Under the German flag
A German booklet series was flying the German flag .
history
The novels were published weekly between 1911 and 1916 in the publishing house for folk literature and art in Berlin . It was published in medium format with 32 pages in 240 issues. The selling price was 10 pfennigs or 15 hellers / centimes . In 1916 the distribution of the series in the Kingdom of Bavaria as so-called trash literature was banned until the end of the First World War ; with a few exceptions, it was still allowed in the catchment area of the Prussian Deputy General Command . In 1933/34 there was a new edition of 35 issues with an updated text on the back. The series apparently served as a model for the war library of German youth (1939–1945), which in turn can be regarded as the forerunner of the series Der Landser , which has been published to this day . Well-known authors were Friedrich Meister, Carl Ludwig Panknin, Alwin Asten and Karl Bleibtreu .
Manufacturing background and other contemporary military series
In 1909 the Berlin publishing house for folk literature and art began with the edition of the series Klar zum Gefecht. Famous heroes on land and sea . It was apparently the first German magazine series to explicitly deal with the subject of war. However, as early as 1907, the Münchmeyer-Verlag in Dresden began to publish Hurray - from War and Peace, events from the Franco-Prussian War or fighting in the German colonies .
One reason for the series start in 1911 could have been the 40th anniversary of the founding of the German Reich , when the series was able to pick up young readers in general anniversary reporting. On the other hand, the same publisher also published the series Roosevelts-Rauhreiter in 1911 , probably a copy and less of a translation of the American dime novel series Rough Riders Weekly , which was published in New York in 1906 by Street & Smith. Events from the Spanish-American War of 1898 were rumored here (see Theodore Roosevelt ).
subjects
19th century
Topics were the Franco-German War , the German-Danish War in 1864, the Boxer Rebellion and the numerous campaigns and small-scale war operations in the German colonies of Cameroon , German South West Africa , German East Africa and the South Pacific . The series therefore also reacted to contemporary events, such as B. the uprising on Ponape 1910/11 ( uprising of the Sokehs ) in No. 47, The Fights of Ponape by Alwin Asten. Operations in the context of German gunboat policy were also dealt with, for example in No. 50, Captain Werner in the Mediterranean by Charles Nin, (see Reinhold von Werner ) or No. 224 by CL Panknin: Gut made, Panther (see SMS Panther ). The focus of the presentation was clearly on the Franco-German War.
The First World War
From issue 226 onwards, only World War I events were dealt with. Nevertheless, the publisher decided to issue special war series. Voluntary war. Experiences of a Priman was published in 150 volumes in 1914/15. The series War and Love was specially designed for female readers . Stories from a great time conceived, which existed from 1914 to 1919 and had 160 editions. At least in the area of responsibility of the Prussian Army, it did not fall under the general prohibition of so-called junk literature from 1916. Another series, With flying flags , appeared from 1914 to 1917 in 125 editions.
Conception of the series using the example of issue No. 4, The Baptism of Fire of the Meteor
The booklet contains 33 pages and is divided into eight chapters. The last page has a history section . The colored cover picture shows the deck of the North German gunboat SMS Meteor with a gun and in the background the French Aviso Bouvet in the smoke and powder. The picture is subtitled: The shell of the gunboat smashes the steam boiler of the "Bouvet" .
The framework of the novel deals with the historical battle between the Meteor under Lieutenant Eduard von Knorr and the Bouvet on November 9, 1870, off Havana in the Franco-German War . It was the only real naval battle between North German and French units during the war and therefore participated in the maritime literature of the Empire a prominent place, to which certainly helped that Knorr later a brilliant career in the Imperial Navy made and Kaiser Wilhelm II. A Was an icon . In the year the magazine was published, Knorr was 71 years old and still a popular figure in naval circles; the battle was included in Lohmann's traditional calendar for the Reichsmarine in 1928 with its own entry.
