The Antiqua–Fraktur Dispute: How Germany's Typography War Ended with Nazi Edict
In 19th- and early 20th-century Germany, a typographical battle raged between Antiqua and Fraktur typefaces, each carrying ideological weight. Fraktur was seen as German, deep, and sober, while Antiqua was dismissed as un-German and shallow. The dispute peaked in 1911 when a Reichstag vote to adopt Antiqua failed by a narrow margin. Ultimately, the Nazis, despite initial support for Fraktur, banned it in 1941 with the Normalschrifterlass, favoring Antiqua for practical and ideological reasons. The edict, signed by Martin Bormann, called Fraktur 'Schwabacher Judenlettern' and marked the end of blackletter's dominance in Germany.
Your alleged Gothic internalization does not fit well in this age of steel and iron, glass and concrete, of womanly beauty and manly strength, of head raised high and intention defiant[...]
- card_zero
This led me to look up the origins of Fraktur, that typeface having been commissioned by Maximilian I for this extraordinary thing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumphal_Arch_(woodcut)
Instead of having a monumental triumphal arch built, he got Dürer to print a monumental poster of a triumphal arch, and had copies of it stuck up in all the public places.
- wolfi1
BTW, Oliver Heaviside campaigned against Fraktur "German letters must go!" and I have to admit the do not look really good in math formulas, at least to my taste. He even claimed Germans would get short sighted by reading Fraktur (I didn't find the quote on the internet, so I have to look that up in my library if anyone is interested)
- hasley
Today, far right-wing people in Germany use fraktur on shirts, cars etc. - even though it were the Nazis who abolished it.
- skrebbel
I love learning that Hitler had an opinion about fonts and ranted about them in the Reichstag.
- liotier
Remember December 2025, when Marco Rubio ordered diplomats to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor's decision to adopt Calibri a “wasteful” diversity move ?