LL-L: "Orthography" LOWLANDS-L, 14.MAY.2000 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 14.MAY.2000 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Ian J. L. Adkins [ian at cyberhub.co.uk]
Subject: Fraktur

Regarding Fraktur, in my college German class we were taught to read in
Fraktur once we had learned the basics and moved on to grammar and
tense.  It was interesting to see though that Fraktur wasn't applied to
stone monuments: I live near a Low German speaking town in New York named
Bergholz, and there are a number of graves and cornerstones dating to the
first half of last century (1826 is the earliest I've seen) and everything
conforms to the more conventional typography of the day (Caslon, Bodoni, a
lot of Egyptian-style with the thick strokes and heavy serifs).  I'd be
interested in hearing a bit more on why Fraktur went out, I'm not entirely
clear about it.  Anything to do with the Bauhaus movement?  I know Bauhaus
typestyles were quite the radical departure from Fraktur, uniform in
weight, no serifs, entirely miniscules.

--Ian

---
Ian J. L. Adkins
President and CEO, The Cyberhub
ian at mail.cyberhub.co.uk
http://www.cyberhub.co.uk

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From: R. F. Hahnr [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Orthography

Ian Adkins wrote:

<snip>
> It was interesting to see though that Fraktur wasn't applied to
> stone monuments: I live near a Low German speaking town in New York named

> Bergholz, and there are a number of graves and cornerstones dating to the

> first half of last century (1826 is the earliest I've seen) and
everything
> conforms to the more conventional typography of the day (Caslon, Bodoni,
a
> lot of Egyptian-style with the thick strokes and heavy serifs).
<snip>

Ian, first of all, we'd need to establish if this was an aberration, namely
if it is the same as or different from monuments of other immigrants from
Germany in North America.  Then you'll have to ask yourself who made the
monuments.  The immigrant community or English speakers who "did not do
Fraktur."  Even if the speakers themselves made them, I can imagine that
Fraktur would have disappeared earlier among them than back in Germany,
given that learning Fraktur besides Roman type has always been perceived as
quite a burden.

I can't tell you all that much about the history of Fraktur, but I do know
that it was still used in print in Germany (for both German and Low
Saxon/German) until the 1920s, but Modernist movements were already pushing
it aside.  I have several Low Saxon publications from that era, and most
are in Fraktur.  It had a comeback in the 1930 that was virtually decreed
by the Nazi regime, and this lasted till the end of World War II.  The
education system had switched to Roman type before the Nazi era, and this
was reversed a few years later.  My mother and her sister started school
with Fraktur (both printed and handwritten), but their brother, only a
couple of years older than they were, had started with Roman type and was
forced to relearn.  In the post-war era, Fraktur was only taught in some
schools, and then only for a short period and for reading purposes (rarely
for writing purposes).  I was taught it, and I am glad it was, because I
can read it without any problem, although my primary type was Roman.  Later
this was discontinued in many schools with the result that most younger
people cannot read old books.

Regards,

ReinhardRon

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