The action time covers the period from August to November 1870 in the Caribbean on board the Meteor . The plot consists of fictional adventures of some crew members who are shipwrecked in a storm, and the battle off Havana on November 9, 1870 (pages 23 to 32). The description of the battle is very detailed; the author Friedrich Meister obviously resorted to popular publications on the battle, such as those found in Reinhold von Werner's Das Buch von der Deutsche Flotte (Bielefeld / Leipzig 1902).
The heading of the 7th chapter of the booklet, “A duel on the sea”, is provided with a footnote with the text: “Described exactly according to the official report” (p. 23). Since the battle alone was apparently not enough for the author from a dramaturgical point of view to build up an exciting plot suitable for young people, he inserted fictitious storylines with fictitious events. In chapter 1 Threatening Signs , the Meteor is shot at by an unknown sailing ship at night on the high seas; it remains open whether it was possibly a French warship.
In Chapter 2, A Drama on the High Seas , the Meteor encounters a floating raft with castaways . The last survivor has gone mad from hunger and thirst and resists his rescue by rolling off the raft into the sea. Apparently it came from a German ship called Seeadler that was attacked by pirates .
As a result of the rescue operation, the Meteor dinghy itself is in distress due to a sudden storm , which introduces Chapter 3, Lost in the Storm . The dinghy washes up on the beach of an island where the sailors find the wreck of the sea eagle . During the search of the wreck, they discover that the ship has indeed been attacked by pirates and that a fierce battle has taken place. The Meteor -men light a fire, which makes the American full ship Lincoln aware of them and picks them up. On the Meteor, on the other hand, the missing are thought to be dead and a memorial service is held for them.
In Chapter 4, A Battle with the Spaniards , the two storylines are reunited. Coincidentally, the Lincoln's course leads to Port Royal / Jamaica , which is also called by the Meteor to get news about the political situation in Europe in the British colony. Some crew members celebrate the survival of those believed dead in a tavern run by a Spanish woman . Guests are next to the Germans Portuguese , Americans, English and Spanish. The Spaniards ridicule the German seafarers as cowards because the Meteor had fled from the brave French and insult them as stubborn, dull and red-haired barbarians . As the English and Americans present joined in the laughter, the German sailors were forced to save their honor. A fight begins in which the Spaniards draw daggers, but the Meteor men break tables and chairs and knock down the drunken opponents in a flash. The helmsman of the Meteor appears by chance and lets the fight break off so that Lieutenant Knorr doesn't get any inconvenience.
In Chapter 5 Man Overboard! leaves the Meteor Port Royal and sails towards the Bahamas . Shortly before Key West / Florida a sailor falls from a yard but manages to hold on to a geitau . Knorr has a boat brought into the water so that the man floating between sky and water can let himself fall. He is picked up by the boat and rescued. The gunboat calls at Key West, where the American Navy ( US Navy ) kindly takes care of the meteor and even provides it with coal . Knorr decides to call at Havana, as French warships are said to be there and he wants to put them to battle. In the last three chapters (No. 6 The first encounter with the "Bouvet" , No. 7 A duel on the sea and No. 8 Hit to death ) Meister deals with the actual subject of the novel with the battle in front of Havana popular contemporary representations. On the last page, under the heading History, the technical data of the Meteor and the Bouvet are listed and Knorr's role as commander is highlighted. The gun leader, boatswain's mate Körner, is also mentioned, with whose shot the Bouvet was eliminated from the battle.
Ultimately, only a third of the novel's content deals with the actual historical event. The first two thirds of the plot come from the general repertoire of seafaring literature and were used to win over young readers to supposedly adventurous aspects of seafaring (shipwreck, pirates, fights in harbor bars). Most of the booklets in the series are probably constructed similarly; fictitious characters and actions are constructed and incorporated into the historical framework for identification for the young reader.
reception
So far, there is no investigation into the reception of the series. What is certain is that the series was banned in the campaign against junk literature in Bavaria , but not in the area of the Prussian army commandos in the Marche and in Munster ; in Kassel again. The fact that the series was reissued in 1933/34 is certainly due on the one hand to the environment around the Nazi seizure of power , but on the other hand apparently also to the fact that the publishers hoped to be able to build on an earlier success - a hope that is however was not fulfilled, as the new edition was discontinued after 35 issues. The reasons are unknown, but the narrative style of the series, which is over 20 years old, may have appeared old -fashioned compared to current adventure series such as Rolf Torring's Abenteuer or Jörn Farrow's U-Boot Abenteuer .
