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The 100 stereo photographs each measure 2-3/8 x 5-1/8 inches, are numbered and have a full description of the subject printed on the back. When seen in the viewer each picture is incredibly three-dimensional, almost as if the scene was being viewed in real life. No other photo process can give the viewer an equal feeling of actually “being there”; it is like standing inside the Nazi Honor Temples in Munich (shown left)!

The 8-¼ x 11-¾ inch red hardcover photo book with gold blocking contains 60 pages of German-language text by Oscar Achenbach and Dr. Siegfried Kleinknecht that explains the land, people, history, trade and industries of Munich and surrounding Upper Bavaria, as well as the importance of the Gau to the Nazi Movement.

There are photos of the historic downtown Munich - the gothic Rathaus, the Frauenkirche, the House of German Art, the English Gardens, the apartment where Hitler lived on Schleißenheimerstrasse, the site where the Nazi Party was founded, the Sterneckerbrau, the Hofbrauhaus and Burgerbraukeller beer halls (shown directly above), Feldherrnhalle on the Odeonsplatz with its SS guarded monument to the fallen heroes of the November 1923 Nazi Putsch, the Honor Temples, the Rehse NSDAP historical archive, Hitler meeting the widows of the Nazi Martyrs, and more.

This is a completely original Third Reich stereo photograph book called Traditionsgau München-Oberbayern, referring to the Nazi Party district around München (Munich), Germany, in virtually unread condition. This was a promotional copy of the book sent out by the Reichsstelle zur Förderung des deutschen Schrifttums or the "National Authority for the Promotion of German Written Material" to a well-known author in Munich. A “Gau” (as in Traditionsgau) was the largest political / geographical district in Germany as the country was divided by the Nazi Party. Gau München-Oberbayern was a large, populous, and very important Gau that included the city of Munich (Die Hauptstadt der Bewegung or the Capital of the Nazi Movement) in Bavaria, and it was one of the 43 Gaue in Nazi Germany at the time this book was published in 1939.

Traditionsgau München-Oberbayern is one of the rarest and hardest-to-find of all the Third Reich 3D photo books, and this is the best example of the rare book we have been able to offer for sale! The single complaint anyone could have with this book is that like many other examples, the gold-foil lettering on the front cover is susceptible to lifting, and must be handled carefully.

Once in a while one can buy a SINGLE photo for around $10 - $15, or recently in Germany just the 100 photos (no book, no glasses) were offered for sale for €850 ($950.00). Very rare as found in very nice, little-used condition!

Also enclosed in the book is a four-page catalog and price list for the Heidoscop and Rolleidoscop stereo cameras used to take these 3D pictures, as manufactured by Franke & Heidecke of Braunschweig.

There are photos inside Reichswerke Hermann Göring (left) and other manufacturing companies, small tourist towns on the Ammersee, Tegernsee and Starnbergersee, alpine villages such as Bayrischzell, Bad Tölz, Miesbach, Ruhpolding, Reit im Winkl, Berchtesgaden, Oberammergau and its Passion Play Hall, ski resorts like Lenggries, Mittenwald, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the Reichsautobahn between Munich and Salzburg including the terrace of the famous Chiemsee Reststop, the Zugspitze weather station, Rosenheim (the city where Hermann Göring was born, according to text on the back of the photo), Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee palace, Tutzing (the final resting place of General Ludendorff (according to text on the back of the photo), Adolf Hitler’s Haus Wachenfeld on the Obsersalzberg above Berchtesgaden, St. Bartholomä chapel on the Königssee, and more.

Unlike most other Third Reich Raumbild or stereo photo books, this one was published by Buchverlag Heinrich Hoffmann of Munich, in cooperation with Raumbild-Verlag Otto Schönstein, Germany’s largest 3D photo book publisher of Diessen am Ammersee, in 1939.

This Nazi stereo photo book is among the rarest and most valuable of the twenty or so 3-D books produced to document NSDAP subjects during the Third Reich. The special red covers with gold lettering on the front cover and spine are each about 1/2-inch thick and are die-cut with five cavities that hold 100 special Heinrich Hoffmann 3-dimensional stereo photographs (real photographs from negatives - NOT halftone prints) and the metal viewer with glass lenses that is easily set up to view the photographs in very life-like 3-D.

The book also comes with a rare letter from the Reichsstelle zur Förderung des deutschen Schrifttums in Berlin dated 8 June 1938 to author and publisher Alfons von Czibulka (recipient of the 1938 "Literary Prize of the City Munich”). The Reichsstelle zur Förderung des deutschen Schrifttums in Berlin hoped Czibulka would promote the sale and distribution of this stereo photograph book for them. As an interesting historical side note, due to his association with the National Socialist regime during the Third Reich, several of Czibulka’s books were put on the banned book list in the Soviet Zone of Occupation after World War II. We can’t be sure if Czibulka ever promoted the book, but we can be sure that he never bothered to view the 3D photos in the book. As mentioned previously, two of the bundles of photos remained in their original wrapper until we opened them recently just to make sure all 100 photos were still in the book. They are.

Photo number 32 shows a picturesque scene in the town of Dachau just north of Munich and the text on the back explains that “the largest political prisoner camp” is on its outskirts (shown above).