WWI-era Letter in German

[lyrenna]

Hello everyone!

My uncle recently found a letter, from my great, great uncle Arthur during WWI, among my late grandfather's belongings. Arthur died a couple of months after he sent this letter, I believe. I was wondering if you would be able to help me read it, as it's in German.

Comments

[kali_kali]

It's not particularly unusual. I'm a genealogist, and I read old church records that are kept in German, and in those, the important pieces of data, such as names and places, are written in Latin script, but the rest is written in German script. Looks like the same thing here - since it appears to be intended to be sent by American organizations, who presumably wouldn't be able to read German script, the parts relevant for them to know to deliver the mail are written in Latin script, while the rest of the content is in German.

[kali_kali]

The date's probably done that way because while it doesn't need to be readable, it is in the blanks provided by the English headings, so maybe they thought that needed to fit that style as well. I don't know, I'm used to dealing wiht older documents.

The really fun handwriting comes out in the 1890s when the recordkeepers in the Baltic provinces of the Russian Empire (who would have been predominantly Baltic Germans, and records were kept in German before that) then had to keep their records in Russian instead, and thus continuously mix Latin, German *and* Cyrillic cursive together. Fun times, let me tell you.

[muckefuck]

*seufz* One of these days, I really should learn how to read more than a few words of Sütterlinschrift.

[lyrenna]

Oooooh I had no idea this existed *blushes* German 101 NEVER mentioned this... Thanks!

[muckefuck]

There's no particular reason why they would since it hasn't been in general use since WWII. IME, they only discuss Fraktur because some people are exposed to it before they come to class. But Sütterlin's the kind of thing you won't ever come across unless you're trying to read old handwritten documents.

[orange_fell]

WOW, I never heard of that either! Thanks for the link!

[octopus_fool]

Okay, this involved a lot of guesswork and I can only hope that I didn't make too many mistakes (some of the things I deciphered seem a bit strange). I put a (?) behind each word I'm not sure of and replaced each word I couldn't read with a

[lyrenna]

Thank you! That's about 50x more than I could even begin to read. Your effort is greatly appreciated.

[octopus_fool]

You're welcome! Figuring out what old letters say can be quite fun. ;-)

[duckodeath]

This is probably stating the obvious, but it sounds like what you need here is really transcription more than translation. The stumbling block is probably not so much the old script in and of itself, but just the legibility issues caused by what looks like pencil on yellowed paper.

I asked my dad about this because I know he recently translated some 19th century German letters written in the old script, but they were a lot more legible and he said this is just too hard to make out.

[madscience]

I tried decomposing the image and adjusting the contrast on the red channel. It makes it much easier for the eye to follow, at least.

noch eine Entzifferung

[too7]

kudos to octopus_fool; i had fun with this same puzzle last night, solving all but the faint second line in the margin..
mine is a line-for-line diplomatic transcription, like his..
{} encloses my additions, <> original letters to be omitted, and [] printed matter on the letterhead.
...
From. German.
Arthur P. Schulz. [ON ACTIVE SERVICE]
Co,"M"313.Infantry.NA. [AMERICAN] [WITH THE]
American Ex. Force. [YMCA] [AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE]
August 11. [191] 8.

Liebe Eltern ! Bruder
Habe euren lieben Brief erhalten, und mir sehr gefreut.
Wie ich aus den Brief ersehe seid ihr noch alle Gesund und
Munter, was ich bis jetzt\auch/ noch immer bin. Habt ihr die
letzte Karte von mir erhalten, so schreibt mir mal
bald darüber. Teddy schreibt mir ob ich Geld brauche,
bis jetzt noch keines, Es i{st} nicht notwendi{g}. \Ich habe

Re: noch eine Entzifferung

[lyrenna]

Thank you! This will mean so much to my uncle and my family. It adds another level to family history.