Fraktur (or Gothic) font and Kurrent- (or Sütterlin) handwriting: Nazi ban, 1941

In the middle of the war on January 1, 1942, the Winnipeg-based Mennonitische Rundschau published a new issue without the familiar Fraktur script masthead (note 1). One might speculate on the reasons, but a year earlier Hitler banned the use of the font in the Reich.

The Rundschau did not exactly follow all orders from Berlin—the rest of the paper was in Fraktur (sometimes referred to as "Gothic"); when the war ended in 1945, the Rundschau reintroduced the Fraktur font for its masthead.

It wasn’t until the 1960s that an issue might have a page or title here or there with the “normal” or Latin font, even though post-war Germany was no longer using Fraktur. By 1973 only the Rundschau masthead is left in Fraktur, and that is only removed in December 1992.

Attached is a copy of Nazi Party Secretary Martin Bormann's official letter dated January 3, 1941, which prohibited the use of Fraktur fonts "by order of the Führer." Why? It was a Jewish invention, apparently! Here is a good summary from a University of Heidelberg online publication:

“This decision was justified by tracing the origin of the 'Gothic script' (Fraktur) back to so-called 'Schwabach Jewish letters.' The Schwabach script is one of the many Fraktur scripts that have been in use since the 15th century. The fact that it was developed by Jews is just as false as all the other apparent justifications that Martin Bormann cites to justify the ban on the use of Fraktur fonts. Due to the strict guild laws, Jews were not even allowed to work in a print shop, let alone buy one. (Note 2)

The article however adds that

“ ... the real reason for the ban was the consideration that fonts printed in Fraktur for foreign countries were difficult or impossible to read for those occupied population groups who were otherwise used to reading Antiqua script. The Fraktur ban was therefore a pragmatic decision by the National Socialists: if they wanted to become a 'world power', they had to use a typeface that the whole world could read.”

And, as another German site presumes, it was important “to ensure the legibility of propaganda and decrees in occupied territories--in anticipation of the desired overall victory in the Second World War” (note 3).

But it was not only printed texts that were impacted by Hitler’s thinking in 1941. Teaching children the old Sütterlin (or Kurrent or “German”) handwriting was also officially discontinued for similar reasons on September 1, 1941 with a decree issued by the Reich Ministry of Science, Education and National Education. Now only Latin-style handwriting was taught and used in schools.

Indeed, Hitler’s decision

“… had a profound effect on everyday German life. Children no longer learned the German script and could therefore no longer read their parents' letters, or only with difficulty. … It was really a kind of cultural revolution. It meant that today's generations can hardly read handwritten documents in German script (and thus from almost 500 years ago!).” (Note 4)

I felt the weight of that some years ago when I received a bundle of letters written by my father's parents in Paraguay in the 1930s and '40s. I could not read them and, as a scholar, that bothered me. Even my mother--born in the Mennonite Molotschna settlement in Ukraine in 1937 and a long-time German school teacher--could not decipher much of the letters either.

But I had learnt Hebrew and Greek, and I even took a Mandarin course. I thought surely I can push myself to learn to read this script. Afterall, I already knew the language, having spent some years in Germany and Switzerland.

And with perserverence it worked, more or less, though it is not without headaches that I slog my way through a handwritten letter, and not without some guesses and errors!

I am also very conscious that children today too are only one small step away from being unable to read our handwritten materials.

But even for those intent on understanding the church and world of Russian Mennonites in their context in previous eras, it is not too late to learn to read things previous generations wrote--and push back against Hitler's decree! And who knows, one may even find the Rundschau and other older writings more hepful and enlightenng to read than many of our newspapers today.

            ---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: Mennonitische Rundschau, https://archive.org/details/pub_die-mennonitische-rundschau?sort=date.

Note 2: Janina Reibold, “Verbot der Frakturschriften durch die Nationalsozialisten,” (Un!Mut, July 7, 2010, University of Heidelberg), https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/unimut/themen/fraktur-verbot.html.

Note 3: Helmut Stapel, “Sütterlin: Geschichte einer deutschen Schrift, die keine mehr ist,” GEO-Plus Magazin, 2022 (online), https://www.geo.de/wissen/weltgeschichte/suetterlin--die-verbotene-schrift-und-ihre-geschichte-32633438.html.

Note 4: “Geschichte der Sütterlin-Schrift," Sütterlinstube Hamburg, https://suetterlinstube.de/geschichte.php.

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To cite this page: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, "Fraktur (or "Gothic") font and Kurrent- (or Sütterlin) handwriting: Nazi ban, 1941," History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), December 4, 2023, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/12/fraktur-or-gothic-font-and-kurrent-or.html.