11.6 Fraktur — reading the old typeface — Epoché
What you will be able to do Recognise the old German typeface, Fraktur , and know when and why it was used. Read the long s (written ſ ) and know where it stands and where the round s stands. Avoid the letter pairs that beginners confuse: ſ and f, k and t, B and V, C and E. Understand the history of the typeface, including the fact that it was abolished by the Nazis, not introduced by them. Sentences from this lesson, before the explanation. Read the German aloud; all of them come back below. German English Diese Handschrift ist unleserlich. [1] This handwriting is illegible. Deine Handschrift ist sehr unleserlich. [2] Your handwriting is very hard to read. Er strich sein Haus neu. [3] He repainted his house. Diese Sprache ist unverständlich. [4] This language is incomprehensible. Diese Straße ist schrecklich. [5] This road is terrible. Wir sehen schrecklich aus. [6] We look terrible. Habt ihr eine Lupe? [7] Do you have a magnifying glass? Ich zeichne einen Vogel. [8] I am drawing a bird. Prerequisites : 11.5 — you need the history of spelling from 11.5 Background and the archaic forms of 2.39 Grammar . If you open a German book printed before the middle of the twentieth century, a newspaper from your great-grandparents' time, or the first printing of the texts you read in this phase, you will probably find it set in a typeface that looks medieval to an English reader: dark, angular letters with broken curves. This is Fraktur , from the Latin word for broken . For four hundred years it was the normal typeface for German. Reading it is a skill every student of German history or literature needs, and it takes only a few hours to learn, because most letters are recognisable once you know the handful of traps. Two typefaces, four centuries From the sixteenth century onwards, German printers used two families of type. Fraktur and related broken typefaces were used for German texts; Antiqua , the round Roman type in which this lesson is printed, was used for Latin and for foreign words. A German book of 1800 often switches between the two in the middle of a sentence: German words in Fraktur , a Latin or French expression in Antiqua . In this way the typeface itself told the reader which words were German. Around 1900, Germans argued for many years about whether to give up Fraktur . Scientists and many publishers preferred Antiqua , which was used in the rest of Europe; others saw Fraktur as part of German culture. Both remained in use. The end came suddenly and from an unexpected side. In January 1941 the Nazi party issued a decree that declared Fraktur to be of Jewish origin, which was untrue, and ordered that Antiqua be used as the normal typeface. Historians see practical reasons behind the decree: the regime wanted texts that people in the occupied countries could read. After 1945 Fraktur did not return, except in the titles of some newspapers, on the signs of traditional inns and in decorations. Handwriting is a separate story. Until the middle of the twentieth century, Germans wrote a joined script called Kurrent , and from 1915 many schools taught a simplified form called Sütterlin . These scripts look quite different from printed Fraktur and are much harder to read. Letters and diaries of the time are written in them; printed books are not. The long s Fraktur has two forms of the small s . The long s , ſ , is tall and thin, like an f without the full crossbar. The round s looks much like a modern s. The rule is simple: The round s stands at the end of a word and at the end of a syllable: das , Haus , Ausgang . The long ſ stands everywhere else: at the beginning of a word and inside a syllable. In a compound, the end of the first part counts as the end of a word. The classic example is a word that can be read in two ways: written with ſ , it is Wach-stube , a guardroom; written with a round s before the t, it is Wachs-tube , a tube of wax. Printers of Fraktur had to understand every word they set. The letter ß also comes from this world. It began as a joining of the long ſ with a z or an s, and that is why it has no capital form in traditional printing. Here is the first sentence of Kant's essay from 10.3 Argument with the long and round s as the first printing would have them, but in modern letters otherwise: Aufklärung iſt der Ausgang des Menſchen aus ſeiner ſelbſt verſchuldeten Unmündigkeit. Notice the round s in Ausgang , des and aus , all at the end of a syllable, and the long ſ in all the other places. Letters that look alike Most Fraktur letters can be guessed from their shape. A few pairs cause almost all the mistakes. Pair How to tell them apart ſ and f The f has a crossbar that runs through the stem; the long ſ has at most a small stroke on the left side. k and t The k has a loop at the top of its stem; the t has none and is shorter. n and u Both are two short strokes; the n is joined at the top, the u at the bottom. Read by sense when the print is worn. B and V The capitals are very similar; look for the closed bowl of the B. C and E The E has a small stroke in the middle; the C does not. I and J In most Fraktur types they are a single letter; read it as I before a consonant and as J before a vowel. Two other habits of Fraktur printing surprise modern readers. Emphasis was shown not by italics but by spacing the letters out, so that a word looks like it has gaps in it. And some pairs of letters, such as ch, ck and tz, were cast as a single joined piece and stay together even when the rest of a word is spaced out. How to practise. Start with a text you already know in modern print, such as a fairy tale from the first phase or a poem from this one, and find a scan of an old edition in a digital library. Read the old page with the modern text beside it for ten minutes a day. After two or three sessions most readers stop noticing the typeface, and only the long ſ and the k and t pair still need attention. Reading a text you do not know yet is the real test; when you can do that s