HITLERJUNGE QUEX  –   original UFA Promotional Materials from 1933 – super rare!!

Note: This entire Lot of ten original and facsimile Hitlerjunge Quex items is available immediately for world wide shipment.

We offer our last available grouping of ultra-rare UFA film studio promotional marketing materials for the classic film Hitler Youth Quex, produced in 1933. The film ranked 10th at the box office that year, out of 114 German feature films released. By the end of the Third Reich in May 1945, Quex still ranked 31st out of 1,094 feature films distributed. A box-office smash hit and called "artistically, not only one of the best propaganda films but rather the most effective youth film that Germany has as yet produced" by anti–Nazi Austrian film historian Herbert Holba in 1967 – decades after WWII ended.

Included in this Lot are:

1. The original 8-page UFA special  Hitler Youth Quex newspaper for the Hitler Youth, entitled Opfergeist / Spirit of Sacrifice. This newspaper is so rare that it does not exist in any German or Austrian film archive, nor in the German National Libraries in Frankfurt/Main or in Leipzig. Impossible to find! Opfergeist has the following articles -- illustrated with ten film photographs:

The National Socialist Revolution
How I discovered the Hitlerjungen Quex for the film by Karl Ritter
Quex the Hitler Youth recounts...
Heinrich George rehearses
Berta Drews talks about Quex
The misunderstood Hitler Youth
The March of the Hitlerjugend (‘Unsre Fahnen flattert uns voran!’) music sheet
The film poster image

Below are all 8 pages of this ultra–rare original film newspaper:

2.  The original 2-sided red/white/black UFA advertising postcard for the film, showing its poster image on the front side, and text on the verso from the film studio, announcing the film's start in all major German cinemas in September 1933.  This postcard is rare and often commands US$250, as per this present–day auction house fixed price found on the Internet:

3. A high-quality facsimile of the 40-page Cinema Owner’s Guide to promoting the film, called a “Reklame–Ratschlag.” This also cannot be found in any German or Austrian film archive or library.

Again, simply impossible to find! With top quality film images and background articles, and marketing aids. This booklet contains the Table of Contents, plot synopsis, and commentary; marketing slogans which could be used, images of glass–mounted slides to project onto movie screens as a preview of coming attractions; details about the actors and Director and Production Head; the song sheet stanzas for Unsere Fahne flattert uns voran!, the Prologue by Klaus Klawitta which was later spoken at the film’s premiere; a reproduction in B&W of the famous movie poster available in both the standard A0 (ca.43 x 47 inches) or as an A3 (9 1/2 x 20-inch) ‘window poster’ for shops and youth hostels, and places with public foot–traffic. Then two letters from the Reichsjugendführung with suggestions on how to promote the film (by distributing the leaflets and on hanging the posters) and a section on lobby cards available to order for the cinema foyer. Then, newspaper inserts (i.e., ready-made dot-matrix ads ready to be handed over to local newspapers.) Then a list of 16 articles which could be ordered for backgrounding the film such as ‘Film work with Hitler Youth,’ ‘Quex, the HJ, recounts...,’ ‘K. A. Schenzinger tells...’ or ‘Heinrich George in rehearsal.’ One page showed a proposed design for the massive exterior billboard for a cinema. Finally, a page with excerpts of film reviews from the Munich and Berlin premieres which could be quoted in local advertising in other cities. Absolutely top film studio material!

4. A used copy of the 1980 paperback Hitlerjunge Quex – Einstellungsprotokoll, which is a word-for-word transcription of the film soundtrack in German, along with a short introduction, synopsis and Production details, such as cast and production team.

5. The film studio's first-ever announcement of the film for the 1933/1934 season. This is a perfect colour facsimile of the 8-page brochure sent exclusively to cinema owners, to entice them to book the film in their coming season. We show the cover at left and then the first page of the illustrated text, right.

6. An original 1938 “Aktuelle Filmbücher” 48-page booklet on the Producer of Hitlerjunge Quex, Karl Ritter. This was a biographical sketch of Ritter and his films through to his 1938 Luftwaffe film Pour le Mérite. It includes dozens of fascinating photographs and illustrations.

