| Latin script, Blackletter hand | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Script type | Alphabet
|
Time period | 12th–17th century |
| Direction | Left-to-right  |
| Languages | Western and Northern European languages |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Latin script
|
Child systems | Fraktur (Fraktur and blackletter are sometimes used interchangeably), Kurrentschrift including Sütterlin |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Latf (217), Latin (Fraktur variant) |
| Unicode | |
1D504–1D537, with some exceptions (see below) | |
Blackletter (sometimes black letter or black-letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule or Gothic type, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century.[1] It continued to be commonly used for Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish until the 1870s,[2] Finnish until the turn of the 20th century,[3] Latvian until the 1930s,[4] and for the German language until the 1940s, when Hitler officially discontinued it in 1941.[5] Fraktur is a notable script of this type, and sometimes the entire group of blackletter faces is referred to as Fraktur. Blackletter is sometimes referred to as Old English, but it is not to be confused with the Old English language, which predates blackletter by many centuries and was written in the insular script or in Futhorc. Along with Italic type and Roman type, blackletter served as one of the major typefaces in the history of Western typography.
- ^ Dowding, Geoffrey (1962). An introduction to the history of printing types; an illustrated summary of main stages in the development of type design from 1440 up to the present day: an aid to type face identification. Clerkenwell [London]: Wace. p. 5.
- ^ "Styles of Handwriting". Rigsarkivet. The Danish National Archives. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
- ^ "Goottilaisten kirjainten käyttö". Kotus [Institute for the Languages of Finland]. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
- ^ "Gotiskais raksts". Tezaurs.lv. University of Latvia. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
- ^ Facsimile of Bormann's Memorandum (in German)
The memorandum itself is typed in Antiqua, but the NSDAP letterhead is printed in Fraktur.
"For general attention, on behalf of the Führer, I make the following announcement:
It is wrong to regard or to describe the so-called Gothic script as a German script. In reality, the so-called Gothic script consists of Schwabach Jew letters. Just as they later took control of the newspapers, upon the introduction of printing the Jews residing in Germany took control of the printing presses and thus in Germany the Schwabach Jew letters were forcefully introduced.
Today the Führer, talking with Herr Reichsleiter Amann and Herr Book Publisher Adolf Müller, has decided that in the future the Antiqua script is to be described as normal script. All printed materials are to be gradually converted to this normal script. As soon as is feasible in terms of textbooks, only the normal script will be taught in village and state schools.
The use of the Schwabach Jew letters by officials will in future cease; appointment certifications for functionaries, street signs, and so forth will in future be produced only in normal script.
On behalf of the Führer, Herr Reichsleiter Amann will in future convert those newspapers and periodicals that already have foreign distribution, or whose foreign distribution is desired, to normal script".