Sachsenwald
Tabular Type Foundry · Berthold Wolpe · 2017
A digital revival of Berthold Wolpe's 1936 fraktur, originally commissioned as a custom typeface for German publisher Ullstein and sold in fewer than three copies before 1967.
About
Originally drawn under the name Bismarck Schrift for Ullstein in the late 1930s, the design sat largely dormant until its inclusion in the Berthold Wolpe Collection released by Monotype in 2017. Unlike the harder-edged Schaftstiefelgrotesk faces associated with the period, Sachsenwald features curved arcs and independently drawn diamond tips that give it an unusually warm character for the genre. The digitisation was carried out from scratch to preserve that hand-drawn quality, with minor adjustments to letter proportions and diacritics, plus English-friendly alternates for H, I, X and x inherited from the original Monotype release.
Classification
A modern fraktur of the Gebrochene Grotesk or Schaftstiefelgrotesk variety, characterised by straighter lines and minimal ornamentation compared to traditional fraktur. Wolpe's original 1936 design leans warmer than typical examples of the genre, with curved arcs and individually drawn diamond tips.