Fraktur (German: [fʁakˈtuːɐ̯] ⓘ) is a calligraphic hand of the Latin alphabet and any of several blackletter typefaces derived from this hand.

Fraktur is a highly artistic and elaborate illuminated folk art created by the Pennsylvania Dutch, named after the Fraktur script associated with it. Place of creation also includes Alsace, Switzerland, and Rhineland which are also contributed to the folk art. [1]

Fraktur is a style of calligraphy that emerged during the 16th century in Germany. It is based on the blackletter style of writing that developed in France in the 12th century, and became the standard way to write in much of Europe.

The first step to understanding fraktur is to look carefully at a few specimens and note what you see. Generally, the text of the piece is central to the composition and is surrounded by ornamental embellishment.

The Free Library of Philadelphia is home to one of the largest public collections of fraktur, highlighting a wide range of fraktur styles and artistic skills and showing how the designs changed over time.

Mar 30, 2023 · Fraktur has its origins in folk art traditions from Alsace, Switzerland, and the Rhineland, but in America it became more colorful, elaborate, and freehand, and far more apt to dominate the script it sought to embellish.

Jun 26, 2019 · Based on the Bastarda handwriting used by the scribes of the Emperor’s chancery, the calligrapher Leonhard Wagner designed this new typeface, which soon became known as Fraktur (say frac-toor) for the broken character of its lines.

Fraktur was commissioned, produced and preserved by members of a distinctive and strongly religious folk culture and its meaning gets to the essence of the culture. As Dr. Yoder puts it, “fraktur is folk art, the expression of a community’s ideals and hopes in compact and visual form” (Yoder, European background, 2001, p. 57, 58).

The meaning of FRAKTUR is a German style of black letter.

Fraktur is a folk art form practiced by Pennsylvania Germans principally from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. The name derives from that of a distinctive German script marked by “fractured” pen strokes and the form has clear roots in European folk culture.