7. A very scarce original B&W postcard of Karl Aloys Schenzinger, the author of the novel Der Hitlerjunge Quex (1932) who also assisted with the film script. The autograph is a printed facsimile.

8. A original 4-page music sheet of the film’s song, Unsere Fahne flattert uns voran! composed by Hans-Otto Borgmann with text by Reichsjugendführer Baldur on Schirach. This became the unofficial anthem of the HJ.

9. The original 8-page German Illustrierter Film-Kurier cinema program for the film, ca. 9 x 12 inches, printed in high-quality Rotogravure. The film’s cast and synopsis are presented, along with sharp film images, including a double-page spread shown below.

10. The first-ever book devoted solely to the background, production, promotion and distribution of Hitlerjunge Quex, published in December 2002. Over 400 pages with 62 B&W illustrations and four colour plates.  NOTE: ALL of the pages of the above Opfergeist newspaper, the 40-page Cinema Owner’s Guide, and related materials are translated into English here for the first-time ever. 

This assembly of materials on the film will be sold as a Lot only, with Australia Post worldwide international Airmail and Registered,  trackable mail shipping included in the price. The price will be declared at the full-value on the parcel, to protect you if the parcel is lost, and to protect us so we can refund your payment in that unfortunate circumstance.

For the serious German film collector, HJ collector, film museum or film archive, this is a truly "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity.

Please note the above descriptions whereby the"Reklame-Ratschlag," and  the  8-page Ufa first-ever announcement of the film brochure are facsimiles and not original items.  They are both high-quality reproductions on 120gsm premium digital paper.

Price is €898 postpaid worldwide, fully insured, registered and trackable from Australia. This price reflects the absolute rarity of the original Ufa promotional items in this Lot –– truly a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity to own an outstanding collection of materials on this iconic National Socialist film.

This original 1939 Italian "Fotobusta" for the Neville Spanish Civil War thriller IN THE RED HELL is for sale. It measures ca. 35 x 50 cm, or 14 x 20 inches, printed on cardboard. There are two small puncture holes, one located in the trousers of Alfredo, the other towards the bottom of the Fotobusta (see close-ups.) 

We had asked an Italian poster dealer we know to try to find a Fotobusta of the film three years ago, and eventually we found the one in our Collection on our own. The dealer recently reported that he had finally found us a Fotobusta at some expense, because they are so rare and that nobody had one, so that he had to trade for it. Given that we had asked him to find one, we felt a professional need to purchase it, although it was the same one we own -- with the most famous scene from the film depicted!  In light of the recent release of the film by International Historic Films on DVD, we are pleased to offer this very rare second original copy for sale. The price includes worldwide shipping.

Der Film in der Hitler-Jugend

by Curt Belling,  Wilhelm Limpert

Verlag, Berlin,  1937 

We offer one of the rarest film books published in the Third Reich, and certainly one of the rarest Hitler Youth books, as well. 

Curt Belling was a Senior Official in the NSDAP Propaganda Leadership Office, Film Department and a key manager of the establishment and integration of the HJ Film Hours and all ancillary programs to bring motion pictures to classrooms and to cinemas for young audiences in Nazi Germany. He also authored two other books, including Der Film in Staat und Partei (1936) and co–authored the notorious anti-Weimar and anti-semitic Film-Kunst, Film-Kohn, Film-Korruption, ein Streifzüg durch vier Filmjahrzehnte. (1937).

This is an 88 page paperback book, bound by staples, with a cardstock cover.  It is only the second one we have seen for sale in thirty years of collecting, and our own Library has the other copy.

It is no wonder that this unique primary source was quoted extensively in our new book on the Hitler Youth Quex  film.

The book has browned paper as typical for a book printed over 85 years ago, some small tears, binding loose but still intact.

This rare copy was found in the UK and was once a book in the Board of Education Library, and has a date stamp of 2 July 1937 on the copyright page as having been received by the Library as a new entry. The Board of Education sticker is still on the rear cover. As the book is © 1936,  this copy was purchased and posted to the UK sometime that year as a new title. It reflects the interest and importance of studying the Hitler Youth by the British authorities at the time.

The price includes worldwide shipping via Registered, Airmail postage. Overseas ordering may attract import duty as we must declare the full price of the book to protect both seller and buyer.

