Nazi Typeface used for documents

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Nagelfar
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Nazi Typeface used for documents

#1

Post by Nagelfar » 16 Dec 2002, 01:13

does anybody know the exact typeface the Nazis used on their official documents? did the SS documents differ from the Luftwaffe for example? I also heard that toward the end, the Fraktur style was abandoned because of conjecture that it was originally inspired by hebrew writing, does anyone know if this is true? (both either them abandoning the typeface, or fraktur actually being inspired by hebrew)

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Birgitte Heuschkel
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#2

Post by Birgitte Heuschkel » 16 Dec 2002, 01:32

Fraktur is inspired by calligraphy inspired by modern antiquas inspired by Greco-Roman antiquas. Sorry, theory doesn't hold.


varjag
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Fraktur

#3

Post by varjag » 17 Dec 2002, 13:42

When was 'Fraktur' actually abandoned? Surely it must have been long before 'toward the end'? The SS though seems to have retained typewriters with those 'rune S's' - I'd love to have one as THAT seems to be a typeset NOT allowed in modern data typing.

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Max
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#4

Post by Max » 18 Dec 2002, 13:49

It is ironic to learn that it was Hitler himself who finally terminated Fraktur printing. During the course of the war, the German type had proved to be a communications barrier with the peoples of occupied Europe, and so in January of 1941, Fraktur was officially abolished by declaring it to be ?Un-German? and ?of Jewish origin?. The order directed all newspapers and publishing houses to switch to Antiqua at the earliest practicable date.

Due to the economic difficulties caused by the war, this date never really came, and relatively few publications had actually switched by the end of the war in 1945.
During the next forty years, Fraktur became closely and solely with the Third Reich. All Fraktur printing was treated with suspicion. Today, printers and type designers are carefully pulling these treasures back to into the light and hope that they will once again be freed of political sentiments. So I hope you will enjoy the beautiful Fraktur and old-fashioned fonts on my site and you are invited to use them in your private desktop publishing applications.
http://www.steffmann.de/english/fraktur.htm

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Max
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#5

Post by Max » 18 Dec 2002, 14:44

varjag wrote
The SS though seems to have retained typewriters with those 'rune S's' - I'd love to have one as THAT seems to be a typeset NOT allowed in modern data typing.

For Sale.
Nazi SS typewriter with official intelligence label from Belsen Bergen, Offers.
A magazine advert

Nazi
Intelligence
Offers
Belsen
Nazi intelligence
Offers Belsen
Issues death
Gives a typed receipt
Issues death with a typed receipt
Receives life, debits life
Typed receipts with totalled columns
Stores death in manilla folders
Black and white
Correct punctuation
Bound and filed
Stored and remembered in part
Part
Amount
Cost
Receipt
Hair...Black
Teeth...Gold
Glasses...Clear
Clothes...Bundled
Life...Extinct
Not yours
Not mine
Proudly signed
A task completed
The paperwork done
Filed and rank
Nazi intelligence
Offers death
Remembered in part
Flags and parades
Order and discipline
Solutions to problems
Final solutions
Nazi
Intelligence
Offers
Belsen

Peter Clout
http://www.ozpoet.asn.au/showcase/subs/submissions.html

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Max
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#6

Post by Max » 18 Dec 2002, 14:56

Sorry- but I'm on a roll here
All but one of the Writer's Block cages are stuffed with black metal typewriters from the years before World War II, some of them from Germany, some of them used to type out the orders that sent people to the concentration camps. The 21st cage, which forms the point of a triangle facing Under den Linden, contains only one small typewriter inside a second, smaller cage. A close look at the keyboard shows that hitting SHIFT and "5" types out the SS symbol, the twin lightning bolts that have become synonymous with evil.
"Mostly I just wanted to call attention to it and make people really look at it," Oring said, standing near her installation. "All of these typewriters in some ways raise questions. The SS typewriter is a really blatant reminder about what happened at that time, and it's the only one I have. It was illegal to have them after the war. We got this machine from Prague."

http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,19597,00.html
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