Part 1:The Complete Guide to Deciphering Kurrentschrift (For Non-German Speakers)

Oftentimes the most difficult task for anyone researching their German ancestors is navigating Kurrentschrift.

Kurrentschrift is an old German script which fell out of use after 1941. Although the script is quite beautiful, it can be very difficult to read when first starting out (and for some time after as well). This is the first post in a series which will (hopefully) teach you everything you need to know to start deciphering these texts. It's important to note that these will only give you a jump start. You will be able to (hopefully) read most of your records after working through the steps I outline, however it will take a lot of time at first to read each one. Speed comes with a combination of time and recognition, both of which mean you have to practice. Keep at it though, with each record you transcribe your time spent will decrease exponentially. Personally, transcribing records written in Kurrentschrift (as long as the handwriting isn't smudged or cramped) now takes only a few more minutes than transcribing English records.

Now with that in mind, let's get started!

Using Schrift Generator

Hopefully, the future sections of this series will help you to read your documents in Kurrentschrift relatively well without the use of technology. However, no one can deny the value of having a bit of help here and there. That's where the Schrift Generator comes in handy. The Schrift Generator  allows you to type out anything you want and display how it would look when written in a variety of Fraktur, Sütterlin, and Kurrent fonts. 

The User Interface

The page is in German, but it's relatively easy to use. If you scroll down, you should see an entry field that looks something like this:

The text entry field in Schrift Generator

This is where you type the words you wish to display in German Script.

Next to that, you will see some icons:

The icons next to the text input box.

The arrows next to the word "Schriftgröße" let you change the font size of the outputted text. Pressing the up arrow will increase the size and the down arrow will decrease it.

The words "schwarz" and "blau" let you change the font color. "schwarz" will change the font to black and "blau" to blue. I don't typically use this feature, but perhaps it will be useful to some.

Actually using the generator is pretty simple. Type a word in the box, click the font you want to display the text in, and it will display whatever you type in the selected font. Here is my name (Renee Schmidt) in the first font option:

My Name as displayed in one of the Kurrentschrift fonts

You can also change the type of s the program prints out. There are 3 main ways you can write an s in kurrentschrift. As a refresher, here is an image depicting each of these:

The letter S as its written in Kurrentschrift (source)

The first two are lowercase and the third is uppercase. You can write the first and third s in the generator just as you normally would, but to write the second one you must replace the letter s with a colon. Take the German word 'des' (one of the words in German for 'the') for example. If I type it out in the schrift generator normally it looks like this:

Typing des normally in Schrift Generator

The word 'des' as outputted by the program

There is just one problem though. I have never seen the word 'des' written with the first s in any of my documents. I always see it written with the 2nd s.

3 samples of the word 'des' from some of my documents

So how do you make the program output a version of 'des' that looks like how it was actually written? it's actually pretty simple, just replace the s with a colon. So where before you wrote "des" you would now write "de:" which will produce the following:

Typing "de:" into the program

The word "des" as outputted by the program

Now that you know how to use the tool, I'm sure you're wondering, how do you know which of the fonts to use? It's actually fairly simple to figure out. Here are the differences and similarities between each of the scripts featured, and where you may find them:

The Main Types of Fonts

The two most general groups that German fonts (or fonts from any country for that matter) can be broken down in to are handwritten fonts and typed fonts. Now, obviously, they didn't have typewriters for quite a long time. So I am using the term "typed" to describe the category of writing in which each letter is wholly separated from the rest and written with straight lines and mostly uncurved corners. The term 'handwritten fonts' is fairly self-explanatory, meaning the letters are often connected and written with smooth strokes.

The Fraktur Fonts in Schrift Generator

All of the Fraktur fonts circled in black

Up until this point I have been referring to these fonts as typed fonts, but in reality that is not what they are typically called. Rather, most know this group of fonts as "Fraktur". All the fonts circled above are examples of Fraktur. When I looked at the source code for the website, I was able to extract a bit more information about what precisely each of these fonts is called. The following is what I found, going through each of the circled fonts from left to right.

