view of the extent of scripts around 1900. In reality only German-speakers, Estonia, and Latvia still used Fraktur as the majority script at this time. Denmark had shifted to Antiqua during the mid 19th century, and in Norway the majority of printed texts used Antiqua around 1900. Notably, the map itself uses Antiqua for its legend, even though it is in German, indicating that Fraktur was no longer universally used even among German-speakers. Typesetting in Fraktur was still very common in the early 20th century in all
German-speaking countries and areas, as well as in
Norway,
Estonia, and
Latvia, and was still used to a very small extent in
Sweden,
Finland and
Denmark, even though other countries typeset in
Antiqua. Some books at that time used related blackletter fonts such as
Schwabacher; however, the predominant typeface was the Normalfraktur, which came in slight variations. From the late 18th century to the late 19th century, Fraktur was progressively replaced by
Antiqua as a symbol of the classicist age and emerging cosmopolitanism in most of the countries in Europe that had previously used Fraktur. This move was hotly debated in Germany, a controversy known as the
Antiqua–Fraktur dispute. The shift affected mostly scientific writing in Germany, whereas most
belletristic literature and newspapers continued to be printed in Fraktur. The Fraktur typefaces remained in use in
Nazi Germany, when they were initially represented as true German script; official Nazi documents and letterheads employed the font, and the cover of
Hitler's used a hand-drawn version of it. However, more modernized fonts of the type such as
Tannenberg were in fact the most popular typefaces in Nazi Germany, especially for running text as opposed to decorative uses such as in titles. These fonts were designed in the early 20th century, mainly the 1930s, as
grotesque versions of blackletter typefaces. The Nazis heavily used these fonts themselves, although the shift remained controversial; in fact, the press was at times scolded for its frequent use of "Roman characters" under "Jewish influence" and German émigrés were urged to use only "German script". On 3 January 1941, the Nazi Party ended this controversy by switching to international scripts such as Antiqua.
Martin Bormann issued a circular (the "
normal type decree") to all public offices which declared Fraktur (and its corollary, the -based handwriting) to be (Jewish letters) and prohibited their further use. German historian Albert Kapr has speculated that the regime viewed Fraktur as inhibiting communication in the
occupied territories during
World War II. After Nazi Germany fell in 1945, Fraktur was unbanned, but remain limited use as of today. ==Typeface samples==