East German Propaganda Material

I usually post news here that has to do with my own site, but every now and then I find something else on the web that is relevant.  Today, I include links to two interesting collections of material coming from the German Democratic Republic.

This first link is to a collection of propaganda leaflets fired over the border and intended for West German border guards.  There was a "burst" of this kind of material in the 1960s.

The second is some material from Contra, a periodical I was not previously familiar with.  It was also aimed at West German border guards.

Interesting and unusual material, for sale, apparently, should you be interested.

A Nazi Cartoon from 1943 on Lynching in the USA

As I look for one thing, I sometimes come across other interesting material to add to existing pages. Today I’m adding a vivid caricature to the page on Lustige Blätter, a weekly satirical magazine, showing a Black being lynched. Although the Nazis viewed blacks as inferior, they sometimes pointed out contradictions in the United States.

In this case, the suggestion is that the United States is hypocritical in complaining about Nazi treatment of the Jews, given what it does to American Blacks.

Another 1939 Speech by Josef Bürckel

I tend to translate things that strike me as interesting as I'm working on my research (currently the uses to which the Germans put American rhetoric during the Nazi period). I've been going through newspapers from Austria after the Anschluß to see how, for example, FDR's speeches were handled. I also recently started a page of rhetoric by Nazi Gauleiter, the party's regional potentates. Their material is rather hard to find. Today, I'm adding a March 1939 speech by Gauleiter Bürckel of Vienna which takes on economic issues. He basically announces price controls. I'm interested in this kind of material because it illustrates what the Nazis were doing at the local level, as opposed to the national level that we know more about.

The illustration is a newspaper cartoon published shortly after Bürckel's speech.

The cartoon claims that German commerce must become honest. Jews are being swept away.

More on a Bad Translation of Mein Kampf

In 2009, one Michael Ford published a bad translation of Mein Kampf, which I discussed in an earlier post.

What I find astonishing, although it is typical of Internet discussions, is that those who for some reason like his translation accuse me of making up Ford's mistakes.

Well, I suppose it is time to make the evidence available. I've started a page that demonstrates errors in Michael Ford's translation. If anyone is interested, I'll add to the page as time goes on.

Material from Nazi Gauleiter Hans Schemm

I am  adding material by the various Nazi Gauleiter. It's not easy material to find, and I'd welcome more if you happen to have something.  Today, I'm adding excerpts from a 1935 book by Gauleiter Hans Schemm, mostly on racial theory.  The book was published after his death.  Its editor attempted to bring together Schemm's various speeches and writings into a coherent whole.

The Werewolf Movement in April 1945

A visitor to the site sent me an interesting copy of an April 1945 teletype by top Goebbels aide Werner Naumann on the Werewolf Movement — a last-ditch effort by the Nazis to establish underground resistance to Allied occupation. This was directed to the heads of the regional propaganda offices. The attempt had limited success, but the teletype is interesting as one of the last gasps of the propaganda system.

Nazi Factory Propaganda

This is a rare surviving piece of Nazi ephemera, a flyer distributed at a factory in Ludwigshafen in 1931 or 1932.  It deals entirely with local factory issues: smoking, time clocks, and the fact that workers were searched when leaving the factory to stop theft of company property. It shows Nazi propaganda dealing with specific grievances of a particular factory.  I do have a second leaflet from the same factory, but probably will not get around to translating it.

A 1936 Nazi Reading Primer

I've collected several basic reading primers over the years. Two were already on the GPA. Today, I'm adding material from a 1936 primer titled Hand in Hand for the Fatherland. It has particularly interesting Nazi treatments of death and of exactly what being a German means.

German City Maps from 1938

This is an experiment to see if anyone finds it useful. I have a street atlas of Germany from 1938, which I find interesting because it shows how streets and public squares were re-named all over Germany in honor Hitler and other Nazi potentates. I've added the maps for Berlin, Frankfurt, Hanover, and Nuremberg. If you have a city you'd particularly like to see a map of, let me know.

I've since added, by request, Munich to the list.

In the case of Nuremberg, for example, the illustration below shows that the main square was named for Hitler. I've also included a clip of the Nuremberg Party Rally grounds.

The Center of Nuremberg

The Party Rally Grounds

New Material from Hitler Youth Leader Magazines

I keep adding material to my collection faster than I can do anything with it. I do try to update existing pages when I acquire more relevant material.  Today, I'm adding some material for Jungvolk (the organization for boys 10-14) leaders to the existing page on HJ training material. These leaders were usually only a few years older than their charges, consistent with the principle that "youth should be lead by youth."  Two of the newly added covers are below.

This is rather interesting material.  As I comment on the page, not much has been done with it that I know of.  It seems to me that there is a dissertation in there somewhere.

A Stuermer Article from 1943

Today I'm adding a July 1943 article from Julius Streicher's Der Stürmer titled "Our Faith," claiming that the Jews were responsible for the war, and that it had predicted back in 1938 that such a war would end with the destruction of the Jews.  It's one of numerous similar articles from the period.  This was published after the bulk of the killing had already occurred.

For those interested, my book on Julius Streicher goes into considerable detail on his work.

Nietzsche and German Women

While scanning the cover of an issue of the Frauen Warte, the Nazi weekly for women, for a publisher who needed an illustration, I came across a peculiar article on Nietzsche and race. I’m not sure what the average reader made of it in 1938, but I’ve added a translation. The illustration is the issue’s cover.