VERRÄTER /TRAITORS  top Third

Reich espionage propaganda film.


This offer includes 3 original items:

-- 2 original lobby cards -- very rare!!

-- the Gaufilmstelle 4 page brochure promoting the film! 

--worldwide shipping.

BELOW: The back side of one of the two lobby cards with the film title rubber-stamped on by Ufa studio. Both lobby cards have the rubber-stamp.

Two exceptionally rare original Ufa film studio 21 cm x 29 cm lobby cards printed on double–weight photographic paper for the Ritter film. These are the first lobby cards from this film which we have seen in decades. Please read the essay below to gain an appreciation of the film and it's role in boosting Karl Ritter's career into becoming one of the most important and successful of the Third Reich's film directors.  


BONUS!!! Also included, the 4 page "Gaufilmstelle" (District Film Office Network) brochure promoting the film !
This brochure is hard-to-find and a great complementary piece to own along with these two rare film stills!

VERRÄTER starred:

Lída Baarová as Marion
Willy Birgel as Agent Morris
Irene von Meyendorff as Hilde Körner
Theodor Loos as Dr. Auer
Rudolf Fernau as Fritz Brockau
Herbert A.E. Böhme as Agent Schultz
amongst others. ( Lida Baarová was by this time the lover of Propaganda Minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels, and also starred in Ritter's PATRIOTEN/PATRIOTS, produced the following year, which won a Gold medal at the Paris World Exhibition. )

Important Note: As the lobby cards are slightly larger in dimension that the A4 scanner used for this listing, the white border on all four sides of the photographs is only able to be shown here on the two horizontal edges. The photographs have a traditional white border around all four sides. The resolution on the photos is excellent, printed from sheet film negatives, but here on this webpage the resolution has been severely compromised to allow faster loading of the page.



Final Note: both lobby cards and the Gaufilmstelle brochure shown in the listing are included in this price, postpaid.





Verräter (Traitors, 1936)  –  The Gestapo and Abwehr as Heroes


Film director Karl Ritter (1888–1977) is universally condemned by post–WWII film historians for his militaristic, chauvinistic, and unwavering propaganda films which glorified war, aggression, and ‘senseless self–sacrifice.’ His films utilized anti–democratic, anti–Semitic and anti–communist ideological themes epitomizing the stereotypical Nazi warrior, and promoted a Greater Germany against all enemies of the Reich.  At war’s end, the Soviets demanded that he be tried for war crimes for ‘the systematic poisoning of German youth.’
 
In Ritter’s Traitors (Verräter, 1936) a complex British spy network fans across the Reich,  infiltrating the Heinkel aircraft factory to steal plans, if not an actual new bomber in peacetime Germany. Other spies try to obtain blueprints for a new tank, and a third agent information on Berlin's waterworks. Ritter had received a commission from Admiral Canaris, the head of Nazi Germany’s military intelligence service the Abwehr, to make this film; which for the first time since 1933 showed audiences scenes with the Third Reich’s Wehrmacht, air fleet, navy, secret police and intelligence services in a feature film.   



It is one of the most suspenseful, fast–paced and dramatic of the Zeitfilms Ritter produced, with a top cast. Verräter was the special screening on 9 September 1936 at the Nürnberg Party Congress, and six days later premiered in Berlin at the prestigious Ufa Palast am Zoo. It was Germany’s main entry at that year’s Venice Film Festival, and won a special commendation for “excellent achievement” there.
 


Traitors boosted Karl Ritter’s reputation as one of Nazi Germany’s most successful filmmakers, and other major successes with Patriots, Operation Michael, Leave on Word of Honor, Pour le Mérite quickly followed over the next two years. The film was eventually distributed in the USA in 1941 and had relatively positive reviews from Variety and The New York Times, given that it was Nazi propaganda.  On 22 November ’36, the New York Times reviewer, Claire Trask, wrote: ‘When a film has the power of so strongly projecting its ideas or tendencies that they influence the minds of those who view it, it can safely be said to be a film of exceptional force. And such a film is "Verraeter" (Traitors), the Ufa picture which had its première last month at the Reich's Party Day at Nuremberg, the only film selected for the "cultural section of the party program." The Bavarian panegyrics shook Berlin into eager expectancy and the equally overwhelming public success of the picture here proves them justified.’
 
