How can I convert a document from 'Old German' (Fraktur) to Modern German?

International German
1

Hello,

Is there an AI application known in Germany that can translate a document written by an ancestor in “Old German” (Sütterlin) into “High German”?
I can decipher some parts, but not all.

Thank you very much for any hints.

See the attached document (excerpt).

Screenshot 2026-04-18T13-54-27
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2

Hi @dbyy,

There is indeed a great AI app specialized in old manuscripts: Transkribus, https://app.transkribus.org/

With the default settings, many things are wrong at first glance, but not everything :smiley:

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Although I can read the script, I still occasionally use the app for difficult cases to get some inspiration.

If you experiment with the models and settings, you can surely achieve even better results.

3

Try Transkribus and their ‘Super Models’ like German Genius or The Text Titan I. It is an online/cloud service with a user-friendly interface.

If you prefer open-source or local solutions, here are some alternatives:

  • OCR4all (Local software): Developed by the University of Würzburg. It is a desktop application you install locally (usually via Docker) that uses the Calamari engine for historical scripts.
  • TrOCR via Hugging Face (Online or Local): Specialized models from the University of Bern. You can test them directly in your web browser on Hugging Face, or run them locally if you have a Python/AI setup.
  • eScriptorium (Self-hosted/Server): An open-source platform where you can set up your own local server to process documents using the Kraken OCR engine.
  • UB Mannheim / Tesseract (Local software): The University Library of Mannheim maintains the Windows installers for Tesseract. This is a command-line tool you install on your PC, best suited for printed Fraktur rather than handwriting.
4

I just spent some time with Transkribus to get familiar with it.

I tried several different settings on my scanner (contrast/brightness).
I have to say my results weren’t as successful as yours, which you posted here.
I also used the “German Giant engine,” but the translation wasn’t much more detailed than what I had already translated myself.
But I’ll keep trying to “tweak” it.

Thanks a lot for your information.

5

Thanks for the tips.

I’ve been using tesseract for a while now (for regular OCR tasks in English).
I’m currently testing Transkribus and will try out the other tools later, then share my experiences.
A test with Google Gemini was not very successful. Completely wrong translation.

Cheers