opinion). In modern days only people in their upper 70 years can read it (few can write it), and it exists mostly in writing clubs and cultural heritage associations, and as university courses for individuals planning to secure jobs that involve historical documents (city hall, Chamber of Commerce*, archives, etc.) - since most everything written pre-war is in one script or other. *these maintain old company records.

On the other hand, books were generally set in "Fraktur" - a "Fractured Gothic" font, since it looked like older, hand printed gothic letters that had in part, been brokem or "fractured". Fraktur typefaces had long been tradition in German printing, whereas it had quickly been replaced in England, the USA, etc. other than for "quaint" signage (e.g. "Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe" in gothic letters).
There were many font faces, some more intricate than others, though a very common, nicely intermediate style during the 30's was the "Schwabacher" form of the Fraktur type.
Hitler, however, did not like the Fraktur fonts, either, and so in the same edict that forbid the script he also forbid use of these fonts. You will therefore find far fewer post 1941 volumes of "Mein Kampf" that appear in anything other than Times Roman, antiqua, or some other "modern" font.

There are fonts available for the PC that will allow you to write your documents in Sütterlin, as well as numerous variants of Fraktur (some of the fonts are free), and even runic fonts like Futharc B that will do Runes for you.

Hope this is a help.

Gary Wilkins
Member, U.S. Armor Association

[DocumentsGuy]

Sütterlin

Gary,

That is by far the best explanation of the various German handwriting styles that I've ever seen. Thank You

[Gary Wilkins]

Adjustments, and thanks.

Hi Documents Guy,

Glad I could be of help. I have been working with the Deutsche Schreibschrift since 1985, and wrote an article on it for the March, or April issue of Military Trader.

When writing my first message, I should have been more specific - I meant to say that at the turn of the century there was no standard script used universally throughout all the lands of the new unified nation of Germany (Bavaria, Würtemburg, Franken, Hessen, etc.), until the Prussian State government decided to apply the by now extremely popular "Sütterlin" Schrift as a universal standard for all Prussian schools in the '20s (with many other states following suit by the 30s). Hitler disliked all forms of the Deutsche Schrift, as well as all forms of Fraktur type, thinking that they "held back" German development by being overly complex (beauty notwithstanding), and specifically complained about the "Schwabacher" (type face) being a Jewish creation to make things excessively complicated (methinks maybe he just had personal problems with reading and writing them...!).

In the 1950s, some schools in the new Bundesländer (federal states) tried to put the script back in the curriculum as an elective class, but the popularity was low among the average student, and they never caught on - so were eventually dropped - except at universities, where they remain an inescapable and integral part of a career course curriculum (as I mentioned earlier) for jobs that involve handling old records. You can't do the job, if you can't read the writing...

Best Regards,

Gary Wilkins
Member, U.S. Armor Association