Eternal Germany
The book series Ewiges Deutschland was published between 1938 and 1943 by the Winter Relief Organization of the German People on the instructions of Joseph Goebbels . The books were widespread in the Third Reich and were a central element of Nazi propaganda .
Distribution and spending
The first edition appeared at Christmas 1938 under the title Ewiges Deutschland: Ein Deutsches Hausbuch . Two million copies of the book were distributed free of charge as a “Christmas gift” to those in need. The work was also available in bookshops .
In the following years, Georg Westermann published “at least four editions”. From 1943, after the war had turned, the main title Ewiges Deutschland was deleted and the subtitle highlighted as Das deutsche Hausbuch , the publication was transferred from Westermann Verlag to the central publishing house of the NSDAP .
Content and concept
Each edition contained a foreword by Goebbels, which was adapted to the current political situation and the war.
The rest of the books were always divided into twelve chapters, which thematically roughly corresponded to the twelve months of the year. The chapters themselves had the character of a collection or anthology and, in addition to drawings and woodcuts (by Ernst von Dombrowski, among others ), contained a wide variety of authors and types of text, including excerpts from books, stories, fairy tales , songs , poems , prayers , letters (often the Feldpost glorifying war ), speeches and speeches as well as quotes and aphorisms that “ stretched from the Middle Ages to the present and from the Brothers Grimm to Adolf Hitler ”. The selection tries to cover a broad spectrum of addressees; there are also adventure stories aimed at children in particular. The historian Reinhard Wittmann speaks of a "mixture from Hölderlin to Hitler, from Rilke to Gerhard Schumann's idolization of the Führer."
The work should take a central position in every German household and accompany the families of a "family Bible" through the year. The importance that the National Socialist leadership attached to the book is also evident from the fact that from 1943 it was printed in color despite the war-related shortage of raw materials .
While the first editions still use the Fraktur as typesetting , later editions use the Antiqua . The change in favor of the Antiqua ( see here ), which officially took place from around 1940/41, is thus also evident in this work.
Authors (selection)
The following authors are represented with at least one contribution (in many cases also several times) in the 1939 first edition of Ewiges Deutschland :
After 1945
The publication of the books by Westermannverlag was rated very critically after the end of the war: "No" middle-class "publisher has gone deeper into the brown area," says Reinhard Wittmann. Nonetheless, the concept of the works was continued by the publisher for C. Bertelsmann Verlag under the title Immortal Occident - A House Book of European Poetry .
Due to its formerly widespread use, the book can still be found relatively often (for example in second-hand bookshops and flea markets ) and is a common collector's item in militaria .
literature
- Eternal Germany. A German house book . Westermann Group . 1939-1943. Link to the data set of the German National Library .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Ine Van Linthout: The book in the National Socialist propaganda politics . Walter de Gruyter , 2011. pp. 187–188.
- ↑ Jürgen Wilke (Ed.): Mass media and donation campaigns: from the 17th century to the present . Böhlau Verlag , 2008. pp. 229-230.
- ↑ a b History of the German book trade in the 19th and 20th centuries . Volume 3, part 1. Walter de Gruyter , 2015.