Origin unclear. This series was sold by the Poppelbaum foundry in Vienna as Blockschrift or Block, in four styles; fett (bold), licht (open), schmal (condensed, in-house, 1920), and Kursiv. [Wetzig 1926–40] The foundry labeled the schmal as “protected by law” and the fett and licht as “original creation”. [c.1914–1924 specimen] Also available in Cyrillic. [c.1919–1927 specimen] Poppelbaum’s schmal is lighter than Berthold’s Block schmal (1920), and their fett (used for sample) is rounder than Reklameschrift Block (1908).

Versions of the fett were also cast by Brüder Butter (later Schriftguss (Nero, by 1913), Karl Brendler (as Blockschrift), Warnery (as Mammouth noir) [Reichardt 2011], and Zanker [Th. Maier]. Fondografica had the schmal as Modena and the fett as Bologna (before 1926 [Reichardt 2011]). Reggiani had the schmal as Sansone and the fett as Nerone [1937 specimen].

Lichte Block (inline, also by Warnery as Mammouth clair; not identical to Poppelbaum’s licht) and the heavier Werbeblock (also by Warnery as Mastodonte) are two all-caps variants cast by Brendler.