Reports on a Nazi Propaganda Campaign in 1940

I'm interested in the inner workings of the Nazi propaganda system, and occasionally add material intended for the guidance of propagandists.  Today, I add an article from Unser Wille und Weg, the monthly for propagandists.  It reviews the November 1940 campaign of meetings during which the party attempted to saturate the country with propaganda demonstrating that German victory was sure.

The posters below were used to advertise the meetings.  The party regional office printed the posters, and lower-level units filled in the date and time of meetings they would hold.

German Propaganda Material for Sale

I've recently listed a lot of material available for sale from my German Propaganda Book Shop. As I buy material to complete my collections, I often end up with duplicates — and recently, lots of things have been coming in.

First, I have 21 of the miniature Parole der Woche editions. These were playing-card sized condensations of the larger wall newspaper. Several examples:

I have also listed over 50 of the Wochenspruch der NSDAP, weekly posters with inspiring quotations. These have been sold.

Contact me should you be interested in any of these original examples of Nazi propaganda.

Speeches by Nazi Gauleiter

The Gauleiter were regional Nazi party leaders. Speaking to large audiences was in the job description. I'm beginning a new page of translations of speeches by various Gauleiter. At the moment, the only items are speeches by Julius Streicher, which were already on the GPA, and a February 1939 speech by Josef Bürckel, who had just been appointed Gauleiter of Vienna

I expect to add other speeches over time. Should you happen to have a reliable speech text by a Gauleiter, I'd surely appreciate a copy (although I cannot predict how long it will take me to get to translating it).

Slogan of the Week Posters

The Nazi Party’s Central Propaganda Office issued a weekly poster that was kind of wall newspaper. It emphasized the main propaganda message of the moment. A friend of the site led me to a dozen of these from 1941, to add to the two I already had. The Nazis also issued a playing card-sized “Reader’s Digest” version of the large poster, examples of which are available on another page.

A "German Christian" Pamphlet from 1934

The "German Christian" movement (the Deutschen Christen) was the Nazi attempt to reconcile Christianity with Nazism, a rather difficult task. Today I add a pamphlet by Gerhard Hahn, a leader of the movement, titled The Cross of Christ and the Swastika, which discusses the activities of the movement in Hanover. Things didn't turn out quite as well as Hahn predicts in the pamphlet.

A symbol of the movement is shown on the cover above — the Christian cross superimposed on the swastika. During World War II, an American poster used the same symbol in an entirely different context. The goal was to show the cross as the victor over the swastika. I do not know anything about the history of the poster. I'd be interested to know if it was modeled after the "German Christian" logo.

New Caricatures from "Der Stuermer"

I recently provided some images for a filmmaker. I'm adding six of them to the pages on Der Stürmer, Julius Streicher's anti-Semitic weekly. These come from 1932-1934. Some are on the pre-1933 page, others on the 1933-1945 page. Two examples:

East German Propaganda Periodical (August 1984)

The German Democratic Republic published an English-language illustrated magazine titled GDR Review. It appeared in other languages as well. I've added scans of the full issue from August 1984. It provides an interesting window into the GDR at a time when no one expected it to collapse five years later.

Anti-Bolshevist Poster from 1937

In 1937, the Nazis staged a major anti-Communist exhibition, part of a broad campaign. I've added a poster advertising the event. Parts of the program were already available on the GPA.

New Covers from "Der Pimpf"

Der Pimpf was the Nazi monthly for boys aged 10-14. I've added five new covers to the page on the magazine.

Hitler Youth Quotation Posters from 1940

Nearly every branch of the Nazi Party produced its own propaganda materials. Two collectors have kindly provided me with seven examples of weekly quotation posters issued by the Hitler Youth in 1940. According to the catalog of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, about 32 of these were published in 1940, after which publication was suspended.

Weekly Quotation Posters

The Nazis issued weekly posters with inspirational quotations. I already had many of these on the GPA, but a friend of the site recently provided me with about a dozen 1938 examples from Gau Saarpfalz that I have added to the page.

The Hitler Youth in Kiel

There was a burst of books of party history between 1938 and 1941, glorifying the "period of struggle." Today, I'm adding sections from a 1938 book titled The Hitler Youth in Kiel. It contains an introductory chapter outlining the history of the Hitler Youth in the area, which I have translated in full. There are then a lot of brief accounts, of which I have translated a few. The book has 128 pages. I've translated about twenty pages in all.

New Booklet for Boys on the Russian Campaign

Between 1940 and the end of 1942, the Nazis issued weekly 32-page booklets in a series titled Kriegsbücherei der deutschen Jugend ("War Library of the German Youth"). 156 appeared in the regular series, along with about a dozen special issues at the end.

I've added a translation of one of the last of the series, Waffen SS in Battle near Leningrad. Although it appeared in the late fall of 1942, it covered events of over a year before, when German forces were advancing toward Leningrad. I assume that, since the news on the Eastern Front was not all that good (the crisis at Stalingrad was clear to the leadership, if not yet the public), they were looking for a story of rapid advances rather than looming defeat.

Anti-Semitic Poster from 1941

A visitor to the GPA kindly provided me with this image, which I've added to the poster page. It looks to have been issued during the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. However, I am not sure of the language, and do not have a translation. I'd be pleased if someone would remedy my ignorance. UPDATE: I got an answer -- Drive the Jews and Bolshevists out of Europe, apparently.