Akzidenz-Grotesk is a sans-serif typeface family originally released by the Berthold Type Foundry of Berlin. "Akzidenz" indicates its intended use as a typeface for commercial print runs such as publicity, tickets and forms, as opposed to fine printing, and "grotesque" was a standard name for sans-serif typefaces at the time.
Akzidenz-Grotesk seems to be a derivative of this shadowed sans-serif (Schattierte Grotesk, detail below) released by the Bauer & Co. foundry of Stuttgart in 1896, the year before it was taken over by Berthold.
A 1905 advertisement for Berthold in a Swedish printing journal, offering Royal-Grotesk, later branded as the light weight of Akzidenz-Grotesk, for sale. The sans-serif type is used in a secondary role underneath a more decorative heading face.
Font designer Dan Reynolds (above) and graphic design professor Indra Kupferschmid (below) have documented many aspects of the early history of Akzidenz-Grotesk.
A German banknote from 1918, using a range of sans-serifs of the period
In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than serif typefaces. They are often used to convey simplicity and modernity or minimalism. For the purposes of type classification, sans-serif designs are usually divided into these major groups: § Grotesque and § Neo-grotesque, § Geometric, § Humanist and § Other or mixed.
Rothbury, an early modulated sans-serif typeface from 1915. The strokes vary in width considerably.
Sans-serif letterforms in ancient Etruscan on the Cippus Perusinus
Roman square capitals, the inspiration for serif letters
A 12th-century Medieval Latin inscription in Italy featuring sans-serif capitals