A Brief History of Strukturbericht Symbols and Other Crystallographic Classification Schemes

In 1913, x-ray crystallography was first used to determine the crystal structure of diamond. Since that time hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of crystal structures have been determined. Published structures require critical review and indexing to make them easily available to other researchers. One of the first systems for doing this was Strukturbericht (Structure Reports), published in Germany from 1931-1943 and covering research from 1913-1939, and now best known for the Strukturbericht symbols which label common crystal structures. A comprehensive history of Strukturbericht has not been written. This brief report sketches the early history of Strukturbericht, as well as its post-World War II successor publications, handbooks, and online resources.