Offenbach Frakturschrift

The Offenbach Font

This script is identified as being called "AD Offenbach Frakturschrift". An additional note warns the reader that they should not mistake this script for the "Offenbacher Kurrentschrift" of the 1930's. Seeing as I am not familiar with either Offenbach font or even what Offenbach is referring to, and my guess is most readers won't either (although if you do know, I'd be very interested to hear from you in the comments), I doubt this will be a problem. Based on appearance, I would say this font is essentially the same as Blackletter font (the next font examined in this post) with a more dramatic slant and more detailed letters. The most notable difference between this font and the others is it's elaborate capital letters.

A larger sample of Offenbach from Schrift Generator

Minuskel Frakturschrift

The blackletter font

This one is one of the standard frakturs you will come across in your research. In English it could be called "blackletter font" and was used up until the 20th century within the German language.

A larger sample of the blackletter script from Schrift Generator

Schwaben Frakturschrift

The Schwaben Font

This is the Schwabenbacher font, which was typically used for emphasis in German documents, as it was replaced (for the most part) by some more common variations of Fraktur

A larger sample of the Schwaben font from Schrift Generator

Old London Frakturschrift

The Old London Font

This is a more modern interpretation of the script and not as likely to be relevant to your research. However, it may still be helpful and is worth looking at.

A larger sample of the Old London/ Old English Font

The Handwritten Fonts in Schrift Generator

All of the handwritten fonts in Schrift Generator circled in black

Pictured above are all of the handwritten fonts within Schrift Generator. Just like before, I will go through each of these in more detail, left to right.

1814 Kurrentschrift

Kurrentschrift Font

This is easily the handwriting font I find most useful for my research, as it seems to appear quite often in the old documents. It is a fairly standard non-cursive Kurrentschrift font and was most often used between the 16th century to mid-twentieth century. The name of the font contains the year "1814", so presumably the font was based on a document from that year. However, I can't say for sure.

A larger sample of the Kurrent font

1915 Suetterlin / Sütterlin

Suetterlin Font

It's pretty easy to determine whether you need a general Kurrentschrift font like the one previously shown or a general Suetterlin font such as this one. Simply note the year of the document and refer to the timeline below:

Pre-1915: Kurrentschrift is the predominant script in use.

1915: Suetterlin, created by the graphic artist Ludwig Sütterlin, is introduced in Prussia after it was decided that the schools needed a more modern form of the German Kurrentschrift writing to teach in schools.

1915-1941: Suetterlin is the main German handwriting form taught in schools

Post-1941: Suetterlin is replaced with Latin characters

The main difference between Suetterlin and Kurrentschrift visually is that Suetterlin is, for lack of a better word, much messier. It is very often rounder with fuller characters than Kurrentschrift and each letter will typically have less detail.

A larger sample of the Suetterlin font

The alternative Suetterlin and Kurrent Samples

Left, the alternative Suetterlin font; Right, the cursive Kurrent font

I decided to address the final two font options together because they serve the same purpose. If the two previously mentioned scripts did not resemble your document enough, then you can use these more 'imperfect' fonts which more closely resemble different handwritings. The Suetterlin one is bolder and looks like handwriting often does when written a bit more quickly:

A sample of the second Suetterlin font

The Kurrent one has much smaller lowercase letters with less obvious divisions between characters. I personally see this font most often in the taufzeugen (godparents) and header sections of old German records. It is also easily the most difficult to read for me, and I am sure, most others as well. 

A sample of the alternative Kurrent font

Final Remarks

Hopefully, you will find this tool useful as an introduction to the different German scripts. It is, however, just an introduction. As the title of this post states, this is simply part 1 of your exploration of this elegant script. As I complete my write-ups of the rest of the process, I will link them here.

Of course, if there is anything specific you are wondering about I'd love for you to comment below. Who knows, it may inspire one of the future posts in this series!