The Antiqua–Fraktur dispute was a
typographical
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing (leading), and ...
dispute in 19th- and early 20th-century
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
In most
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
an countries,
blackletter
Blackletter (sometimes black letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule, or Textura, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for the Danish, Norweg ...
typeface
A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font.
There are list of type ...
s like the German
Fraktur
Fraktur () is a calligraphic hand of the Latin alphabet and any of several blackletter typefaces derived from this hand. The blackletter lines are broken up; that is, their forms contain many angles when compared to the curves of the Antiqu ...
were displaced with the creation of the
Antiqua typefaces in the 15th and 16th centuries. However, in Germany and Austria, both fonts coexisted until the first half of the 20th century.
During that time, both typefaces gained
ideological
An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied prim ...
connotations in Germany, which led to long and heated disputes on what was the "correct" typeface to use. The eventual outcome was that the Antiqua-type fonts won when the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
chose to phase out the more ornate-looking Fraktur.
Origin
![Initialen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Initialen.jpg)
Historically, the dispute originates in the differing use of these two typefaces in most intellectual texts. Whereas Fraktur was preferred for works written in German, for
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
texts, Antiqua-type typefaces were normally used. This extended even to English–German dictionaries. For example, the English words would all be written in Antiqua, and the German words in Fraktur. Originally this was simply a convention.
19th century
Conflict over the two typefaces first came to a head after the occupation of Germany and dissolution of the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...
by
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
in 1806, which led to a period in the
history of Germany
The Germani tribes i.e. Germanic tribes are now considered to be related to the Jastorf culture before expanding and interacting with the other peoples.
The concept of a region for Germanic tribes is traced to time of Julius Caesar, a Roman gene ...
in which nationalists began to attempt to define what cultural values were common to all Germans. There was a massive effort to
canon
Canon or Canons may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base
* Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture
** Western can ...
ize the German national literature—for example, the
Grimm Brothers
The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...
' collection of
fairy tales
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cult ...
—and to create a unified German
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
.
In the context of these debates, the two typefaces became increasingly polarized: Antiqua typefaces were seen to be "un-German", and they were seen to represent this by virtue of their connotations as "shallow", "light", and "not serious". In contrast, Fraktur, with its much darker and denser script, was viewed as representing the allegedly German virtues such as depth and sobriety.
During the
Romantic Era
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
, in which the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
were glorified, the Fraktur typefaces additionally gained the (historically incorrect) interpretation that they represented German
Gothicism
Gothicism or Gothism ( sv, Göticism ; la, Gothicismus) was a cultural movement in Sweden, centered on the belief in the glory of the Swedish Geats, who were identified with the Goths. The founders of the movement were Nicolaus Ragvaldi and th ...
. For instance,
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...
's mother advised her son, who had taken to the clear Antiqua typefaces, to remain—"for God's sake"—German, even in his letters.
Otto von Bismarck
Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...
was a keen supporter of German typefaces. He refused gifts of German books in Antiqua typefaces and returned them to sender with the statement ' (I don't read German books in Latin letters!).
20th century
The dispute between Antiqua and Fraktur continued well into the 20th century. Arguments for Fraktur were not only based on historical and cultural perceptions, but also on the claim that Fraktur was more suited for printing German and other Germanic languages, as their proponents claimed it to be more readable than Antiqua for this purpose.
A 1910 publication by Adolf Reinecke, , claims the following advantages for using Fraktur as the German script:
* German script is a real reading script: it is more readable, i.e. the word images are clearer, than Latin script.
* German script is more compact in printing, which is an advantage for fast recognition of word images while reading.
* German script is more suitable for expressing German language, as it is more adapted to the characteristics of the German language than the Latin script.
* German script does not cause
nearsightedness
Near-sightedness, also known as myopia and short-sightedness, is an eye disease where light focuses in front of, instead of on, the retina. As a result, distant objects appear blurry while close objects appear normal. Other symptoms may include ...
and is healthier for the eyes than Latin script.
* German script is still prone to development; Latin script is set in stone.
* German script can be read and understood all over the world, where it is actually often used as ornamental script.
* German script makes it easier for foreigners to understand the German language.
* Latin script will gradually lose its position as international script through the progress of the Anglo-Saxon world (here the author states that "Anglo-Saxons in the UK, the United States and Australia are still 'Germanic' enough to annihilate the Latin-scriptler's dream of a Latin 'world-script).
* The use of Latin script for German language will promote its infestation with foreign words.
* German script does not impede at all the proliferation of German language and German culture in other countries.
On 4 May 1911, a peak in the dispute was reached during a vote in the . The ' ("Association for Antiqua") had submitted a proposition to make Antiqua the official typeface (Fraktur had been the official typeface since the foundation of the
German Empire
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
) and no longer teach German (blackletter
cursive
Cursive (also known as script, among other names) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functionalit ...
) in the schools. After a long and, in places, very emotional debate, the proposition was narrowly rejected 85–82.
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
had a complex and variable relationship with Fraktur.