Ritter, in a public speech given in Hamburg at the time, recalled:

[Traitors] was premiered not in Germany, but rather in Venice. I had such fear about it that I did not go there, as I could not imagine that this sort of film about German interests and German educational ideas would find approval there. Everywhere shots of the Führer, von Blomberg, German destroyers, airplanes! Eyewitnesses reported that it was the first film where nobody left early, that everyone was glued to their seats, and that everyone was so completely quiet, and then so applauded. The interest was enormous. It was singled out with a medal – a sign that we have taken the right path...."


A 32 page study guide for high schools was published by the Propaganda Ministry, and the film was also taken up by the German High Command for Wehrmacht training in November 1936. The Gaufilmstelle regional film distribution network also showed the film in many heavy industry (rearmament) factories under their “Education and Instruction for Company Workers” program, to warn workers about espionage.
 
The Traitor in the film title refers to the German civilian who dies on the scaffold for betraying his country, not to the foreign agents who are enemies of the Reich.
 
--- William Gillespie, author of Karl Ritter –His Life and 'Zeitfilms' under National Socialism, 2nd edition  ©2014, The Making of 'The Crew of the Dora' [Ritter's Besatzung Dora film]  ©2016; and Legion Condor – Karl Ritter's lost 1939 feature film. ©2019.  


FOR SALE:

An original, unused, good condition 1933 Ufa film studio postcard advertising the film Hitlerjunge Quex.

The front side of the card is printed in red and black ink with the film poster.

The reverse side of the card has a right-hand box for the address, and the left-hand side has in German the following advertising message:

‘Hitlerjunge Quex. A film of the sacrifice of the German Youth. From mid–September in all leading German movie theaters.’

These cards are rare and if found at auction often sell for €150 to €200 plus auction house fees, which are normally 21%–25%, as well as  international postage.  Here for example is a current one for sale from a US militaria website for US$250 (fixed price, not an auction.)

Our price is a fixed €195, including worldwide registered airmail postage.

Original color handbill advertising the

famous Hitler Youth documentary film

Der Marsch zum Führer / The March to

the Führer. (1940)

This original 1940 Gaufilmstelle (Regional Film Distribution Network) A4 (ca. 9 x 12 inch) colour  one-sided handbill promoted the film to audiences across the Third Reich.

The film commemorated the annual march by the HJ from the four corners of Germany to the Nürnberg Party Day rallies held in early September each year.

The background article on the film below announces that production has started (December 1938) and the film was finished by mid-1939 but the outbreak of the Polish campaign and cancellation of that year's Adolf-Hitler-March (and all subsequent ones) put the film on the proverbial back-burner.  It was finally released in late January 1940 and remains one of the best HJ short films.

[note that the working title in 1938 for the film was March step Germany but by the time of cinema release the title had become The March to the Führer.]

“March step Germany” - A film of the German Youth

Around 15 July 1938, the first footage of a film was shot in Bergen on the island of Rügen, which was intended to join the great German documentary films available to date: the film of the Adolf -Hitler-March of German Youth. For more than two months, cameramen and sound trucks were on the road on behalf of the Reich Youth Leadership to record all phases of the great confession march of the German Youth in sound and vision. This is the first time that the Reich Youth Leadership has decided to produce a film on its own, a film that will show the German people their Youth as they really are.

27 March Units of all HJ areas carried the banner flags of the HJ to the Führer in a long march through the whole German countryside to Nuremberg. In all districts of the German Reich, the flags of the HJ were flying, and everywhere the boys were warmly welcomed by the population and given a hospitable reception. The Reich Youth Leadership has given the film work the working title "Marschtritt Deutschland" (Marching Germany), and it is as if this title reflects something of the impetuous and propulsive force that animated the flag march of the German Youth and which is now to find a pictorial expression in the film of the AdoIf-Hitler-March. "The march of the boys towards Nuremberg sounded on all the country roads of the Reich, and the German people stood on all the roads of the Reich, men, women and children stood and saluted the flags of the National Socialist youth. And when these flags then passed the Führer in Nuremberg, when the Führer saluted the flags of the youth in the Youth Rally, the love of the whole German people was with them. "I am relying on you, blindly and confidently," the Führer called out to the young people in the Youth Rally, and the cry of enthusiasm that roared in response to the Führer was the expression of the love and faith of the German youth for the Führer, this faith that was in the Adolf-Hitler- March finds its symbolic expression. When the participants had returned to their hometowns and the colourful, festive life of the city of the Reich Party Rallies had already given way to the grey everyday life, the flag bearers of the Hitler Youth marched on to Landsberg am Lech. In the courtyard of the fortress at Landsberg, they gathered to make a confession of faith in the face of the Führer's fortress cell, the reflection of which takes away some of the gloomy heaviness even from the grey walls of the fortress.

