Elvira Bauer

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Theodolinde Elvira Bauer (born September 12, 1915 in Nuremberg ; †?) Was a German kindergarten teacher and author and illustrator of a National Socialist - anti-Semitic children's book, which propagandistically spread the Nazi racial ideology and incited hatred of Jews .

life and work

Elvira Bauer graduated to secondary school - and Upper Secondary school a two-year training as a kindergarten teacher and Hortnerin the Municipal Kindergärtnerinnen- and Hortnerinnenseminar (former 'Lohmann Institute') in Nuremberg.

In 1936 she published a book entitled Don't trust a fox on green heather and not a Jew on his oath! A picture book for young and old . It was aimed at conveying the National Socialist racial ideology while learning to read . The title goes back to a quote from Martin Luther , in the original: Do not trust a wolf on wild heathens // Not even a Jew on his oaths // Do not believe any Pope on his conscience // Otherwise everyone gets fucked up (from: Von den Jüden und iren lies , 1543).

The eighteen-year-old wrote and drew it to publicize her anti-Semitic sentiments in the style of the anti-Semitic and pornographic propaganda paper Stürmer published by Julius Streicher . It remained her only published work and is considered "one of the most disgusting publications of the Stürmer-Verlag" .

At first, Bauer couldn't find a publisher for her book. Even the NSDAP- owned Franz-Eher-Verlag , which had set up its own section on the subject of “Jewish picture book”, initially rated the book as “unsuitable”. In this regard, other, from the NSDAP's point of view, “better” adaptations were already available, although it is not known which other picture books these were. Elvira Bauer's work was also rejected by the Mainz- based publisher Josef Scholz . Finally, the writer and painter Rudolf Rösermüller put her in contact with Julius Streicher, whose Stürmer-Verlag then published the picture book after some delay.

After she moved to Berlin in 1943, her track is lost. It is therefore also unknown what happened to her after the end of the war.

Reception of the book

The book was widely used in preschools and kindergartens. It was printed in at least seven editions with a total edition of around 100,000 copies. However, since the book was also distributed free of charge via party organizations, the high number of copies can only provide limited information about its popularity with the public.

The newspaper Der Stürmer advertised it in issue 48/1936. He recommended the book for every Christmas table in the empire:

“But Elvira Bauer didn’t just create this unique picture book for small children. It is also intended for adults, because

As long as there are still people who believe that a Jew can be made a Gentile through baptism ,
As long as there are still people who do not recognize the devil in disguise in their 'decent' Jew ,
as long as there are still people who believe that salvation comes from the Jewish people,
As long as there are still people like that, Elvira Bauer has made her unique picture book for older children too ...

Anyone who wants to speak to children big and small must know the child's language and its receptivity. Elvira Bauer knows how to tell children big and small. And young and old alike will thank her for creating the first and best picture book that one should put on every Christmas table in the new kingdom with his new people. "

Today, the book is considered a “prototype of National Socialist attempts at design” and was often quoted as such, for the first time in 1938 by Erika Mann . Thomas Mann's daughter wrote about Elvira Bauer's linguistic and graphic portrayal, which in this form reliably guides the imagination of the youngest in the path desired by the state :

“The bright red cover shows, next to this title, two pictures - the fox, treacherous and eager for prey, peeping around a corner; and under the Star of David, the Jews, - the caricature of the Jew running across the country - giant nose, bald head, bulging lips, watery eyes - swearing his perjury with fat fingers. The book is splendidly furnished, illustrated in many colors, even printed in two colors, whereby the words that the author is concerned with, such as 'devil', 'Jews', 'hanging mouth', 'scoundrel' etc. are made unforgettable for the children by printing in red should be. Each of these verses would have to be reprinted here, each of these pictures reproduced. Because it is to be feared that without this it will not be possible to describe the degree of sadistic brutality, demagogic mendacity and to make it vividly that has been achieved here. "

The rejection by numerous established publishers - even by the party-owned Franz-Eher-Verlag - and the origin from the Stürmerverlag indicate that it is not a representative work, but rather an "exceptional product" (Augustinovic / Moll) . The book was probably not placed in public libraries and did not appear in official recommendation lists; it was not approved by the National Socialist Teachers' Association .

In the Soviet zone of occupation , the book was placed on the list of literature to be sorted out.

literature

  • Berger, Manfred : The picture book under National Socialist rule . In: Theory and Practice of Social Pedagogy . No. 2 , 1985, ISSN  0342-7145 , pp. 102-104 .
  • Doderer, Klaus : On the genesis of a macabre picture book from the time of the Third Reich . In: Dorothea Ader u. a. (Ed.): Sub tua platano. Festival ceremony for Alexander Beinlich . Lechte, Emsdetten 1981, p. 239-244 .
  • Ehrenreich, Monika: Caricature and ideal. On the representation of the Jews in the National Socialist and Jewish German-language children's and youth literature of the Third Reich . Chair for Newer Dt. Literary studies I of the Univ. Regensburg, 1999 (Master's thesis; Regensburg scripts on literary studies; 12).
  • Fischer, Helmut (ed.): The brown hatred. The picture book "Don't trust a fox on green heath and no Jew by his oath" by Elvira Bauer . Inst. For youth and folk literature, Essen 1991, ISBN 3-9801380-9-7 .
  • Fred Hahn (Ed.): Dear striker . Letters to the editor to the Kampfblatt 1924 to 1945. Seewald, Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-512-00481-4 .
  • Schwerendt, Matthias: 'Don't trust a fox on green heath, and not a Jew by his oath'. Anti-Semitism in National Socialist textbooks and teaching materials . Metropol, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-940938-24-4 .
  • Thiele, Jan: The contribution of the primers of the Third Reich to conveying the National Socialist ideology: a critical analysis of their content . Univ., Diss., Oldenburg 2005 ( uni-oldenburg.de ).

swell

  1. ↑ Bauer, Martin: Elvira Bauer and her work “Don't trust a fox on green heath and not a Jew by his oath!”. A contribution to the historiography of the picture book in the "Third Reich", Munich 2006, p. 7 (unpublished diploma thesis)
  2. ↑ Hahn 1978, p. 156
  3. ↑ cf. Bauer 2006, p. 35 ff; Hahn 1978, p. 156 f
  4. ↑ Augustinovic, Werner and Moll, Martin: Anti-Semitism as educational content. A children's book from the "Stürmer" publishing house: Development - Reception - Effect. , Publizistik 36 (1991), pp. 343-358.
  5. ↑ Randall Bytwerk: Trust No Fox ... In: German Propaganda Archive. 2003, accessed September 20, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Aley, Peter: The picture book in the 3rd Reich . 1983, p. 331 .
  7. ^ Mann, Erika: Ten million children: the education of the youth in the Third Reich , Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1997, p. 62 ISBN 3-499-22169-1 .
  8. ↑ Mann 1997, p. 62 f
  9. ↑ Dyrenfurth-Graebsch, Irene: History of the German Youth book , Zurich; Freiburg i. Brsg .: Atlantis, 1967, p. 214.
  10. ↑ Josting, Petra: The youth literacy Battle of National Socialist Teachers Association , Hildesheim u. a .: Olms-Weidmann, 1994, p. 113f. ISBN 3-487-09967-5 .
  11. ^ German administration for popular education in the Soviet occupation zone, list of literature to be sorted out . Zentralverlag, Berlin 1946 ( polunbi.de [accessed on September 20, 2015] transcript letter B, pages 17-64).

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personal data
SURNAME Bauer, Elvira
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH September 12, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH 20th century or 21st century