Tannenberg Bold

Tannenberg is a Fraktur-family blackletter typeface, developed between 1933 and 1935 by Erich Meyer at the type foundry D. Stempel AG in Frankfurt am Main. The design followed the "New Typography" principles of Jan Tschichold that promoted "constructed" sans serif typefaces. It is named after the Battle of Tannenberg in 1914, in which German troops under Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff stopped the advance of Russian troops. Meyer's design for the typeface was inspired by Nazi ideology.[1]

The typeface was produced as Tannenberg (1934), Tannenberg semi-bold (1934), Tannenberg bold (1934), Tannenberg narrow (1933), and Tannenberg light (1935).[2]

Usage

Unter den Linden station sign (1936)

The Tannenberg font soon became very popular and was widely used. It was used on official stamps, in book and magazine design, in advertising and in Nazi Party propaganda.[3][4] From about 1935 to 1941, the Deutsche Reichsbahn used the Tannenberg typeface on station signs. These signs can still be seen on some stations of the Berlin North-South S-Bahn, which opened in 1936.[5]

Excerpt from the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt (Evangelical Church in Germany, January 1946)

Like all blackletter typefaces, Tannenberg was hardly used in official documents after Martin Bormann's "normal type decree" of 1941 ordered that Fraktur-style typefaces be no longer used. Nothing changed to reverse this policy with the end of the Nazi regime in 1945. However, in 1946, among other things, the "Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt" was published in the "Regulations and News Sheet of the Evangelical Church in Germany" in Tannenberg, Saxony.[6]

References

  1. ^ "Erich Mayer". schriftgrad.de (in German). 1934 entwarf Meyer die Schrift Tannenberg, um die Wesensart des Deutschen Volkes im Dritten Reich zu unterstreichen. 'Fest und geschlossen, klar und kraftvoll stehen die Worte aus der – fetten Tannenberg – da: ein überzeugender Ausdruck neuen deutschen Wollens' (Zitat: Archiv 05/1934) ["In 1934, Meyer designed the typeface Tannenberg to emphasize the nature of the German people in the Third Reich. 'Words in Tannenberg Bold stand firm and closed, clear and powerful: a convincing expression of new German will' (quote: archive 05/1934)]
  2. ^ "Erich Mayer" (PDF). Archiv der internationalen Schriftdesigner /International Type Designer Archive. Klingspor Museum, Offenbach, Germany. (A catalogue of typefaces designed by Erich Mayer, including multiple fonts in all four Tannenberg faces.)
  3. ^ Rotter, Marcel Paul (2004). "Ätzende Bilder, beißende Worte": Kontinuitäten und Diskontinuitäten in der semiotischen Struktur von Text- und Bildmotiven im deutschen Propagandaplakat des 20. Jahrhunderts. ["Caustic Images, Biting Words" Continuities and discontinuities in the semiotic structure of text/image motifs in 20th-century German propaganda posters] (Thesis) (in German). University of Wisconsin, Madison. p. 261.
  4. ^ "Schriften unter dem Nationalsozialismus" [Typefaces under National Socialism]. schriftgrad.de.
  5. ^ Braun, Michael (2008). Nordsüd-S-Bahn Berlin 75 Jahre Eisenbahn im Untergrund [North-South S-Bahn Berlin 75 years of underground railways] (in German). Berlin: GVE. p. 118. ISBN 978-3-89218-112-5.
  6. ^ Hockenos, Matthew D. (2004). A Church Divided: German Protestants Confront the Nazi Past. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 75–90. ISBN 0 253 344484.

See also

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