This year, the cameramen and sound engineers are everywhere. Many experiences, large and small, have been captured on film and are now being edited into the film that will resurrect the march and bring this march of faith closer not only to the German youth but also to the entire German people. This commitment to the common good is the vital idea behind the film throw of Adolf-Hitler-March.

The difficulties that had to be overcome will not be discussed here. If ever a film work was fuelled by enthusiasm, it was the work of young people who set out to show German youth as they see themselves. And all the burghers and peasants, all the city fathers and officials who greeted the youth during their march, we will see again on the screen. The flags have flown in all parts of the Reich, and all the landscapes of the Reich will come together to form a colorful mosaic and provide the background for the film of the Adolf-Hitler-March. Nobody knows the boys who marched through the streets with flags for months: they were representatives of the large community of German youth. This commitment to the community is the creative idea behind the Adolf-Hitler -March film. That's why this film will one day make its way into the German people as a "community work of the German youth" and as a commitment to the great community of the entire German people.


Article translated from PARTEI & FILM- GAUPROPAGANDA-LEITUNG HAUPTSTELLE FILM, Dezember 1938, Frankfurt/Main

The price includes registered airmail 

postage worldwide.

This is an extremely rare cinema ticket, valid for any one of the five scheduled screenings of the NSDAP Sturmabteilung feature film, SA MANN BRAND, for 29 May 1934 at the Yorkville Theatre in Manhattan's main German immigrant neighbourhood.

In February 1934 the Jewish Daily Bulletin newspaper in Manhattan reported that the Bavaria Film representative, a Charles B. Herrlitz, had been forced to close his office at 489 Fifth Ave. because his Jewish landlord discovered that Herrlitz was promoting the "anti–Jewish" film.  We reproduce the article,  which appeared on the front page of the newspaper on Feb. 15, 1934:

Herrlitz must have persisted in his distribution efforts as the film then was screened daily in the German Yorkville area of Manhattan Island three months later......

The review of the film by  The New York Times :

 --------

May 28, 1934   The New York Times

The first outspoken Nazi propaganda film has arrived in New York carrying the title "S. A. Mann Brand" ("Storm Trooper Brand"). It is being shown at the Yorkville Theatre and its "plot" is so simple that even persons understanding no German have no difficulty in following the adventures of the young truck driver (Herr Klingenberg), who is supposed to epitomize in his likable person the hopeful, fighting spirit of the millions of young Germans rallied to the standard of Adolf Hitler.In contradistinction to the later Nazi picture "Hans Westmar," which had its first public showing in December, "S. A. Mann Brand," dated June, 1933, has no anti-Semitic bias, but concentrates its animus upon the German Communists and their Moscow guides. Just as the earlier Soviet Russian motion pictures painted their enemies all black, so this Nazi effort represents the Reds as the vilest of the vile. Even the Communist girl (Vera Liessem), who is in love with the hero and who helps him double-cross the "Moscow agent" (Max Weydner) is treated none too gently by the director, although in the end, after the Hitler victory at the polls on March 5, 1933, the spectators may guess that she has been converted to the "true faith."Perhaps because the "coordination" and "liquidation" of the anti-Nazi elements in Germany had not been completed when this film was turned out, the Social Democratic father (Otto Wernicke) of Brand is depicted as not such a bad type, although deluded by Marxism, and he, too, finally votes for Hitler. Naturally, the "Soviet agent" is placed under arrest and the audience may imagine what is going to happen to him.From the technical standpoint "S. A. Mann Brand" is one of the best pictures made in Germany. Although most of the actors are unknown to frequenters of German cinema houses here, their work is uniformly excellent. Many of the scenes are really thrilling.

