Official German Typeface?

[piero101]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

Does anybody know, if there is an official typeface, which is used by the german government?
Actually I want to know, if there was a typeface, which had been used in the 1950s, in the beginning of the federal republic.

Any idea?

Thanks a lot!

[speter]

You probably want DIN Schrift.

[Si_Daniels]

The Bundesfont?

[poms]

Demos and Praxis (Gerard Unger), maybe as special versions including the Bundesadler as a glyph … ;)

> In the 50s
I don't think there was an official government typeface at that time.

[piero101]

Thank you, I just learned that Spiekermann's MetaDesign designed the corporate design of the german government. They used Transit first, but it was replaced later by Univers …

But no information about corporate design in the 50s …

[poms]

According to the official Bundesregierung-PDFs, the typefaces used for the (public) government communication of the Bundesrepublik Deutschland are NeueDemos (Serif) and NeuePraxis (Sans). You can check different official publications here.

[dan_reynolds]

Regarding Univers, as Poms mentions, this is not the "official German font"… rather, the names of Government ministries, etc. are set in a condensed Univers. You see their names next to the stylized flag and eagle motif.

Otherwise, NeueDemos and NeuePraxis are used. Designers and agencies creating documents or doing design work for the Federal Government license these fonts from Linotype.

Here is a link to the German government's official style guide:
http://styleguide.bundesregierung.de/Webs/SG/DE/Homepage/home.html

Here is their bit on fonts:
http://styleguide.bundesregierung.de/Webs/SG/DE/Print-Styleguide/Basisel...

Note these fonts:
http://styleguide.bundesregierung.de/Webs/SG/DE/Print-Styleguide/Basisel...

And here is typography:
http://styleguide.bundesregierung.de/Webs/SG/DE/Print-Styleguide/Drucksc...

[piero101]

Wow, thanks a lot!

[Yehan]

I don't know about the german govt..but the dutch govt recently unveiled their own font.
http://blog.eyemagazine.com/?p=111#more-111
via Eye Magazine blog

[vivicity]

I don't have the answer, but Futura was also often used in the time period you're looking at.