Above left: Copy of a 1768 ordinance issued by Maximilian Friedrich von Königsegg-Rothenfels, Archbishop of Cologne / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain / Image source: Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Initialen.jpg Above right: Martin Bormann’s confidential circular letter forbidding Blackletter (Schrifterlass Fraktur Antiqua 1941 Hitler Bormann) Image source: https://ia904503.us.archive.org/32/items/schrifterlass-fraktur-antiqua-1941-hitler-bormann/Schrifterlass_Fraktur_Antiqua_1941_Hitler_Bormann.png The curiously, grotesque NS Blackletter identity reversalDuring the preparation for a presentation earlier this year (Spring 2023) on medieval letterforms I came across the NS regime’s confidential circular letter dated 3 January 1941 prohibiting the use of Schwabacher letterforms to convey German identity. The letter denounced and forbade the use of Blackletter typefaces, referring to them as ‘Schwabacher Judenlettern’. The letter was signed by Martin Bormann, the head of the NSDAP Chancellery and Adolf Hitler’s deputy. Bormann was therefore the official ‘Reichs’ representative transmitting Adolf Hitler’s order. The NS regime pursued a scurrilous line of argumentation against the identity projection of Blackletter typefaces. Although they pinpointed the Schwabacher fonts, all Blackletter fonts were implied, including Textura, Fraktur, Rotunda etc. Blackletter had been a common script style from the later high, and late middle-ages to, at least in German-speaking regions of Europe, the 20th century. The development of scribal letterforms was adopted in the 15th century by Johannes Gutenberg who created typefaces with movable letters imitating the manuscripts. An Austrian provincial newspaper, the Salzburger Nachrichten, has a banner logo still using Blackletter script. It should be noted that the newspaper was founded a month after Germany’s WW2 surrender in June 1945 under the auspices of General Eisenhower’s Information Service Branch (ISB) of the 12th Army Corps (Salzburger Nachrichten, 2023).
According to Friedrich Beck (2006), Adolf Hitler had previously, officially opposed the identity of Blackletter type which he derided in a 1934 ‘Reichsparteitag' speech in Nürnberg, describing it as backward and could be considered to be a fossil in a museum, Fraktur had over the centuries developed a definitively strong German identity (Beck, 2006). As explained in Friedrich Beck’s erudite and concise documentation, contrasting with Adolf Hitler’s disdain of gothic letterforms, Georg von Schönerer and Vienna’s mayor, Karl Lueger, who were both prominent antisemitic Austrians, influential in forging Adolf Hitler ideologies, found the Blackletter fonts sacred and the Antiqua letters non-German (Beck, 2006). Reverence towards the Blackletter in its German identity-building role was emphatically underlined by Adolf Reinecke in his book, Die deutsche Buchstabenschrift, ihre Entstehung und Entwicklung, ihre Zweckmäßigkeit und völkische Bedeutung (1910). The title may be translated into English as The German alphabet, its origin and development, its usefulness and national significance. Reinecke’s book was a worshipping praise of the German Blackletter script identity. For example, Reinecke states: “Die Schriftsache ist keine Streitfrage, sondern eine völkisch, vaterländische Angelegenheiten höher Wichtigkeit. Die deutsche Schrift ist die jüngere Schwesterherz deutsche Sprache, das Gewand für unsere Sprache beim schreiben und drucken, die eigentliche Leseschrift des deutschen Volkes” (Reinecke, 1910). (English transl.: “The matter of writing is not a matter of dispute, but one of national, patriotic importance. The German script is the younger sisterly heart of the German language, the garment for our language in writing and printing, the actual reading script of the German people.”) Particularly bizarre is the fact that, according to Friedrich Beck (2006), the ‘Reichs’ Propaganda Ministry had, prior to Bormann's circular letter, in 1937 forbidden Jewish publishers to use Blackletter fonts, because of their instilled German identity. Adolf Hitler’s motivation for choosing to denigrate the 