Welcome to the transcription workshop!
Do you need help transcribing an old german manuscript? Are you planning to index handwritten books and possibly publish them as an edition? I would be happy to help you!
The difficulty of transcriptions varies greatly depending on the handwriting. Please feel free to send me scans of the manuscripts to be transcribed – I will then send you a non-binding offer (free of charge).
Script fonts
Many handwritten books, documents and letters are written in Old German script, especially in Kanzlei script, Kurrent script and Sütterlin script. Since the middle of the 20th century, cursive writing based on the Latin alphabet has been taught in schools, meaning that old German manuscripts are being written less and less. As a result, most people without the appropriate training nowadays find it difficult to decipher old German manuscripts.
Manuscripts written before the 20th century present additional difficulties, as no standardized orthography and grammar were used at that time. In addition, each manuscript is unique and even experienced readers must first familiarize themselves with unfamiliar manuscripts and their peculiarities.
You can have the following most common German manuscripts transcribed by me:
Chancery script
A script font used from the 15th to the 19th century, particularly for official documents in chancelleries. It originated in the 14th century and offered the advantages that it could be written quickly and was aesthetically pleasing at the same time.
Kurrent
A cursive script used from the beginning of the modern era to the beginning of the 20th century. It is a broken script and was originally written with a quill and ink, but later also with a ribbon quill. This resulted in a direction-dependent stroke contrast, i.e. a wider or narrower stroke depending on the direction of writing.
Sütterlin
Simplified version of Kurrent script developed by Ludwig Sütterlin in 1911. In contrast to Kurrent script, Sütterlin script is designed for a typeface with the same stroke width thanks to the invention of the equal-tension nib (ball point nib). From 1915 to 1942, Sütterlin was used as the basic script for learning cursive at school. It was abolished by the Nazi regime in 1942.
Latin cursive script
An internationally widely used script of the Latin alphabet, from the 17th century onwards. In German-speaking countries, it only became the dominant font from the middle of the 20th century after the Nazi regime banned Kurrent and Sütterlin script. Today, it is the most widely used script worldwide. Latin script has many variations, including: Humanist Cursive, Circumflessa, Ronde, Round Hand, Sütterlin’s Latin Initial Script, School Initial Script and Swiss School Script.
Services
Transcription
Diplomatic transcription of German manuscripts: Chancellery script, Kurrent script, Sütterlin script, cursive script, Latin script…
Correction
Correction of transcriptions (in-house and externally produced transcriptions).
Edition
Scientific diplomatic transcription, annotation and creation of indexes. Proofreading and editing. Layout as PDF book (facsimile and transcription). Further background research on request.
Scan
Professionally produced scan with book scanner (up to 600 dpi). File naming and metadata enrichment.
Online publication
Preparation of scans for online publication for viewing in the DFG Viewer (optimization of scans and provision of link structures with XML files).
Translation
Translation of German transcriptions into English (automatic translation by DeepL and subsequent correction)
Online edition
If there is no profit motive behind an edition project, a free online edition is a good way of making the edited manuscript available to a wide audience. One option is to use the free viewer provided by the „Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft“ (German Research Foundation) to make the scans of the manuscript available online.
It is also possible to create a PDF version of the edition, which can be passed on to libraries and archives to ensure that the edition remains permanently accessible and available to a wide audience. I would be happy to assist you with such a project or take it all the way from transcription to publication.
References / Projects
Four of my larger transcription projects are briefly presented below.
Two of these projects are freely available as online editions (see links).
Otto Tetens’s diaries and Samoa studies
Scope: six books and a 90-page letter / 821,770 characters (incl. annotations)
Work carried out by me: complete diplomatic transcription, proofreading and editing, scanning, annotations and indexes, computer-aided translation (German texts into English), preparation for online publication in the DFG viewer, editing and digitization concept, layout and online publication.
Commissioned by: Übersee-Museum Bremen as part of the project “WissensWandel: Open Access für weltoffene Forschung – Digitalisierung der Samoa-Studien Otto Tetens” (Knowledge change: Open Access for open-minded research – Digitization of Samoa studies Otto Tetens).
