14 typefaces found in berlin street signs

[Erik Brandt]

Amazing, one year later (and a day late), it's really nice to find this discussion via Florian's post on Flickr. My Type II class last year was fortunate enough to work with Verena's FF City Street Type, focusing our attention on the theme, "20 Jahre Mauerfall." See the full story with final poster images here: http://geotypografika.com/2009/10/16/typonauts-in-space-20-jahre-mauerfall/

I was lucky enough to visit with Verena and Alex this past summer as well, and uploaded some more images of Berlin (mostly Kreuzberg) here, hope you enjoy! http://www.flickr.com/photos/geotypografika/sets/72157624419812998/

[dan_reynolds]

Chris,
While a main Promenade in the former East Berlin is named Karl-Marx-Allee, there is also the Karl-Marx-Straße, a street in the Neukölln district, from the former West Berlin. Karl-Marx-Straße received its current name in 1947. The German Wikipedia has a page about it… http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl-Marx-Straße_(Berlin)

[dezcom]

Thanks, Dan!

[roald]

Hi everyone on this site commenting on this thread!

I just stumbled across you researching for a theater project street and U-bahn signs in Berlin, former East and West, over the last 100 years or so. It's a fascinating conversation you have going and though I've been to Berlin many times I'm going to be looking at the street signs with new eyes!

Question:

Do any of you know the name or anything about this font used in the Unter den Linden U-bahn stop in the former East Berlin--

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Unter_Den_Linden_S-Bahn_P7130096.JPG

-- and where I could get a set of it?

Thanks!

Roald

PS - I'm not sure if I'd get an automatic notification of your reply, so if you wouldn't mind sending me a note by email as well.

[email protected]

[Florian Hardwig]

Roald,

this has been asked before. Dan provided a good answer:
https://typography.guru/forums/topic/30905-forwarding#comment-131113
As he writes, it is a lettering job, i.e. the letters are not from a font, but have been made just for this occasion. Dan is also right in that it is a so called Schaftstiefelgrotesk (a simplified, stripped-down blackletter style that was popular in 1930s Germany, and is still associated with the Third Reich by many). Delbanco has a digital version of Tannenberg. So does Romana Hamburg, which also offer a National. Plus there are a few freebies, one by the name Potsdam. I don’t know about the quality of these digitizations.

[roald]

Florian,

Thanks so much for you help! Vielen Dank!

Roald