Kurrent and Sütterlin
16th century – 1941 · German handwriting, from parish registers to family letters
Alphabet
The letters as they are drawn. Compare them with the record: it is the shape that counts, not the size.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
ÄÖÜ
äöüß
Reading traps
| What you think you see | What it may be | How to tell them apart |
|---|---|---|
| f | s | The long s fills the inside of a word; the round s appears only at the end. A round s mid-word is almost always something else. |
| n | u · m · ii | The u carries an arc above it, the n does not — that is the ONLY sign separating them, and the first to fade. Then count the strokes. |
| m | nn · in · ni · un · nu | Three strokes: one m, or else two letters of two and one strokes. The neighbouring word decides better than the eye. |
| e | n · c | The e is two tiny strokes squeezed together, almost an accent; the n is wider and sits on the line. |
| h | f · s | The h drops below the line in a long loop; the f crosses it both above AND below. |
| r | v · w | The r looks like a circumflex set on the line, with no descending stroke. |
| b | l | The b closes a small bowl at the foot of its stem; the l stays a bare loop. |
| t | l · k | The t is cut by a bar at line height; the l rises without one. |
Ligatures and vanished letters
| ſ | reads s | long s; the round s appears only at the end of a word |
| ß | reads ss |
Write it to compare
Type a name you think you recognise: it appears in this script, to be set against the strokes in front of you.
Decoder
Type what you think you read, in today's letters. The decoder offers the neighbouring readings — one substitution at a time, because two stacked guesses can no longer be checked.
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