 read Suetterlin / read blackletters  |
Here you find printed Blackletters
Here you can learn Suetterlin - the "German handwriting"
NEW : Want to see your name in Suetterlin ? enter here|
Professional help you will find at : www.suetterlin-service.de Offer: transcription of old german handwriting (Suetterlin and older). |
Suetterlin script: a script, created by the Berlin graphic artist Ludwig Sütterlin (1865-1917), which was taught from 1915 to 1941 in German schools. It is also called the "the German handwriting". The writing is a standard form of the earlier and very different chancery writing which was mainly used by government officials.
See the page "Development of Latin Writing".
People of an older generation often cannot write any other way and yet both the postman and the grandchildren have trouble reading their envelopes and letters written in this script. When old family documents are taken out or church books are to be read, the knowledge of this writing is absolutely necessary.
During the reading lessons we begin with the last level of the "Suetterlin script", which is also known as "the German handwriting" - and then turn to the old chancery-writings, in German called "Kurrentschrift" or "Kanzleischrift".
Suetterlin writing is rarely written precisely since it occurs almost only in handwriting. Even an experienced reader must first get used to the specific handwriting, until the text becomes understandable.
Special German characters: ä, ö, ü have two dots above. In the Middle Ages it was a tiny "e" above, this is similar to two tiny strokes (compare the Sütterlin "e")
. Nowadays there are two dots.If you have no ä, ö, ü on your keyboard, you may replace with ae, oe, ue and it is still understandable, e.g. Doerling is same as Dörling.
The "ß" that looks like "B" means "ss" and can understandably be replaced with "ss".
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| This course is made for study reading and writing on paper. If you will use Suetterlin in WORD, you need to install a special font. Beware : other people can read your letters ONLY if they have installed the same font ! With kind permission of author R.G. Arens I can offer a Suetterlin-Font for Windows® (TTF Font) download here. Attention, the round-s (ending-s) is hidden at the $-key ! How to install this font ? At this webseite you will find a font and instructions for a Mac : Resources/Suetterlin/sutterl.html |
Here are the lowercase letters of a-z first, then in the last series are special forms.
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| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n |
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| o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z | ||
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| ae | oe | ue | ending s | ch | ck | sz | tz | mm nn | |||||
Important!
These characters are written very clearly, normally they are written narrower.
Designation: the normal "s" is called long s, the ending s is called round s.
Please differentiate:
1) with the "e" the second hook is connected at the top
,
with the "n" the second hook is connected at the bottom: 
2) the "u" gets a curving line over it
, "nn" has an straight line;
3) the normal "long s"
is for the center of a word, the round "ending s" 
is used at the end of the word.With compound nouns the two different "s" can follow one after another,
Example: Hausschlüssel (house key), combined of Haus + Schlüssel
Here the uppercase letters follow, at the end the special form "St"
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| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N |
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| O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | St | |
First reading exercises:
compare "A" and "O" / "e", "n" and "m" / "G" and "Q" :
Anna (a name) Oma (granny) Annemie (a name) Gras (grass) Quatsch (nonsense)
compare "L" and "B" / "o" and "a" / "V" and "W" :
Lage (situation) Bogen (bow) Dose (box) Vase (vase) Ware (ware) Werner (a name)
pay attention to: narrow "ch" / "u" has a little curving line over it / narrow "St":
Hinrich Friedrich Robert Rudolph Stefan (old fashion names)
compare "C" and "E" and "L" :
Catharina Elizabeth Louise Lotte Eckert (old fashion names)
Reading exercise 1: a letter from a lady teacher to the school authority, 1928
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Lehrpersonen verhindert. Ich kann den Eltern die Kinder, für deren Vorbildung bis zu einer gewissen Klasse am Gymnasium, an Ober- |
to learn : copies from a primer of 1903 (3 pages)
to learn : read and write, from a primer of 1903 (3 pages)
to learn : Tips and tricks for deciphering old scripts
to compare: Suetterlin alphabet in original handwritten texts
to compare: Suetterlin alphabet in comparison to older writings of 17th to 19th century
script analysis: A recipe for homemade rose-hip fruit wine (German)
test your knowledge: A recipe for homemade rose-hip fruit wine (German)
script analysis: Letter of a soldier, 1915 (German)
test your knowledge: Letter of a soldier, 1915 (German)
more exercises:
A petition from 1942 (German)
A baptism certificate of 1874 (German)
Official document, signed by farmers, 1750 (German)
we see, how good they could write: signatures of the farmers, 1750 (German)
A death certificate of 1889 (German)
A church book of 1805 (German)
A church book of 1784 (German)
An official invoice of 1652 (German)
Translation with kind help of Dave Nutting, Languages Other Than English coordinator,
McKinnon Secondary College, Victoria, Australia, Homepage: www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au
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