A Nazi Film.

S. A. MANN BRAND, a German dialogue film, with Heinz Klingenberg, Vera Liessem, Otto Wernicke, Elise Aulinger, Rolf Wenkhaus, Hedde Lembach, Josef Stoeckel, Helma Rueckert, Max Weydner and Manfred Koempel-Pilot; directed by Franz Seitz; a Bavarian Film Company production. At the Yorkville Theatre.

----------

The Yorkville Theater screened imported Third Reich German feature films and documentaries for the German–speaking population of New York City until war between the USA and Reich was declared in December 1941.

SA MANN BRAND was the first of the three "Movement" films portraying the  very bloody 'Kampfzeit' of the Nazi Party during the Weimar years leading up to Hitler's assumption of power.  The other two, of course being HANS WESTMAR and  HITLERJUNGE QUEX. 

We own both of the original posters for this film. One of them is shown here (and both are to be found in our Poster Gallery. Poster not included in this sale!)

The cinema ticket measures a large 15 cm X 8 cm (6 inches X 3 1/2 inches) and is printed on heavy cardboard. The back side of the ticket has a shopping list of grocery items someone made in with pencil and fountain pen.  Note that the text is written in German, not English.

Worldwide airmail shipping and Paypal/credit card fees are also included in this price.

This is a slightly trimmed original lobby card from JUD SÜSS of the important torture scene between young Faber  (Malte Jäger) and the evil Councillor Levy (Werner Krauss).  The lobby card has been trimmed but the Terra film studio logo and film title are intact and the Reichsfilmprüfstelle embossed swastika eagle and censorship stamp is partially intact on the lower right corner.

On the verso, you can see the purple ink "49" number for this lobby card. Another piece of evidence regarding its authenticity.

This is a rare scene to own from this film. It has been priced at a discount since it is slightly trimmed. Postage from Australia is expensive, and it will be shipped Registered Mail/Air Mail. Pricing is in €uros....

Hitler Youth Quex, the story of a fifteen-year-old working-class boy who defied his father to join the Hitlerjugend in 1932 and died a martyr, was a best-selling novel that became a box office hit when it was released as a motion picture by the famous Ufa film studio in September 1933.  It was the first feature film in history devoted to those under the age of twenty, and critics worldwide came to the film’s premieres in Munich and Berlin. Adolf Hitler attended both gala premieres. The film’s song became the anthem of the HJ, and over eleven million youngsters saw the film in the Third Reich. Hitlerjunge Quex became the cult film of  the new German youth.

This Guide provides a wealth of information about the film – from the evolution of the story as a novel to its newspaper serialization to the silver screen. The fascinating careers of the critical men involved  – the book’s author Klaus Schenzinger, the film’s producer Karl Ritter, and the film’s director Hans Steinhoff –are presented. The pivotal role of the Reich Youth Leader Baldur von Schirach is explored, with additional commentary from his oldest son, Klaus. The unpublished diaries of Karl Ritter found in Argentina provide new insight into the film's production. A chapter on Jürgen Ohlsen, who played the title role, offers information heretofore overlooked. All of the comprehensive Ufa studio marketing and publicity materials are translated into English for the first time. The movie's success before 1945, not just in German cinemas but in Europe, North America, and Japan between 1934 and 1944, is documented with rare advertising and reviews. The fate of the film post–WWII and how it is dealt with in today’s Germany is examined. Post-war critical analysis is also surveyed.

This Guide is the first book solely devoted to telling the story behind Hitler Youth Quex in English or German. It will interest film students, film collectors, and anyone interested in Third Reich propaganda. 389  + -x- pages, with 63 illustrations and four color plates. Author William Gillespie.

The book is priced at €32 which equates to AUD$49.95, and includes domestic parcel post shipping within Australia. All pricing in this Poster Store is listed in euros.

ISBN # 978 – 0 – 980 – 8612 –7 – 3.             German Films Dot Net

NOTE: This book is for sale only to postal addresses in Australia. Customers in other countries please order from IHF, International Historic Films, Chicago, Illinois, USA on their website:

https://ihffilm.com/b084.html

Thank you.

