Sütterlin

Template:Short description Template:Italic title Template:Multiple issues Template:Infobox writing system {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}, '{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} script') is the last widely used form of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, the historical form of German handwriting script that evolved alongside German blackletter (most notably {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) typefaces. Graphic artist Ludwig Sütterlin was commissioned by the Prussian Ministry of Science, Art and Culture ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) to create a modern handwriting script in 1911. His handwriting scheme gradually replaced the older cursive scripts that had developed in the 16th century at the same time that letters in books had developed into Fraktur. The name {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is nowadays often used to refer to several similar varieties of old German handwriting, but Sütterlin's own script was taught only from 1915 to 1941 in all German schools.

History

The ministry had asked for "modern" handwriting scripts to be used in offices and to be taught in school. Sütterlin created two scripts in parallel with the two typefaces that were in use (see Antiqua–Fraktur dispute). The {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} scripts were introduced in Prussia in 1915, and from the 1920s onwards, they began to replace the relatively similar old German handwriting ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) in schools. In 1935, the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} style officially became the only German script taught in schools.

In 1941, the Nazi Party banned all "broken" (fraktur, blackletter) typefaces, including {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, and replaced them with Italian-style lettering, such as the Antiqua typeface class. From the academic year 1941/42 onwards, only the so-called {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("normal script"), which had hitherto been taught alongside {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} under the name of "Latin script", was allowed to be used and taught. However, many German speakers who had been brought up with that writing system continued to use it well into the postwar period.

{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} continued to be taught in some German schools until the 1970s but no longer as the primary script.Template:Cn

Characteristics

{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is based on older German handwriting, which is a handwriting form of the Blackletter scripts such as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, the German print scripts used at the same time.

It includes the long s (ſ) as well as several standard ligatures such as Template:Not a typo (f-f), Template:Not a typo (ſ-t), Template:Not a typo (s-t), and ß (ſ-z or ſ-s).

Because of their distinctiveness, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} letters can be used on the blackboard for certain mathematical symbols that are represented by {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} letters in print. The lower-case d in {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is used in proofreading for {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("let it be deleted").

The Sütterlin lower-case 'e' contains two vertical bars close together, in which the origin of the umlaut diacritic (¨) from a small 'e' written above the modified vowel can be seen.