Adolf Hitler; Bilder Aus Dem Leben des Fuhrers
Hamburg: Herausgegeben vom Cigarettern/Bilderdienst, 1936. Presumed First Edition, First printing thus. Hardcover. Text is in German. 132, [4] pages. Color frontis image of the Fuhrer. One full page photograph bound in between pages 86 and 87 and is unpaginated. Pages 37-40 disbound but presents. Illustrated with vintage black and white photographs and some color drawings. All locations have photographs or drawings in provided spaces. Some page browning. Some cover wear. With an introduction by Herman Goring and Foreword by Joseph Goebbels. There are 14 essays in addition to the Foreword from the Table of Contents at the end of the book. Among the essay authors are: Julius Schreck, Otto Dietrich, Joseph Goebbels, Wilhelm Bruckner, Robert Ley, Albert Speer, Fritz Todt, Foertsch, Baldur von Schjirach, Philipp Bouhler, and Julius Schaub. One collected the coupons found in the cigarette packs and then sent away for the pictures to be pasted into the book. The text and pictures present the life of Hitler and his rise to power in the Third Reich. The book has 133+ pages. In this book, every place holder for a photo is filled. Most pages have at least one photo and some have multiple photos. Over 200 fascinating and rare black & white photos and (a few) color drawings of key locations and Adolf Hitler giving speeches, presiding over parades and rallies, as well as candid photos of Hitler on vacation, at home, and with children. The photos are plates issued by the cigarette company and are pasted in at their appropriate location throughout the album. A historical pre-war pictorial record of the rise of Hitler and his Third Reich. German Cigarette Card Books (information derived from internet postings): Advertising item extensively used by cigarette manufacturers in Germany for several decades spanning the turbulent times following WW1 through the ascension of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (N.S.D.A.P. – Nazi party) were the small illustrated cards included in every pack of cigarettes. Over time, manufacturers of many products have produced promotional pieces to increase the sales in competitive markets. One such type of advertising item extensively used by cigarette manufacturers in Germany for several decades spanning the turbulent times following WW1 through the ascension of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (N.S.D.A.P. – Nazi party) were the small illustrated cards included in every pack of cigarettes. French cigarette companies had begun inserting collectable cards in cartons as early as the 1850s, starting a new and innovative advertising ploy. Within 10 years, some German manufacturers started to include collectable, cut-out pictures printed on their chocolate candy packaging. During the following decades, with many other companies followed suit by including images to their product packaging. Promotional cards appeared appearing in cartons manufactured by Cigarettenfabrik Constantin of Dresden and Berlin in 1895 as a way to entice repeat customers. The company wisely supplied their customers with albums in which to paste the cards. The Great War altered Germans’ perception of cigarette smoking. While it had been an indulgence of the wealthy prior to the war, cigarettes became the domain of the common man when the military regularly issued them to its troops during the conflict. In fact, many governmentally designed illustrated cards were included with these issues up until 1916. After the war, the former soldiers and their families retained their newly acquired habit. To help promote their brands in the growing market, cigarette companies such as Delta and Reemtsma heavily advertised and distributed series of collectable cards. Reemtsma introduced the idea of including numbered coupons with their cigarette packs instead of the actual collectable cards. The coupons were accumulated until a required number were attained, then mailed into a Cigaretten Bilderdienst (Cigarette picture service). The service would then mail back a set of photo cards that could be pasted into the blank spaces of a highly descriptive book that was purchased from the same cigarette company. This enabled the customers to receive undamaged and larger photo cards (that would not fit in cigarette packaging), along with allowing them to collect an entire set before a current series changed. When Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party took power in 1933, cigarette companies celebrated the new national fervor while promoting their individual brands at the same time by changing their cards to reflect the popular ideas of patriotism and glorification of the Third Reich. Albums now contained front covers with titles such as “Adolf Hitler,” “Deutschland Erwache,” “Kampf ums Dritte Reich,” and other ultra nationalist slogans and themes corresponding to the propaganda dished out by the Nazi party. The albums celebrated the military service and history of Germany along with the accomplishments and leaders of Hitler’s Reich. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, hundreds of thousands of copies of the various cigarette albums were produced and distributed during the Third Reich. When the war was lost, and the victorious allies marched into the German homeland, many of these books, along with other National Socialists’ printed dogma, were consigned to the burning piles of history. Those that survived, provide a vivid, often colorful look at the military, society, and values of the Third Reich. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Julius Schreck, Otto Dietrich, Joseph Goebbels, Wilhelm Bruckner, Robert Ley, Albert Speer, Fritz Todt, Foertsch, Baldur von Schjirach, Philipp Bouhler, Julius Schaub, Adolf Hitler, Goering, Nazi, Third Reich, Pictorial Works, Cigarette Souvenirs
[Book #81698]
Price: $750.00