Sütterlin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Latin script (Fraktur variant) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Type: | Alphabet | |
| Languages: | ? | |
| Time period: | ? | |
| ISO 15924 code: | Latf | |
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| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
Sütterlinschrift, or Sütterlin for short, is a form of the old German blackletter handwriting ("Spitzschrift") that was designed by and named after Ludwig Sütterlin, a German graphical designer and teacher who was commissioned to do so by the Prussian ministry for culture in 1911.
Sütterlin was installed in Prussia in 1915, and from the 1920s onwards began to replace the relatively similar old German handwriting in schools. In 1935 it officially became part of the curriculum as an "Aryan script".
When the Nazis conquered much of Europe, they found that commands in the local language could not be understood when written in Sütterlin, so, in 1941, like all blackletter typefaces, it was suddenly banned from use. Despite this, several élite units of the Waffen SS and Wehrmacht wore cufftitles embroidered in the Sütterlin script. After World War II, Sütterlin was again used in some schools until the 1970s, but no longer as the primary script.
The Sütterlin lower-case 'e' resembles two slanted bars, in which the origin of the umlaut diacritic from a small 'e' written above the modified vowel can be seen.
Sütterlin is based on the old German handwriting, which is a handwriting form of the Blackletter scripts such as Fraktur or Schwabacher, the German print scripts which were used during the same time.
It also had the long s (ſ), as well as several standard ligatures such as ff (f-f), ſt (ſ-t), st (s-t), and of course ß (ſ-z or ſ-s).
For most people outside of Germany, as well as younger Germans, Sütterlin is nearly illegible — even more so than Fraktur printing. Sütterlin letters are still sometimes used for mathematical symbols which would use Fraktur letters in print.
[edit] Overview of the letters
[edit] Examples
 In Erfurt 2004 (Fortress Petersberg): "Arreststube Nr. 1" - "lock-up room No. 1" - Notice the long s's. |
 "Offizierswache", "Officers' guardroom" - Notice the round s. |
 "Grenadierwache", "Grenadiers' guardroom" |
[edit] External links
- The Sütterlin script at Omniglot
- Freeware Sütterlin font, from Prof Don Becker of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. This is the font used to set the sample characters at commons:Sütterlin
- Learn Sütterlin, a lesson, with sample texts
