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Tannenberg font7/24/2023 ![]() Design quality and choice of typeface were ultimately dependent on local officials and institutions – their demands, their abilities and their agenda, in addition to the technical possibilities. Since it is not possible (and perhaps not even desirable) truly to monitor design against the use of ideologically suitable text – much of which also lacks professional competence – it is impossible to establish a consistent connection with the use of particular types. Similarly, the ‘value’ of the product often determined the care with which the type or types were chosen and applied. While the poster for the ‘Great German Art Exhibition’, for example, was set in a gold, upper-case and centred Antiqua, lettering for a regional sports event might use black letter type. With varying degrees of success, typesetters and graphic designers in the Third Reich played freely with the entire range of types. ![]() However, examples of the use of sans serif types can also be found. At first, the NSDAP made attempts to appear grounded and close to the people, which often gave rise to crude, ‘wooden’ designs using various kinds of Fraktur and Schwabacher types (which were also used by the other parties). Industrial buildings in the style of the Bauhaus, typography used a mix of black letter fonts, Antiqua and sans serif types.Ī distinction must, however, be made between the years leading up to 1933 and the 12 years of Nazi dominance. Just as architecture made use of historical references, with the construction of ‘medieval castles’ and neo-classical structures, alongside the highly functional This can also be observed in its use of type. The visual representations of the Third Reich are both contradictory and consistent, and the phrase that can be used to describe both the era and the existence of National Socialism, in terms of design, is ‘reactionary modernity’: a modernity behind natural stone facades, a constant contradiction between a real and a predetermined goal, between form and content, between claim and implementation. His fascinating and multi-faceted story is told in-depth in new tome Futura -The Typeface and here we publish an extract by graphic designer and author Andreas Koop about its use during the rise of the Nazis. As the designer of one of the world’s most popular typefaces, Futura, Paul Renner used his position as a creative leader to criticise National Socialist propaganda in pre WW2 Germany.
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