If the problem is the font rather than the actual German, I wonder if it would be worth searching out a German OCR program & scanning it? Given the ghastliness of fractur, the Germans *must* have developed something to deal with it.

I sympathize -- I've been dealing with Charles Kingsley's personal letters (circa 1842--4). The ink has faded, his handwriting is *very* angular, they're cross-written (!), and when he gets excited his pen has a tendency to blotch...