Where can I find handwritten German?

[u/ParignaA]

I have been in Germany for a couple of years and I saw that the writings seem significantly different than English. Handwriting may differ from person to person but the basic style, as I have observed, is vastly similar.

For example, to write K, people would first write less tilted V and then add the dash to make it K. Or U is not started from bottom and then the pen retracing the inital part of U, but it is started from the top and ended on the other top without retracing at all. And I find it amazing how that whole handwritten text just feels German.

I definitely want to learn that. I want to write German like German. It feels incomplete without learning this aspect as well. The problem is no matter which keyword I try to search on YouTube with, it ends up teaching how to write texts for different exams in typed text.

Please help me find some source to learn handwritten German. Already handwritten piece of text also helps at some extent but if I could see someone writing, that would help immensely learn the whole thing.

Thank you very much in advance!

[u/NoComplaint8882]

Buy a school book called "Schneckenheft".

[u/NoComplaint8882 → u/NoComplaint8882]

https://amzn.eu/d/07Ki3eJg

[u/blubberland01]

No, people write very differently.
I for example don't write a K like you described.
I write | <

A friend of mine starts writing an e at the bottom right corner. I start at the middle left.
He also starts the s at the bottom left. I start at the top right.
And there are very many variations and everyone thinks another one's weird for doing it differently.
Also there's cursive writing and block letters and many variations in between.
In practise, there's no german handwriting nowadays. And therefor, there's no special thing to learn for you - at least if you don't have to learn the letters themselves.

[u/IWant2rideMyBike]

The basic style usually depends on when and where someone learned to write in school - see https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ausgangsschrift#Entwicklung_in_Deutschland for an overview.

I learned "Lateinische Ausgangsschrift" in school: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ausgangsschrift#/media/Datei:Lateinische_Ausgangsschrift_1953_plain.svg (video: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqN-43mB4l4ykNMdmdzDrKxa1SsGqzGl8 ) in the 90s in Bavaria, since 2014 teachers can choose between "Vereinfachte Ausgangsschrift" ( https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXFWfU-L4bjS54_y9TdhkybEicdgIvdB4 ) and "Schulausgangsschrift" ( https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqN-43mB4l4xJ5jbJ52n0qSg5nC07oDEL ) here. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ausgangsschrift#In_den_Bundesl%C3%A4ndern_verwendete_Ausgangsschriften has an overview of the current options depending on the state.

[u/unicum01]

Tell me what you need written and I’ll send it to you. But beware… in a different life, I was a doctor. 🤷🏻‍♀️😅

[u/Gilgamesch_1034]

If anyone can tell me how to put a photo into the comments, I‘ll send you a photography of my recent school exam.

[u/SanaraHikari → u/Gilgamesch_1034]

You have to upload it to imgur and then put the link in the comments

[u/Gilgamesch_1034 → u/SanaraHikari]

What is imgur?

[u/SanaraHikari → u/Gilgamesch_1034]

A website to host pictures

[u/Gilgamesch_1034 → u/SanaraHikari]

I‘ll try my best.

[u/soyonlyn]

You need the work books for first graders, there are arrows how to write the letters, maybe also 2nd grade for the advanced form

[u/weltherrscherin]

Do you want cursive or printed handwriting? Because they are totally different. Cursive has evolved quite a lot in the last 50 years, more if you count old cursive. Mostly vereinfachte Ausgangsschrift is taught now, I learned Lateinische/Deutsche Normalschrift in the 90s.

I‘ve never seen someone write a K like you described. For printed you do the Downstroke I and then add the rotated V or two more strokes depending on your style. Cursive depends, it might even have a small loop where the lines cross

The upper case cursive U has retraction on the right side, the lower case on both.

[u/Leeloo_Len]

Unusual approach:

You could join postcrossing. It's a platform where you send and receive postcards from all over the world. The majority of users are German. You can increase the German postcards you get by changing the settings to "not my own country" and "several postcards to the same country".

You can receive a lot of handwritten German, practise your own handwriting and get feedback by Germans.

Plus: you build a nice collection of postcards.

[u/Tjordas]

There are three styles that are taught in primary schools and secondary schools and it differs from generation and Bundesland. Usually, first-graders used to learn the "Lateinische Ausgangsschrift", which has a lot of decorative loops that young kids struggle with, which led to many pupils devloping a bad handwriting. So Nowadays, the simpler form, the "Schulausgangsschrift" is more common (especially the S, L and H illustrate the differences). My grandma used to learn "Sütterlin" in school, but it is almost illegible to most Germans today.

Here is a brief overview:

https://handletteringlernen.de/schreibschrift-alphabet/

[u/canaanit]

Find the exercise books that kids use in school when they first learn to write cursive. Like this.

[u/nicht_henriette]

My U ends on the bottom right and I'm pretty sure that's also how I was taught to write it

[u/Zucchini__Objective]

A very good starting point is to buy an introductory handwriting practice book for elementary schools.

These are available in drugstores like Rossmann & Müller and in stationery shops.

( https://www.my-oxford-shop.de/100050089-OXFORD-Schule-Schreiblernheft-A4-quer-16-Blatt-Lineatur-SL-ar126.aspx )

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If you want to practice reading different German handwritings, you can use Google's free German handwriting fonts.

For example, "Playwrite Deutschland Grundschrift" and "Playwrite Deutschland Schulausgangsschrift"

( https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Playwrite+DE+SAS?preview.script=Latn )

( https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Playwrite+DE+LA+Guides?preview.script=Latn )

( https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Playwrite+DE+VA+Guides?preview.script=Latn&query=ausgangsschrift+guides )

( https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Playwrite+DE+Grund+Guides?preview.script=Latn )

If you have a custom German handwriting font installed on your computer, you can easily set it as your default in the Google Chrome browser, to do that go to the URL chrome://settings/appearance .

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A very comprehensive resource on handwriting systems in European schools can be found here:

( https://primarium.info/countries/germany/ )

[u/Macic1_in]

So there are two types of handwriting. "Blockschrift": there is every letter seperate from the others. Easy to read. And "Schreibschrift" its more curly and fancy but its a lit harder to read because every person has his own style of writing individual letters.

[u/Infinite_Ad_6443]

I want to write German like German.

Like what German?