In July 2017 the Collection acquired two original posters designed by graphic artist Karl Ritter. Yes, the Karl Ritter of later propaganda film fame started out in the young film industry as a graphic artist and then Publicist and Production Manager, before being promoted to that of Director. He designed and had printed no less than 365 silent and early sound posters for the two Munich-based film studios, Emelka Film and Südfilm AG; prior to both of them being bankrupted in 1932 after unsuccessful attempts to transition to sound film productions.

ABOVE (L.) : Karl Ritter's signature on the poster as its Graphic Artist.

ABOVE (R.) : Ritter in the mid–1920's as a Graphic Artist designing film posters for Südfilm. A.G; Reichsliga Film and Emelka Film. He designed all up 365 individual film posters in these years, including the two in our Collection. The original caption for this photo from. FILMWELT magazine's three part biography on Ritter published in 1938 reads: 

" For the artist, who was used to creating independently and freelance, it was a bitter imposition to be subjected to criticism from pure commercial philistinism. "       – Filmwelt, #19, 1938.

Although 365 films were designed by Ritter, there are almost none in circulation outside of a handful of film archives today. It took 25 years for this Collection to locate and find the two posters, which were owned by a private collector, 75 years of age, in Hamburg, Germany, so completely off the radar.

On the reverse side of this poster there is a rubber-stamped Notice from Emelka Film stating that the poster remains the property of the film studio and not for sale. Posters were always rented out to cinemas, and returned to the studio when the cinema run was over. Cinemas which did not return posters were heavily fined. The phenomenon of the general public buying film posters did not come into vogue until after WWII. Until offset printing became the norm for film posters, they were designed and printed by stone lithography, which severely limited the number of poster sheets which could be printed before the plate worn down. That is because up to seven (7) ink colours were applied to the plate and the same poster sheet carefully over-printed with each new ink colour with perfect registration before the poster was complete. The vibrancy and amazing spectrum of colours achieved through this litho process is what makes our posters so rare -- they were limited to a run of in the hundreds to a few thousand copies, were not reprinted, and were by and large destroyed by the film studio after the film was shelved after its final circulation. National Socialist film posters were of course subject to destruction by the Allies and Red Army in 1945, and the films mostly never re-released post-war. If the films were re-released new offset posters were produced which avoided displaying the Nazi poster which had not only the then forbidden film studios (Terra, Tobis, Wien, Bavaria, Berlin, Prague, Continental etc)  but also the obligatory film censorship stamp with the swastika eagle on it.