1927 Berlin Book

By no means are these photos taken correctly.
I apologize if they are too bad, but I think even with the shakey photo you can read the text

It translates to "Book to help German lessons" and it's written in old German
lettering that was used before WWII.

In smaller letters it reads: for the elementary level of higher educational
establishments.

Lessons for pronunciation, grammar and punctuation
from
Dr. R Janus and Dr. E. A. Carstensen

the only entry i could find was for the publisher : TEUBNER

see here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliotheca_Teubneriana

teubner was/is one of the biggest publishers of textbooks in germany .

here is what i found under " google.de " - handy when you want to find a german/european entry :

http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&source=hp&q=teubner+studienb%C3%BCcher&meta=&rlz=1R2GGLL_en&aq=8&oq=teubner+

( yes , there is a separate " google.de " for the german language )

now that makes sense.
What little german I know is making this book hard for me to read.
It has taken me an hour to translate one paragraph. I gave up on several words and used google translate.
The opening paragraph read to me like this -

"Preface
after the reorganization of our higher education system, the provisions of obesity for almost all times have such an abundance of new names on teaching duties with pride, represent the most basic..." and thats as far as I have gotten.

The word obesity does not fit.

so, teubner.. not the other names/words.. is the publisher? It appeared to me to be a name so I by passed looking that up.

now it makes sense some what..

Hehe, obesity was not a problem in 1927

Most translation programs cannot read the old German writing, that's where
the confusion comes in. Even I have trouble making out some words as I have
never used the old letters.

That Gothic style of lettering was called, I believe, fraktur and although it was officially abandoned at the end of WW I (1918) it actually continued in use in some cases (especially for reprints of pre-war publications) well into the 1920s. What you've got, Shewolf, is an old textbook for teaching the German language.

Since the late 18th century, Fraktur had been progressively replaced by Antiqua as a symbol of the classicist age and emerging cosmopolitanism. The debate surrounding this move is known as the Antiqua-Fraktur dispute.
The change of Fraktur to Antiqua on January 3, 1941 Martin Bormann issued a circular to all public offices which declared Fraktur (and its corollary, the Sütterlin-based handwriting) to be Judenlettern (Jewish letters) and prohibited their further use. It has been speculated[by whom?] that the régime had realized that Fraktur would inhibit communication in the territories occupied during World War II. Fraktur saw a short resurgence after the War, but quickly disappeared in a Germany keen on modernising its appearance.

Fraktur is today used mostly for decorative typesetting; for example, a number of traditional German newspapers such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine,

Use a good dictionary when translating.
Translations in internet often come out wrong.
If you use internet translation for one sentence you have to correct the sentence by using a dictionary and your own common sence, something which a tranlation machine does not have.

It was a quite comon book for teachers - thus, you can get in for 8 Euros up to 16 Euros (when in excellent condition).

Fraktur was used in Germany during the time that book was printed/published only rarely ... in schoolbooks - most were printed in Antiqua.
The use of Fraktur here is related a) to German lessons (about 15% of books still were printed in Fraktur in those years), and b) to the editors.

(When the Nazis governed, Fraktur became more common again - up to 50% of books were printed in Fraktur.)

Why did the Nazis prefer Fraktur to Antiqua?

Looked more "Germanic". Publications by Jewish printers weren't allowed in Fraktur from July 1937.

From 1940 onwards, the use of Fraktur again became uncommon.



In German:
Die Fraktur und der Nationalsozialismus
Fraktur und Antiqua

I have a German-Danish/Norwegian dictionary printed in Denmark 1925.
The German words are in "German" Fraktur, which I can hardly read, the Danish translation is in what I call "Danish" Fraktur, which I can read.
The Danish/Norwegian words and German translation are in Antiqua.

I've seen copies of it in a local Goodwill and the Value Village as well. I picked up an illustrated version (same publisher) for younger children for less than $1 Cdn. Also found an illustrated one for teaching French to German children. They're great fun to look at.

Such was done here, too - especially, since Antiqua became 'modern'.