Blackletter^151“Lettering is an active and vitally
needful civilizing factor and must
from henceforth play a much greater
part in our life.... It will help to
vitalize individual capacities and hence
further the development of the whole
of our future civilization,” proclaimed
a 1936 editorial titled “Writing and
Lettering in the Service of the New
State” in Die Zeitgemässe Schrift,a
magazine devoted to students of
lettering and calligraphy. The state
was the Third Reich and the lettering
was Fraktur, the traditional German
blackletter that had lost favor during
the Weimar Republic years when the
New Typography challenged its
dominance. Yet by 1933 the Nazis, who
assailed modern sans serif type as
“Judenlettern,” brought Fraktur back
with a vengeance. Such was the influence of Adolf Hitler over every aspect
of German life that lettering and typography were harshly scrutinized by
party ideologues.
Joseph Goebbels, Nazi minister for propaganda and
enlightenment, initially decreed that blackletter be returned to its rightful
place representing GermanKultur.So in the early years of the Reich,
blackletter became the official Volksschrift (lettering of the German people).
However,they who decreeth also taketh away. After registering complaints
about Fraktur’s illegibility (purportedly from Luftwaffe pilots who could
not read tail markings), Martin Bormann, Hitler’s secretary, forbade the use
of Fraktur in 1941 and ordered all official documents and schoolbooks to be
reprinted. Overnight, blackletter became “Judenlettern,” and roman type
made a triumphant return. Although blackletter continues to evoke the
spirit of Nazi authoritarianism, this summary fall from grace only adds to
the historical confusion.