NOTE: The book is now IN STOCK and available to order.

(Book) –– This is not a poster.

Film Posters of the Third Reich  

by William Gillespie and Joel Nelson (Author), J. Nelson (Illustrator)

Films produced by Nazi Germany remain one of the great taboos of modern times. As one prominent film historian put it, these films are the unreconciled legacies of the Third Reich. Of the 1,094 German feature films produced between 1933-1945 fewer than ten percent are today available on DVD or VHS commercially- mostly innocuous comedies, musicals, and entertainment films produced to provide escapism to the German population during the six years of war. Students of film history today cannot access Third Reich films and these motion pictures remain an enigma to all but the most persistent collectors and students. Even rarer than the films themselves are the original posters which heralded the films in cinemas across Greater Germany before and during World War Two. Most posters were simply discarded after the film’s run or later destroyed in the firestorms caused by Allied bombings or Red Army occupation. If the posters survived the war, they were often burned as propaganda, perhaps as fuel, or left to rot. Today, those remaining copies are hidden away in national archives, as inaccessible as the films they represent -- an uncomfortable remnant of a terrible era.

This book is the first-ever to reproduce in full color over 50 posters which are the rarest of the rare - those designed to promote the most infamous and notorious propaganda films produced by Dr Goebbels. Many of these posters have never been reproduced in color after 1945 until now, and many are the only examples known to exist. They are drawn from the private collections of the two authors after forty years of collecting. The book also provides first-time English translations of articles about film posters, design, censorship and promotion from the official Reich Film Chamber s own publication, Der Deutsche Film (1936-1943) and allows the reader to understand how film was promoted throughout the Third Reich in a cinema empire across occupied Europe that by 1943 eclipsed that of Hollywood.

This book is the standard reference work on Third Reich film posters. Limited edition. "Limpbound binding". Beautiful high quality book destined to be a collectors item!

------

Note: The book is 140 pages long, and besides the text contains 52 full page color posters/91 color photos and 45 B&W photos (mostly posters.) 

This book is the first and only book ever published completely devoted to Third Reich film posters! It is out-of-print and cannot be reprinted. Act now!

This book was published in 2007 and was out-of-print within a few years' time.  There are 4 Customer views on Amazon and the book is rated 4.6 stars out of 5 stars. Some used copies are occasionally listed on Amazon or elsewhere for US$29.95 – $50.00, plus postage from the USA. The book weighs 745 grams. Postage from America  to Australia is high, now that international shipments of books is no longer discounted with the old US "Book Rate."

As one of the co-authors of the book, I had the last 12 brand new copies of the book as shipped to me in 2007 by the printer. I now have five  four   three copies left to list here until they are all gone.

The books are located in NSW, so you benefit from a relatively low Aussie Post postage rate. The postage is included in this fixed price of €22, which is ca. AUD$37 ppd.  Once these copies are sold, there will never be any further new old stock. The book was published with the licensing of poster images from the German authorities and explicitly the book print-run was limited to 1,000 copies without any further reprinting allowed.

This offer is valid only for books purchased for shipment addresses within Australia.   No foreign sales. (As at November 2022, postage internationally cost A$45.30 (ca. €28.25 equivalent) so we cannot ship overseas. Please see our webpage on the availability of our books from sellers in the USA and Germany.

AUTOGRAPHED COPY ?  If you would like to have your copy autographed by William Gillespie, one of the two co-authors, please let us know with your order, and if there is a personal inscription to someone to whom you are giving the book as a gift.

€20 postpaid to Australian addresses only. All other countries please order from International Historic Films, Chicago, IL. USA.

LEGION CONDOR – Karl Ritter's lost 1939 feature film

by William Gillespie ©2019 All rights reserved.

