Berliner Biere / Berliner Weiße
Photo(s) by Florian Hardwig. Imported from Flickr on Jul 2, 2015.
Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by Florian Hardwig and tagged with “optima” and “fettefraktur”. License: All Rights Reserved.
Vintage signs by VEB Getränkekombinat Berlin (1969–1990), the publicly owned combine that provided East Berlin and the rest of the GDR with beer and soft drinks, spotted on Mitte’s Brückenstraße.
The name is set in Optima Bold. While “Berliner Biere” is presented in Fette Fraktur, a different blackletter face has been used for “Berliner Weiße”: Walbaum Fraktur. The eszett doesn’t use the compact form as included in the digital versions, but rather a literal – perfectly acceptable – ligature of ‘ſ’ and ‘z’.
The logo with the tray carrying bear has survived the German reunification, although the animal had to lose quite a few pounds to become fit for capitalism.
2 Comments on “Berliner Biere / Berliner Weiße”
The Berliner Schloßbräu bear is more lucky: It may already start drinking, and right from the barrel to boot.
The Schloßbräu bear is kind of scary, though. Not because of the typeface, but because of the bear’s scale and size! I would not want to try to take that barrel back. Then it might turn into a Problembär!