How do you read Kurrent and Sütterlin?

What is Kurrent?

“Deutsche Kurrentschrift”, or German script, is the cursive handwriting of the German-speaking countries from the 16th century to 1941: letters, parish registers, deeds, notebooks. Slanted and angular, it is hard to read for anyone who only knows Latin script.

What is Sütterlin?

The graphic artist Ludwig Sütterlin designed it at the request of the Prussian Ministry of Education; it entered Prussian schools in 1915 and in 1935 became the school script of the whole of Germany. More upright and rounder than Kurrent, it keeps its letterforms.

Why did these scripts disappear?

In 1941, two decisions of the Nazi regime replaced Fraktur, then the German scripts, with Latin script in the administration and in schools. Many people who had learned it kept writing it: family letters written well after 1941 still use it.

Why are they so hard to read?

• the e looks like an n in Latin script;
• the u carries a small arc above it so it isn’t confused with the n;
• the s is written long at the start and in the middle of words, round at the end;
• proper names and foreign words are often written in Latin script in the middle of the text.

How do you get Kurrent transcribed?

Photograph the page flat and whole; upload it. A handwritten page goes through the extra-strength reread, with our most precise model, which reads cursive scripts, Kurrent and Sütterlin included. The German text appears next to the photo, then its translation into your language.

And Fraktur?

Fraktur is a typeface, not handwriting: a letterhead printed in Fraktur can sit above a letter written in Kurrent. It has its own guide.

The account takes a minute to open, a hundred pages free for a year.