Paintings from Hitler’s Personal Collection

I have a page of Nazi war art on the GPA.  One of the paintings is by Franz Eichhorst.  It was titled “Remembrance of Stalingrad.”

A Nazi  art magazine Kunst dem Volk considered it a masterpiece:

“The pale colors, the splendid presentation, and the solemnity of the moment are emphasized in this picture, which has an almost monumental character. Although the painting demonstrates the artistic understanding of the painter and also his mastery of drawing, one forgets it all because of the artist’s splendid work, accepting it as obvious and given. That is probably the best that a painting can do.”

It turns out that the painting ended up in Hitler’s personal collection and disappeared after the war.  It was just found in a Czech monastery along with six other paintings.

Chinese Magazine Article on Propaganda

I often get requests for high definition images of material on the German Propaganda Archive.  Recently, I provided some images to an amazing Chinese magazine, The Outlook Magazine.  They wanted images of Nazi racial wall charts for an article on propaganda in the January 2012 issue.  That is not on-line yet — I’ll add a link when they post the issue.

Price Controls in Vienna (1939)

In March 1939 the Gauleiter of Vienna, Josef Bürckel, launched a campaign against alleged Jewish commercial misdeeds in Vienna.  A variety of posters were issued immediately after, two examples of which are below.

The first poster states: “Bürckel Says: The honest merchant is a servant of the people! He who charges excessive prices is an enemy of the people! Good products — fixed prices. Higher sales — Less exploitation. No hoarding or dumping prices. No borrowing — No worries. Clear bills — Good friends.” The second has a direct anti-Semitic theme: “Down with the Jewish bargaining spirit!” These were printed in Das Kleine Blatt, a Vienna newspaper.

Two New German World War II Posters

A visitor to the site provided images of two posters which I’ve added to the GPA’s page of posters from 1933-1945. The first was new to me.  Issued, I think, shortly after the German defeat at Stalingrad, it encourages Germans to fight unceasingly until “final victory.” It would have been odd to issue the slogan for 1943 in May (during the second campaign). There is GPA page with directives for this campaign.

The second is an SS recruiting poster used in Belgium.

I am not certain of the date, but it is probably from 1942 or 1943.

Propagandizing German Women in 1941

I have a lot of instructional material on the site, directives aimed not at the public, but at propagandists.  Today I am adding instructions for leaders of Nazi women’s groups from September 1941. This was three months after the invasion of the Soviet Union had begun.  The first item works to build morale for coming difficult days.  The second section deals with sexual relations with foreigners.  Relations with Jews, of course, were prohibited. However, there was a range of other groups, and an interesting gender difference.  It was OK for men to have relationships with racially-related foreigners such as the Dutch or Scandinavians. If they married, their wives would join the German racial community.  Women, however, were not to have such relationships, since even though their partners might be “racially desirable,” the women would likely move to their husbands’ countries and thus be lost to Germany, which “needed every German.”

Building Confidence in German Victory (August 1943)

Today I’m adding the last in my current supply of issues of the Redner-Schnellinformation, irregular bulletins issued to Nazi speakers by the Reichspropagandaleitung.  Earlier in 1943, the Nazis had suffered defeats at Stalingrad and in North Africa.  The news in August 1943 had not gotten better.  Germans were understandably wondering how Germany could still win the war.

This issue tells speakers to be optimistic, to tell their audiences that Germany had every requirement for victory on its side.  However, it was remarkably vague about what that might mean.

On Cuts in the German Meat Ration (1943)

Of late I’ve been adding material intended for the guidance of Nazi speakers.  Today’s item is from May 1943, and explains the necessity for a cut in the meat ration.  This was a delicate matter to present to the public.  The Nazis used a variety of methods.  First, the issue was mentioned in newspaper articles.  Then the party’s speaker corps presented the case directly to audiences throughout Germany.

It is also interesting to consider the context.  Speaker directives both preceding and following this one dealt with a major anti-Semitic propaganda campaign that was going on in May 1943.