Kurrent

Kurrent is an old form of German-language handwriting based on late medieval cursive writing, also known as Kurrentschrift, Alte Deutsche Schrift ("old German script") and German cursive. Over the history of its use into the first part of the 20th century, many individual letters acquired variant forms.

German writers used both cursive styles, Kurrent and English cursive, in parallel: location, contents and context of the text determined which script style to use.

Sütterlin is a modern script based on Kurrent that is characterized by simplified letters and vertical strokes. It was developed in 1911 and taught in German schools as primary script from 1935 until the beginning of January, 1941. Then it was replaced with "normal German font", which is sometimes referred to (correctly but confusingly) as "Latin font". See Ausgangsschrift for examples of post-1941 school handwriting samples.

Lettering examples

Letter from Lessing to Kleist, 14 March 1758

Letter from Lessing to Kleist, 14 March 1758