Herr Ober! · for iPhone, iPad and the browser
Servierkunde 1899 –
read it, hear it, explore it
A real Viennese textbook for apprentice waiters, digitised page by page. Read it in the blackletter of 1899 or in modern script, have it read aloud word by word, and find out why a dyslexia association made this book.
Coming to the App Store. Free, no ads, no data collection. The book text is in German; the app interface is in English and German. A project of DVLD e. V. with the EÖDL.
The same line, two scripts
This is how chapter one begins: “When a guest enters the establishment, the waiters present are to greet him standing.” The app shows every page either as it was typeset in 1899, with the long ſ and the ligatures ch, ck and tz, or in an easy-to-read modern typeface. While reading aloud, the highlight moves from word to word.
Tritt ein Gaſt in das Lokal, ſo haben ihn die anweſenden Kellner ſtehend zu begrüßen.
The web app: the whole book in your browser
No App Store, no installation: appsthrum.com/herrober/webapp opens the complete book on any device with a current browser – iPhone, Android, tablet, laptop. The interface is available in English; the book itself is in German.
- All twelve chapters in Fraktur or modern script, with the word lens and full-text search
- 1,203 recordings with a moving word highlight, adjustable speed
- 53 plates and 14 menus with zoom and the original scan
- Fraktur primer, tours, questions, exercises and glossary
- Add it to your home screen and download the whole book for offline use if you like
Reading and learning progress stay in your browser. No account, no ads, no analytics. Web app privacy notice (German)
Start the web app
Why a dyslexia association recorded a waiters' textbook from 1899
Reading is a cultural skill, not a given. Every child has to learn it, symbol by symbol. About 15 percent of all people are dyslexic: they perceive symbols differently, similar letters blur into each other, the line will not hold still, and every word costs time, every school day.
Open the old script and you stand in that place for a few minutes. The long ſ looks like an f, the capital A like a U, three letters fuse into one sign. Reading slows down, the eyes jump back, you guess. That is the experience the Dachverband Legasthenie Deutschland wants to make available to everyone, with a real book and without scores or rankings.
The app follows the way Dr. Astrid Kopp-Duller describes learning a word: see it, hear it, understand it. Word lens, narration and explanations do exactly that. It is not a dyslexia training programme and does not replace one.
Read the full chapter (in German)„Öffnen Sie das erste Kapitel in der alten Schrift. Lesen Sie den ersten Satz laut. Und dann stellen Sie sich vor, das wäre jeder Satz, jeden Tag, in jedem Fach.“
“Open the first chapter in the old script. Read the first sentence aloud. Then imagine that were every sentence, every day, in every subject.” From the chapter's closing lines.
Read aloud
Every chapter is narrated. The spoken word is highlighted in yellow while the text scrolls along, in both scripts. Speed 0.8, 1.0 or 1.2.
Word lens with explanations
Tap a word: it appears large in modern script and is spoken. For 40 terms of 1899, from the couvert to the table d'hôte, the lens also tells you what they meant and where they occur in the book.
Fraktur primer
The blackletter alphabet, the tricky letters (ſ and s, k and f, A and U, B and V), then words, phrases and real sentences from the book. Read the Fraktur first, then reveal the modern script.
Explore and learn
Three guided tours through the book, 30 questions with explanations and page references, picture tasks on fish knife, grape scissors and place setting, a reading key to the Johann Strauss menu of 1894, and six short notes on the world of 1899.
Plates and menus
China, glassware, cutlery, place settings and banquet tables as gently restored engravings with zoom, the original scan for comparison and captions in German and French. Plus 14 historical menus.
Reading comfort
Adjustable text size and line spacing, light and dark mode, VoiceOver, reading and learning progress kept only on your device. English and German app interface; the book text is German.
The book
“Servierkunde”, a handbook for the practical and theoretical art of serving, written for the vocational schools of Vienna's hoteliers, innkeepers and coffee-house keepers. Edited by Director Adolf Fr. Heß with Karl Scheichelbauer and Anton Sirowy. Vienna 1899.
Ten chapters from the waiter's conduct through the order of courses, serving drinks and laying the table to the banquet, plus an appendix with plates and menus. The book is in the public domain; the illustrations come from the pattern books of Vienna's court purveyors. For the app the text was re-typed and checked against the scans.
Screens
