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BOUND ISSUES OF 1933-1942 ILLUSTRIRTE ZEITUNG FOCUSSING ON NAZI PROGRESS, INDUSTRY, ARCHITECTURE, GRAPHICS, ART, CULTURE, CITY PLANNING

Text and images copyright © 2024 by USM, Inc.

The oversized magazine Illustrirte Zeitung (also written Jillustrirte in German) was published weekly by Verlag J. J. Weber in Leipzig for a very long time before the National Socialists were elected to power in Germany. “Germany’s oldest illustrated weekly magazine” prided itself on providing “the best knowledge of Germany’s economy and culture” and the excellent editorial content was always supplemented with big, sharp photographs, illustrations and art in color and black & white, and all printed on high-quality white paper.

Over the years USMBOOKS has offered many different examples of Illustrirte Zeitung, single magazines and bound years. This is a 10-¾ x 15 inch and 1 inch thick hardbound book containing sections of many different Illustrirte Zeitung and other publications from the years 1934-1942. The person who assembled the material into a fine, large hardcover book clearly had an interest in preserving aspects of architecture, culture, graphics, city planning, etc. judging from the articles bound in this Third Reich book.

The content is remarkable! Nürnberg and the Nazi Party Days, the Air Ministry and Reichschancellery in Berlin, architectural plans for redevelopment of many German cities, watercolors, etc., etc.

Below is part of a page with remarkable details and photos of the construction of a “test section” for the planned (but never built) enormous German Stadium on the Nazi Party Day Grounds in Nürnberg. One of twelve giant sections was built in the Hirschbach Valley in the Bayerische Ostmark. This page includes photos of the construction as well as Adolf Hitler, Albert Speer and Willy Liebel visiting the construction site on 22 March 1938.

Other pictures show Adolf Hitler greeting Reichsbischof Ludwig Müller, Leni Riefenstahl at work, the new sport stadium in Nuremberg, the hospitality business in Nuremberg during the Nazi Party Days, the new Nuremberg zoo and art by Nürnberg’s most famous citizen, Albrecht Dürer. There is also a beautiful full-page color painting of the Albrecht Dürer house.

Below, a stunning 1939 painting by Paul Hermann showing the Mosiac Hall in the New Reichschancellery in Berlin, designed by architect Albert Speer. It is a beautiful double-page spread in this bound volume of Illustrirte Zeitung.

Additional features have rare seldom-seen photos taken at Nazi Ordensburgen Vogelsang and Crössinsee, the Reichsbank in Berlin, and there are architectural drawings and models for the future Adolf Hitler Squares in Dresden and Weimar. The huge locomotive factory at Bautzen-Weimar and trains of the Deutsche Reichsbahn are shown as well as finished Nazi freeway bridges.

This 4+ pound book also has a remarkable series of pictures of the new Reichsluftfahrtministerium designed by Ernst Sagebiel. There are photos of the exterior and interior of the new Nazi Air Ministry, the garden and honor court, Hermann Göring, etc. These images have rarely been published elsewhere.

This bound volume of magazine features from the high point of National Socialist success in Germany also includes six remarkable pages with architectural details for the Oberkommando des Heeres building in Berlin designed by architect Wilhelm Kreis. They include the north view, Honor Court facade, street view and even the OKH office building facing the Bendlerstrasse. There many pictures of the Berlin Olympic Stadium, the new Deutschlandhalle, the old royal palace and a very rare 1939 RLM aerial photo showing the Ost-West-Achse (shown left). This is accompanied by several pages of architectural plans for the center of Berlin and a beautiful full-page watercolor by Rudolf Lipius of the traffic circle on Potsdamer Platz.

There is tourism related advertising by cities such as Weimar, Stuttgart, Budapest, Bad Tölz and Bad Wiessee (advertising their healthy iodine baths!), Villa d’Este and Bellagio on Lake Como. UfA was promoting films such as Wunschkonzert and Über alles in der Welt with full-page ads, and there is consumer advertising for Bayer aspirin, Hautana and Warner bras, Kienzle and Junghans clocks, Mercedes-Benz, Reemtsma cigarettes, Leica cameras, 4711 Cologne, Miele vacuum cleaners, Blütner pianos, Kaloderma face cream, Deutsche Reichspost savings accounts, Indanthren, Wanderer, Auto-Union, Dresdner Bank, Allianz insurance, etc., etc.

We can not overemphasize the remarkable content in the Third Reich material bound in this heavy book. It is a treasure trove of information on the Nazi Party Days, National Socialist construction plans, and the heavy photo content is amazing.

The first 48 pages in this book are about the City of Nazi Party Days, Nuremberg. There are spectacular pictures of Nazi airplanes flying over the city, Adolf Hitler on the balcony of the Hotel Deutscher Hof during his review of 1600 members of the Hitler Youth who had participated in the Adolf-Hitler-Marsch to Nürnberg (right), Hitler with Mayor Willy Liebel, SA, SS and NSKK troops during a review attended by Admiral Raeder and Generals von Fritsch and Blomberg, the Nazi Blood Flag, Italian dignitaries visiting the Reichsparteitag, exterior and interior pictures of the new Haupttribune (above and below) on the Zeppelinfeld (including a picture of Albert Speer and Hitler during a visit to the new Nazi building), the enormous Kongresshalle under construction, architectural plans and models of additional buildings destined to be built at the Reichsparteitaggelände, military maneuvers, organized KdF festivities, etc.

This book can’t be duplicated today at any price. This is something for collectors and historians with an interest in Third Reich architecture, art, political and military events, culture, etc. in the late 1930s and the early years of WW2 in Germany.

Someone went to a great deal of trouble to extract much of the most relevant material available from a number of very rare magazines and combine it in one very large hardcover book. In 2024 it would cost many thousands of dollars just to acquire the magazines from which this material was extracted.

The section on Reichshauptstadt Berlin has a heavily illustrated section is about the new Reichschancellery with interior and exterior photos, Adolf Hitler’s office, and the amazing and very rare 1939 color painting of the Mosaic Hall by Paul Hermann.

Other photo features cover improvements in cities such as Danzig, Breslau, Magdeburg, Krakau, Hamburg and the expansion of its important port facilities. Beautiful watercolor paintings accompany an article about traveling in Saxony. There is also an article about the cities and industries of the Rhineland

There are photos of the funeral of Polish Marschal Josef Pilsudski in May 1935 in Krakau and Warsaw, which was attended by Hermann Göring. Articles about Nazi Party and diplomatic news are accompanied by photos of Nazi and foreign diplomats. There is a photo feature about the wildlife on the Schorfheide north of Berlin, location of Reichsjägermeister Hermann Göring’s Carinhall estate.

Other illustrations show Nazi themed stained glass windows and there are beautiful color paintings of aryan looking Hitler Youth boys by Sudeten-German painter Oskar Just.