Link: The transcriptions are freely available as an online edition at: https://www.uebersee-museum.de/en/about-us/the-museum/collection/tetens-samoa-studies/
The german original can be found here: https://www.uebersee-museum.de/ueber-uns/das-museum/sammlung/tetens-samoa-studien/
Topic and background: Otto Peter Harens Tetens (*1865-†1945) was a German astronomer and meteorologist. From 1902, he set up an observatory in the capital Apia on behalf of the Royal Scientific Society of Göttingen in Samoa. During this time he wrote a diary entitled “Diary 1902. June 12 – Dec. 14”. He also wrote five books (some of which were written by Samoans):
- Topography of Samoa
- Samoan nutritive plants
- Samoan remedies
- Descriptions of my fish collection
- Descriptions of the large fish species of Samoa
Today, these books are an important testimony to Samoan culture. Tetens collected numerous Samoan objects, many of which he subsequently passed on to what is now the Übersee-Museum Bremen. In a 90-page letter to Prof. Schauinsland, Tetens lists these objects and provides background information. Today, the objects are a valuable testimony to Samoan culture, some of which can only be found in this form in the Übersee-Museum Bremen.
Diaries of Carl Spieß and Sophie Spieß
Scope: approx. 888,000 characters / five diaries:
- Spieß, Carl: Westafrica. I. 1894
- Spieß, Carl: Westafrica. II. 1896
- Spieß, Carl: Westafrica. III. 1898
- Spieß, Carl: Westafrica. IV. 1898
- Spieß, Sophie: Daily remarks
Work carried out by me: complete diplomatic transcription, correction, computer-aided translation (German texts into English)
Commissioned by: Übersee-Museum Bremen as part of a project to research objects from the Ewe region (Ghana / Togo). The project is an international collaboration between researchers from Germany, Ghana, Togo and the Netherlands, as well as priests from a Vodun shrine (in Accra/Ghana).
Topic and background: Carl Spieß (*1867-†1936) was a German missionary who worked on behalf of the North German Mission in the Ewe region (Ghana / Togo) from 1892 to 1914. During this time, he wrote diaries and treatises on the culture, language and religion (especially of the Ewe), as well as on numerous topics such as geography, flora and fauna, etc. Although written from the perspective of a North German missionary, the books are of great value for research, especially with regard to the religion of the country before Christian missionary work.
Carl Spieß collected numerous objects from the Ewe region, most of which he donated to the Übersee-Museum Bremen. Most of these objects were used for religious practices of fetishism and are a valuable object of research today.
Sophie Spieß (*1875-†1968), née Schmidt, was the wife of Carl Spieß and worked with her husband in the Ewe region. Among other things, she ran a kindergarten and a sewing school there. Sophie Spieß wrote a diary of her experiences and Christian community life in her “Daily Remarks”. She also wrote humorous poems in this 93-page booklet.
Sparenberch Chronicle
Scope of the transcription: a book with 544,768 characters (including annotations)
Work carried out by me: scanning and transcription of the Middle Low German texts
Client: own research in preparation for my master’s thesis
Script: chancellery script from the mid-16th century, written in Latin and Middle Low German (without uniform orthography and grammar)
Topic and background: The Sparenberch Chronicle is a city chronicle of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, written around 1550. The chronicle records the history of the city in particular, but also major political events, particularly contemporary records of the Reformation and the Schmalkaldic War. As is usual for chronicles of this period, the events were written down chronologically, with those entries that had taken place before the author’s experience being taken from other chronicles with minor changes. Therefore, the first chapters are written in Latin, while the later chapters are written in Middle Low German. The Sparenberch Chronicle has not yet been published in a transcribed or edited form, which is mainly due to the fact that the Renner Chronicle, which was written about 30 years later, is available as an edition and takes over large parts of the Sparenberch Chronicle.
Schrebitz parish register
The Schrebitz parish register is a record of the village jurisdiction of Saxony from the 16th and 17th centuries. As part of a large, multi-semester project in the Master’s program in History at the University of Bremen, I played a key role in its transcription, editing and publication. The Schrebitz parish register comprises 127 pages with 164 entries and is written in Middle Low German.
See the online edition here: https://media.suub.uni-bremen.de/handle/elib/5412
Who am I
Christophe Schindler
Historian
Studied at the University of Bremen, Germany
B.A. subjects: History/Geography
M.A. subject: History
In addition to my work at the museum, I offer freelance academic transcriptions and related work.