Enter German below and copy German in cursive in elegant, bold, or decorative form. The guide beneath the tool covers the six-letter word and its tricky r-m join, then tells the story of German cursive, which for centuries was an entirely different script from the one on this page.
How to Write German in Cursive
German starts with a capital G, a tall open curve that drops to the baseline and finishes with a small loop, which in most school styles leads into the e. The e is a small closed loop.
The join from r to m is the test in this word. The r rises to a small point at the midline and dips; keep that dip shallow, then start the first hump of the m from the midline. A deep dip makes the m look as though it has four humps. The m itself has three, evenly spaced.
Finish with a-n: a closed oval and a two-hump n with an exit stroke. German has no ascenders or descenders after the capital, so the whole lowercase run sits in the midline band and any slant errors are easy to spot.
Kurrent and Sütterlin: The German Cursive Most Germans Can No Longer Read
Until the 1940s, Germans did not write the Latin cursive on this page. They wrote Kurrent, a sharply angled cursive that developed from late medieval hands and looks almost like a row of zigzags to an untrained eye. In 1911 the graphic artist Ludwig Sütterlin designed a simplified, upright version for Prussian schools, and Sütterlin became the standard school hand across Germany by the 1930s. Then in 1941 the Nazi government abruptly banned both Kurrent and the Fraktur typefaces that went with them, and schools switched to Latin cursive. The result is that most Germans today cannot read letters their grandparents wrote.
Postwar German schools have taught a series of Latin models: the Lateinische Ausgangsschrift from 1953, the East German Schulausgangsschrift from 1968, and the Vereinfachte Ausgangsschrift from 1972, with the unjoined Grundschrift proposed in 2011. All of them are called Schreibschrift, the German word for cursive. The generator produces Latin cursive of the Anglo-American kind. The letters ä, ö, ü, and ß have no Unicode script equivalents, so Deutsch converts fully but schön keeps its plain ö.
Where German in Cursive Is Used
German in cursive appears on German-class project covers, Oktoberfest and Christmas-market flyers, beer-garden and bakery menus, tutoring business cards, German-American heritage posts, and bios of German teachers and translators. Companion words such as Danke, Prost, and Willkommen convert fully; anything with an umlaut does not.
Because Fraktur type was the German standard for so long, the decorative fraktur-style option is a better match here than for almost any other page on the site. The elegant script suits business cards, and bold cursive suits captions.
German cursive phrase ideas
- German Language
- Learn German
- Danke
- Prost
- Willkommen
German in Cursive FAQ
What is Sütterlin?
A simplified German cursive designed by Ludwig Sütterlin in 1911 for Prussian schools. It became the standard school hand across Germany by the 1930s and was banned in 1941, after which schools switched to Latin cursive.
Why can most Germans not read old German handwriting?
Because letters written before the 1940s use Kurrent or Sütterlin, which were dropped from schools in 1941. Germans born afterwards learned only Latin cursive and never learned the older script.
Will umlauts convert in the generator?
No. The letters ä, ö, ü, and ß have no Unicode script equivalents and stay in plain form. Words without them, such as Danke and Deutsch, convert fully.
Is the decorative style a good match for German?
Yes. Fraktur typefaces were the German printing standard until the 1940s, so the decorative fraktur-style option suits German-themed designs better than most.
Explore More Languages and Nations
The country name is covered on the Germany in cursive page. For other scripts with a dramatic cursive history, see Russian in cursive and Egypt in cursive, or browse the Nation in Cursive hub.