'Schwabacher' letterforms can only be surmised. Friedrich Beck makes reference not only to identity of modernity but also to the monumentality of Antiqua and sans serif fonts, which were proportioned and modelled on the inscriptions from the period of the Roman Empire, as the possible reason which offers a convincing explanation in the context of Hitler's role identification as a ruling emperor. The exact background of Adolf Hitler’s decision to ban a script that had gained popularity and recognition as the German-identity script in the early years of NS governing power, can only be speculated. Perhaps he required the strong justification of Jewish defamation to bring about an abrupt cessation of use, instead of a gradual phasing out. The claim that ‘Schwabacher’, Blackletter fonts were of Jewish and not German identity may have been a spontaneous idea for Hitler to eliminate the letters he had described as museum fossils. As was often in the past, misusing the Jews as scapegoats to justify deeds with ulterior motives was a convenience for Adolf Hitler’s nefarious argumentation. My research so far, has not produced evidence of Hitler’s claim of ‘Schwabacher Judenlettern’. Had Adolf Hitler, as a former student of art, noticed fonts created by successful Jewish type designers? For example, Lucian Bernhard’s, Bernhard-Fraktur produced 1912 and later extended, or Berthold Wolpe, also of Jewish origin, who created Sachsenwald, which was produced in 1936, as documented by Sarah Bryant of the Big Jump Press (2014) under the name ‘Bismarck Schrift’ (Bryant, 2014). Both were acknowledged as successful graphic designers of applied arts in Germany, before emigrating, Bernhard to the USA and Wolpe to England. Incidentally, Bismarck would not, according to Friedrich Beck's article, read text set in Antiqua (Latin) typefaces. Beck, provides visual evidence that not all NS functionaries agreed with Adolph Hitler's ban by including a reproduced document, dated 26 August 1941, written by Heinrich Geck, a mining director, in which he defends the use of the German, Blackletter identity, using Otto von Bismarck as an example for his entreaty. The ban on Blackletter was, however, at least in the official NS publications, generally obeyed. Following the ban newspapers transitioned their identity from Blackletter to Antiqua letterforms. This also applied to Adolf Hitler’s book ‘Mein Kampf’ which had previous to the ban implemented Blackletter. It would appear that in the Blackletter/Antiqua conflict Adolf Hitler's declaration had not continued to convince all, today the Blackletter scripts are frequently used to represent Neo-Nazi ideologies. During the research for the short presentation, mentioned at the beginning, I had noticed that the circular letter containing the ban had used a logo banner in Blackletter. I discovered afterwards that this bizarre incongruity had been observed by others with an interest in letterform history. This interest in the visual semiotics of the NS regime in the context of religious signs was a theme briefly covered in the recently published book, Corporate Designing Religion (2023 / Lit Verlag) in which the identity perception of the swastika experienced a similarly dramatic identity mutation. (© Wiseman, 04.12.2023) Sources of information: Bryant, Sarah (2014) Adventures in the Monotype Archive: The Sad Story of Sachsenwald https://bigjumppress.blog/2014/04/17/adventures-in-the-monotype-archive-the-sad-story-of-sachsenwald/ Reinecke, Adolf (1910) Die deutsche Buchstabenschrift, ihre Entstehung und Entwicklung, ihre Zweckmäßigkeit und völkische Bedeutung, published by A. Hasert, Leipzig Beck, F. (2006) „Schwabacher Judenlettern“ Schriftverruf im Dritten Reich. In W. Hempel, K. p. Helmut, & J. H. Schoeps (Eds.), Die Kunst des Vernetzens - Festschrift für Wolfgang Hempel (Schriftenreihe des Wilhelm- Fraenger-Instituts Potsdam ed., Vol. 9). Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH. Salzburger Nachrichten (2023) Die Geschichte der Salzburger Nachrichten, source: https://www.sn.at/service/wir-ueber-uns/die-geschichte-salzburger-nachrichten-5994415
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