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
personally disliked the typeface. In fact, as early as 1934 he denounced its continued use in a speech to the :
Nonetheless, Fraktur typefaces were particularly heavily used during the early years of the
Nazi era
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, when they were initially represented as true German script. In fact, the press was scolded for its frequent use of "Roman characters" under "Jewish influence", and German émigrés were urged to use only "German script". However Hitler's distaste for the script saw it officially discontinued in 1941 in a ("edict on script") signed by
Martin Bormann
Martin Ludwig Bormann (17 June 1900 – 2 May 1945) was a German Nazi Party official and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery. He gained immense power by using his position as Adolf Hitler's private secretary to control the flow of information ...
.
One of the motivations seems to have been compatibility with other European languages. The edict mentions publications destined for foreign countries, Antiqua would be more legible to those living in the occupied areas; the impetus for a rapid change in policy probably came from
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 19 ...
and his
Propaganda Ministry.
[Michaud, pp. 216â]
17
Readers outside German-speaking countries were largely unfamiliar with Fraktur typefaces. Foreign fonts and machinery could be used for the production of propaganda and other materials in local languages, but not so easily in German as long as the official preference for Fraktur remained.
Bormann's edict of 3 January 1941 at first forbade only the use of blackletter typefaces. A second memorandum banned the use of handwriting, including , which had only been introduced in the 1920s. From the academic year 1941/42 onwards, only the so-called ' ("normal script"), which had hitherto been taught alongside under the name of "Latin script", was allowed to be used and taught. did remain in use until 1945 for some applications such as cloth military insignia badges.
After the Second World War
After the war, the Sütterlin script was once again taught in the schools of some
states of Germany as an additional script, but it could not hold out against the usage of Latin cursive scripts. Nowadays, since few people who can read
Kurrent
() is an old form of German-language handwriting based on late medieval cursive writing, also known as ("cursive script"), ("German script") and ''German cursive''. Over the history of its use into the first part of the 20th century, many ...
remain, most old letters, diaries, etc. remain inaccessible for all but the most elderly German speakers, or specialists like
genealogist
Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinsh ...
s or historians. As a consequence, most Germans find it difficult to decipher their own grandparents' letters, diaries, or certificates.
However, the Fraktur script remains present in everyday life in some pub signs, beer brands and other forms of advertisement, where it is used to convey a certain sense of rusticity and oldness (compare the English ''
ye olde''). However, many of these deviate from the traditional letterforms, specifically in the frequent untraditional use of the round ''s'' instead of the
long s
The long s , also known as the medial s or initial s, is an archaism, archaic form of the lowercase letter . It replaced the single ''s'', or one or both of the letters ''s'' in a 'double ''s sequence (e.g., "ſinfulneſs" for "sinfulness" ...
(Å¿) at the beginning of a syllable, the omission of
ligatures, and the use of letter-forms more similar to Antiqua for certain especially hard-to-read Fraktur letters such as ''k''. Books wholly printed in Fraktur are nowadays read mostly for particular interests. Since many people have difficulty understanding blackletter, they may have trouble accessing older editions of classic works in German.
A few organizations such as the ' continue to advocate the use of Fraktur typefaces, highlighting their cultural and historical heritage and their advantages when used for printing
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, Engli ...
. But these organizations are small, somewhat sectarian, and not particularly well known in Germany.
In the United States, Mexico, and Central America,
Old Order Amish
The Amish (; pdc, Amisch; german: link=no, Amische), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian origins. They are closely related to Mennonite church ...
,
Old Order Mennonite
Old Order Mennonites (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania German: ) form a branch of the Mennonite tradition. Old Order Movement, Old Order are those Mennonite groups of Swiss people, Swiss German and south Germans, German heritage who pract ...
, and
Old Colony Mennonite
The name Old Colony Mennonites (German language, German: ''Altkolonier-Mennoniten'') is used to describe that part of the Russian Mennonite movement that is descended from colonists who migrated from the Chortitza Colony in Russia (itself origina ...
schools still teach the
Kurrent
() is an old form of German-language handwriting based on late medieval cursive writing, also known as ("cursive script"), ("German script") and ''German cursive''. Over the history of its use into the first part of the 20th century, many ...
handwriting and
Fraktur
Fraktur () is a calligraphic hand of the Latin alphabet and any of several blackletter typefaces derived from this hand. The blackletter lines are broken up; that is, their forms contain many angles when compared to the curves of the Antiqu ...
script. German books printed by Amish and Mennonite printers use the Fraktur script.
References
Further reading
* Silvia Hartmann: '. Lang, Frankfurt am Main u.a. 1998,
* Christina Killius: '. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1999,
*
Albert Kapr
Albert may refer to:
Companies
* Albert (supermarket), a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic
* Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands
* Albert Market, a street market in The Gambia
* Albert Productions, a record label
* Albert ...
: '. Verlag Hermann Schmidt, Mainz 1993,
External links
Die Nationalsozialisten und die Fraktur(in German)
Bund für deutsche Schrift und Sprache(in German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Antiqua-Fraktur Dispute
Typography
Palaeography
German language
Martin Bormann
19th century in Germany
20th century in Germany