Fraktur

The tradition of Pennsylvania German decorative arts and folk art is one that dates to the earliest arrival of Germans on American shores. Though many motifs can be found throughout areas of southeastern Pennsylvania - including birds, hearts and tulips - regional variations lend texture and diversity to Pennsylvania German arts.

Schwenkfelder fraktur is among the most distinctive work produced by a Pennsylvania German group. The Schwenkfelders did not express themselves through exuberant painted furniture or interiors, as some Pennsylvania Germans did, but instead produced magnificent, colorful and often complex Fraktur writings and drawings. The very literate Schwenkfelders combined words and elaborate decoration to express their spirituality and their delight in the world around them.

What is Fraktur?

American fraktur is a reflection of a very old European tradition of illuminated manuscripts. The term "fraktur" actually refers to mechanically printed type called "fraktur" meaning "broken letters." European artists would take a mechanically printed piece and added hand drawn decoration - often elaborate swirls and scrolls. This process was in keeping with the illumination heritage that dated to the Middle Ages. The Book of Kells (read about it at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08614b.htm) is the most well known illuminated manuscript, created in Ireland in the 8th century. Most European illuminated manuscripts were created for legal documents or religious purposes. The American tradition became much more personal and individualized. Certainly, the earliest American fraktur artists who were also emigrants brought their knowledge of the European illumination styles and techniques with them to America. It was not long however, until these artists established there own styles and infused their own personalities into the traditional genre.

Today collectors tend to group any hand written and drawn folk art work on paper under the fraktur umbrella, though fraktur is truly a Pennsylvania German phenomenon. The Quakers, Shakers and other early groups up and down the eastern seaboard and into the Midwest all made decorated manuscripts in the late 18th to mid 19th centuries, but the practice did not become rooted in the culture as Pennsylvania German fraktur did.

The accepted dates for traditional, hand drawn and hand written American fraktur are 1750-1850. The "Golden Age" of fraktur spanned the period from approximately 1790 to the mid 1830s. The most common documents that are considered fraktur are Geburts und Taufschein or birth and baptismal certificates that were printed by the thousands from the end of the 18th century into the 20th century. These decorative records today provide excellent clues to family history. Taufschein were often made by itinerant scriveners who went from town to town demonstrating their fine penmanship and creative flair on these ready-made certificates.

The real treasures of fraktur are the intricate Vorschriften (student rewards), birth certificates, bookplates and other forms made by hand by skilled artists. The Ephrata, PA community of Seventh Day Baptists created some of the earliest fraktur (click here to view pages from the Ephrata Turteltaube songbook in the Library of Congress http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm005.html). Fraktur was made by all of the Pennsylvania German groups including the Amish, Mennonite, Reformed and Lutheran, and of course, the Schwenkfelders.

Schwenkfelder fraktur displays many influences from other groups that lived within the same communities. Schwenkfelder Susanna Heebner (1750-1818), known for her colorful and quite prolific fraktur reflects the style of her contemporary, Mennonite schoolteacher Andreas Kolb. Some pieces attributed to Susanna also bear a striking resemblance to Rev. David Kriebel's work. Heebner was unmarried, which may have accounted for the extra time she had to produce such elaborate and plentiful work.

The drawing to the right: attributed to Susanna Heebner, for her niece Susanna Heebner, ca. 1810-1820.

David Kriebel's (1787-1848) fraktur is the benchmark of the Schwenkfelder style. Kriebel, a schoolteacher, farmer and minister, created lush jewel-toned foliage, magical stars and intricate fraktur lettering. His extraordinary drawings, which at first seem unparalleled in fraktur, echo some of the designs made at Ephrata some sixty years before.

Some creative impulses, however, were the Schwenkfelder artists' very own. Garden imagery is common in Schwenkfelder fraktur. Some have speculated that the garden is an allegory for Christ. Houses and other buildings also appear regularly in Schwenkfelder fraktur drawings, with each brick carefully drawn and smoke billowing from chimneys. 

Abraham Schultz (1747-1822) was a Schwenkfelder schoolteacher, state representative and scholar who developed his own unique fraktur style. Filled with elegant rococo scrolls and other fanciful devices, Schultz combined sophisticated decorations with folksy animals and scenery. Graceful vines, ripe fruit trees, and stylized urns grace many of his works. His fraktur generally appears as bookplates, small jewels that surprise and delight the eye.

The drawing to the right: Drawing of a fruit tree attributed to Abraham Schultz.

Balthasar Heydrick (1765-1846) possibly had the longest career of any Schwenkfelder fraktur artist. For over 50 years, Heydrick (also known as Balzer or Baltzer Heydrich) created fraktur. An unmarried carpenter, "Uncle Balzer" made his later pieces for his nieces and nephews. Heydrick created fraktur until his death nine months before his 81st birthday.

As fraktur's "golden age" began to wind down, the art form began to evolve. Public schools emerged, eliminating the Schwenkfelder system with schoolmasters and paid tuition. The Schwenkfelders' world in general became more secular as they became increasingly a less distinctive part of the fabric of American life. Vorschriften were relegated to Bibles and chests, and the Geburts und Taufschein printers were churning out thousands of blank certificates to supply the Pennsylvania German public.

Making fraktur and folk art drawings became a form of entertainment for children and young adults. A portion of the Heritage Center's collection consists of drawings copied from prints, such as those published by Currier and Ives. Popular inexpensive children's prints, issued in the 1830s, were not unlike today's cartoons with their whimsical and often silly subject manner. Abraham Heebner, a young Schwenkfelder, was particularly fond of copying these prints and was quite adept at it. Young Schwenkfelders also copied their predecessors' work, creating admirable copies of fraktur made fifty years earlier.

Many Schwenkfelders produced fraktur from the 18th to the end of the 19th century, and most of these artists remain unidentified today. Artists from other groups, particularly Mennonite, made much fraktur for Schwenkfelders. To learn more about Schwenkfelder fraktur, read Fraktur Writing and Folk Art Drawings of the Schwenkfelder Library Collection by Dennis Moyer. It is available through this website, your local bookseller, or your public library.