Frakturschrift

Frakturschrift, or Fraktur, is a form of blackletter typeface used in German-speaking areas from the 16th century onward. It is one of several styles in the blackletter family and was the dominant script for printed German texts for about three centuries. The name Fraktur derives from the fractured or broken appearance of its letterforms.

It evolved from medieval textura and other blackletter scripts and became standardized for German printing. Its characteristics include tall, narrow, angular letter shapes with strong vertical strokes, prominent long s shapes, ligatures such as fi, fl, and st, and a dense, ornamental texture.

Frakturschrift was widely used in books, newspapers, and official documents in German-speaking territories from roughly the 16th to the early 20th century. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, it remained common in Germany; other German-speaking areas used similar blackletter scripts. Beginning in the 20th century, a shift toward Antiqua (Roman) typefaces occurred in most German-language publishing, and Frakturschrift gradually fell out of everyday use.

In 1941 the German government announced a shift toward Latin script and the use of Antiqua in official publications, a policy sometimes described as a prohibition of Fraktur. The decision reflected wartime propaganda aims and a broader modernization effort, and it did not constitute a criminal ban on printing Fraktur, but it accelerated its decline.

Today Frakturschrift survives mainly in historical texts, archival materials, and decorative contexts, where it is used for stylistic or cultural reasons. It remains a symbol of German cultural heritage and of periods in which blackletter printing predominated.