Sales ban in Bavaria in 1916. New edition 1933/34
Due to a decree of the I. Royal Bavarian Army Corps in Munich on March 1, 1916, the distribution of the series in the Kingdom of Bavaria was prohibited to protect young people. The prohibition was based on Article 4, Section 2 of the State of War Act . In Prussia , so in the area of the Commander-in-Chief in the Marches ( Berlin ) or in the area of the VII Army Corps Munster, sales were allowed, in the area of the XI. However, Army Corps Kassel does not.
These bans affected a good 150 magazine series regardless of the genre or year of publication, so that even series that were only traded antiquarian fell under the distribution ban . In contrast to Der Luftpirat and its dirigible airship , the printing plates were not destroyed by Under German Flag , so that a new edition was possible. The decrees were repealed after the end of the war, so it must be assumed that the series was still used several times in the Weimar Republic, as is customary in the industry, until the booklets were completely dissolved, like other booklet romance series.
The new edition that took place in 1933 was numbered differently. The cover pictures were apparently retained, the price was now 20 pfennigs. The new publishing house for Volksliteratur GmbH, Berlin SW 61, Gitschiner Strasse 13. The series was available from book, magazine and paper stores as well as directly from the publisher. That it was a new edition of an old series was not mentioned in the advertising text.
Title of the first edition
1-100
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101-200
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201–240 + special issues
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literature
- Reinhold von Werner : The book of the German fleet. 8th, increased and improved edition of the book from the North German fleet. Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld et al. 1902, p. 265 f.
- Friedrich Meister: The baptism of fire of the meteor (= under the German flag. No. 4). Publishing house for folk literature and art, Berlin undated [1910].
- Paul Samuleit: War trash literature . Lecture given at the public meeting of the Central Office for Combating Trash Literature in Berlin on March 25, 1916. Carl Heymann, Berlin 1916.
- 1870. Battle of the “Meteor” with “Bouvet” near Havana. In: Walter Lohmann : Memorable days from the German naval, colonial and sea war history. A traditional calendar for the Imperial Navy. Open words, Berlin 1928, p. 224 f.
- Peter Wanjek: The German booklet novel . A handbook of the novel booklets published in the German Reich between 1900 and 1945. = Bibliography of the German booklet novels 1900–1945. Ganzbiller, Wilfersdorf 1993, pp. 473-479.
- Heinz J. Galle: Folk books and book novels. Volume 2: From the German Empire to the “Third Reich” - 40 years of popular reading material. Revised new edition. von Reeken, Lüneburg 2006. ISBN 3-8334-4314-6 .
- Jörg Weigand : Front reading. Reading material for and by soldiers of the German Wehrmacht in World War II (= reading room. 33). Niemeyer, Hameln 2010, ISBN 978-3-8271-8833-5 .
Web links
- Cover picture of issue no. 1 The Germans in front of the front! by Carl Ludwig Panknin. The motif is based on the painting by Carl Röchling (painter) The Germans to the Front from 1902 Bild
Individual evidence
- ↑ Joachim-Félix Leonhard: Medienwissenschaft: a handbook for the development of media and forms of communication , Verlag W. de Gruyter, 2001, ISBN 3-11-016326-8 , page 1628 ( limited preview in the Google book search)
- ↑ Heinz J. Galle: Groschenhefte , Ullstein Sachbuch, Verlag Ullstein, 1988, ISBN 3-548-36556-6 , page 91 ( limited preview in the Google book search)