Kurrent

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title: "Kurrent" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["blackletter", "german-orthography", "handwriting-script", "western-calligraphy"] description: "Form of German-language handwriting" topic_path: "geography/germany" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurrent" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Form of German-language handwriting ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox writing system"]

Field	Value
name	Kurrent
type	Alphabet
time	–
languages	German
sample	Deutsche Kurrentschrift.svg
caption	Alphabet in Kurrent script from about 1865. The next-to-last line shows the umlauts ⟨ä⟩, ⟨ö⟩, ⟨ü⟩, and the corresponding capital letters ⟨Ae⟩, ⟨Oe⟩, and ⟨Ue⟩; and the last line shows the ligatures ⟨ch⟩, ⟨ck⟩, ⟨th⟩, ⟨sch⟩, ⟨sz⟩ (⟨ß⟩), and ⟨st⟩.
imagesize	250px
iso15924	Latf
::

|name = Kurrent |type = Alphabet |time = – |languages = German |fam1 = |fam2 = |fam3 = |sample = Deutsche Kurrentschrift.svg |caption = Alphabet in Kurrent script from about 1865. The next-to-last line shows the umlauts ⟨ä⟩, ⟨ö⟩, ⟨ü⟩, and the corresponding capital letters ⟨Ae⟩, ⟨Oe⟩, and ⟨Ue⟩; and the last line shows the ligatures ⟨ch⟩, ⟨ck⟩, ⟨th⟩, ⟨sch⟩, ⟨sz⟩ (⟨ß⟩), and ⟨st⟩. |imagesize = 250px |iso15924 = Latf ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Dänische_Kurrentschrift.png" caption="»gotisk skrift«}}) from about 1800 with ⟨Æ⟩ and ⟨Ø⟩ at the end of the alphabet."] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Tavola_Kurrentschrift"_kaushik_carlini.jpg" caption="Sample font table of German handwriting by Kaushik Carlini, 2021."] ::

Kurrent () is an old form of handwriting of the German language based on late medieval cursive writing, also known as Kurrentschrift ("cursive script"), deutsche Schrift ("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 Latin 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 all German schools as the primary script from 1915 until the beginning of January 1941. Then it was replaced with deutsche Normalschrift ("normal German handwriting"), which is sometimes referred to as "Latin writing".

Lettering examples

File:Lessing Kleist-Brief.jpg|Letter from Lessing to Kleist, 14 March 1758 File:Schein und Sein.jpg|Manuscript by Wilhelm Busch (undated, late 19th century) File:Bielsko-Biała Teatr Polski 004.JPG|Example from a book published in 1905 File:Paul Simmel - Das Kind und der Krieg,1916.jpg|Kurrent script used for text in a 1916 children's book File:Staedt.Kinderheim-01.jpg|Signage on a municipal children's home (Städtisches Kinderheim) in Esslingen am Neckar in 2006 File:Kurrent Note.jpg|A handwritten restaurant order in Kurrent from the 1920s File:Vos-essentials-of-german-p294-raw.png|Kurrent script from a 1903–14 primer on German, the 26 letters, ligatures, start of sample text File:Vos-essentials-of-german-p295-raw.png|Kurrent script from a 1903–14 primer on German, the rest of the sample text File:Jul-Greg-George-II-1750.tif|Final paragraph of a German contract from 1750 signed by George II, King of Great Britain and Elector of Hanover. It contains a mixture of Kurrent and 'Latin font' scripts. File:Letter to George Stier.png|Handwritten letter, 1792

References

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::