Deutschlands Erwachen - Very Early Nazi Hoffmann Publications

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EARLIEST HEINRICH HOFFMANN NAZI PHOTO BOOKS

THE TWO EARLIEST HOFFMANN NAZI PHOTO BOOKS
DEUTSCHLANDS ERWACHEN
(GERMANY’S AWAKENING) MID 1920s

As every student of the history of the Nazi Party is aware, Heinrich Hoffmann was a very early party member. He was a well-established businessman and photographer, a good friend of Hitler and owned a photographic company with offices at number 50 Schellingstrasse on the near north side of München (Munich), Germany. His commitment to the Nazi Movement allowed them to move their offices out of a beer hall near Hitler’s rental apartment and into Hof or courtyard rooms in Hoffmann’s property on Schellingstrasse. It was not until German industrialist Fritz Thyssen purchased the Braunes Haus for the NSDAP in early 1930s that they moved from the Schellingstrasse address.

With the political success of the Nazi Party the good fortunes of Heinrich Hoffmann increased exponentially. He made photos of all the people in, and every aspect of the growth of the Nazi Party in Germany. To promote the NSDAP and to profit from his association with Hitler and the Nazi Party, Hoffmann developed a line of medium-sized, inexpensive, high quality photographic books which sold in very large quantity in Nazi Germany.

The two extremely rare books offered here are entitled ,,Deutschlands Erwachen’’ (Germany’s Awakening) and are the first two photo documentary books published by Hoffmann in a series that eventually numbered more than 50 different titles. The two books were probably published in 1926 but bear no publication or copyright date.

Both Volume I and Volume II measure 9-1/8 x 12-1/4 inches and they contain 32 and 28 pages respectively. They contain well written texts and dozens and dozens of obscure historical photographs of the personalities and venues connected with the early days of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, all appropriately captioned.

Photo documentary Volume I begins with the political misfortune that befell Germany in the wake of the Allied victory in World War I. It describes the earliest efforts of the very earliest members of the Nazi Movement to unseat the communists who had taken over the government of Bavaria.

There are photos of people like Anton Drexler, Gottfried Feder, Dietrich Eckart, Julius Streicher, Ernst Röhm, Dr. Frick, Hermann Esser, Marc Sesselmann, Alfred Rosenberg and Adolf Hitler, all taken in about 1920. There are photos of the very earliest gatherings of Party members before anything like standardization of uniforms, flags, etc. Most of the photographs in these books are unique to these books. Volume I ends with a full-page crepe draped memorial to the 14 Nazi martyrs of the failed November 1923 Putsch in München.

Volume II begins with a chapter called the “Swastika in Chains” showing Hitler in prison at Landsberg and his eventual release. Coverage given to the deaths of Dietrich Eckart and Leo Schlageter clearly established them as among the earliest martyrs of the NSDAP. A full-page photograph shows the “much hated Adolf Hitler”, his car surrounded by a sea of well-wishing hand shakers at Deutscher Tag in Fürth. The resurgence of the newly born Nazi Party through the first part of 1926 is very clearly documented. There are very early portraits of Nazis like Hermann Göring, Josef Goebbels, Robert Ley, Rudolf Hess, Bürckel, Rust, Sauckel, Wagner, Schwarz, Fiehler, Bouhler, Amann, Von Pfeffer, Kaufmann, Lohse, Scherwitz, Klant, Schmischke, Haselmeyer, Brückner, Ernst Schlange, Dinter, Hohnfeldt, Bahlen, Zander, etc. For contrast, there are pictures of Jews like Katz, Eppstein, Scholem, etc.

The back cover of each of the books was covered with pro-Nazi advertising in an effort to offset the cost of publication. The advertising is for Hoffmann’s own photographic firm, the Nazi Party publisher Franz Eher Nachfolger, M. Müller & Sohn (publishers of Hitler’s book Mein Kampf), and Der Stürmer - the most anti-Semitic newspaper in Germany.

The cover of the second volume is loose from the bound contents, but otherwise these two extremely historic, very early, 80 year old Nazi publications are in nice used condition.

The two rare volumes of Deutschlands Erwachen are **SOLD**.

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