Karl Ritter (1888–1977) produced and directed some of the Third Reich’s most famous, popular and hard–hitting feature films. Having produced Hans Steinhoff’s Hitlerjunge Quex, his own WWI trilogy of Patriots, Operation Michael and Leave on Word of Honor made his reputation at the celebrated Ufa film studios. The huge popular and financial success of Pour le Mérite (premiered December 1938) prompted him to conceive of a sequel in early 1939. Whereas the story told in Pour le Mérite ended with the re–birth of a modern German air force in 1935, the second film was to show the Luftwaffe in victorious battle as the ‘Legion Condor’ in Spain. Ritter’s script drew on his experiences filming In the Battle Against the World Enemy in Spain a few months earlier, and on his extensive personal diaries from this time. The production of Legion Condor called on huge resources with sixty characters, hundreds of extras, tanks, and with aircraft provided by the Luftwaffe. Military Advisor to the film was General der Flieger Helmuth Wilberg, who had overseen the deployment of the Condor Legion in Spain and who was a top strategist behind Blitzkrieg. The lead actors in Pour le Mérite were contracted. The film script had 167 Scenes and 527 camera shots, promising a major two hour¬ long feature film. Filming was abandoned in late August 1939 on direct orders from Hermann Göring and Dr. Joseph Goebbels – collateral damage to the infamous Hitler–Stalin Pact. The script of Legion Condor was presumed lost until the Author discovered a copy in a used bookstore in Berlin in June 2018. Exclusive access to the film script and to Karl Ritter’s unpublished diary, courtesy of Ritter’s grandson, provides readers with the true story of Legion Condor for the first time. 244 pages, with 42 photographs and illustrations, including 4 color plates. ISBN # 978–0–980816–6–6 German Films Dot Net.

NOTE: Our website Store is Priced in Euros, not AUD$ or US$. At this time €20 is approximately AUD$30. and includes domestic shipping across Australia.

The Making of The Crew of the Dora

For Sale ONLY to Customers with an Australian address – See below.

For the first time in Third Reich Cinema literature, a book brings an insider’s perspective to working within the dictatorship for Joseph Goebbels’ Propaganda Ministry, the Reichsfilmintendanz, the OKW, and Ufa, who approved, then rejected, re–approved, supported, and in the end, banned The Crew of the Dora from cinemas altogether. The Crew of the Dora (1943) was the Third Reich’s last contemporary combat feature film, written, produced and directed by the Ufa film studio’s highly successful Karl Ritter (1888–1977). From producing Steinhoff’s Hitlerjunge Quex to his own Pour le Mérite, Ritter’s hard–hitting propaganda films had broken box office records and generated huge profits for Ufa. Stalin’s USSR demanded he stand trial for war crimes in 1945 for Quex, Über alles in der Welt, Kadetten, and his anti–Communist films about the Spanish Civil War and the Soviet GPU.

Dora was Ritter’s most ambitious and challenging effort. The script called for a story line on all three German war fronts simultaneously: the Western Front in France, the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union, as well as on the North African Front. If that was not complicated enough, the film uniquely was to be filmed entirely on location with no studio shots. This meant putting the cast and crew in harm’s way on active war fronts in the middle of World War II for months at a time – a danger no other feature film took on, and one limited otherwise to the brave Deutsche Wochenschau cameramen and their Propaganda Companies. This book provides 120 pages of transcribed excerpts from Ritter’s heretofore–unpublished diaries, following the conception, writing, production, filming and censorship of the film between May 1942 and March 1943. With 90 photographs, maps, sketches, and illustrations – many previously unpublished –The Making of The Crew of the Dora is an essential read for anyone interested in Nazi filmmaking. 320 pages, 90 photos & illustrations, Perfect–bound trade paperback. By William Gilleapie, author of Karl Ritter – His Life and ‘Zeitfilms’ Under National Socialism (2nd edition, 2014).

note: we have less than 10 copies of this book stocked in Australia. Order now before it is too late. Once our stock is gone orders will only be able to be sold from and shipped from the USA, in US$ pricing and US$  postage charges.

€20 is the rough equivalent to AUD$30 ppd.  SALES ARE LIMITED TO CUSTOMERS WITH AN AUSTRALIAN ADDRESS.  The listing of the price in Euros is because all of our Poster Shop items are listed in Euros. Foreign customers should check for the listing of the book on the International Historic Films website and on Amazon Books.  Orders overseas will be fulfilled from the USA. The retail price of the book from IHF or Amazon or ebay.com is US$29.95 plus international postage of about US$24.00.

If you would like your copy autographed by the author, you MUST so indicate when you place the order. Thank you.

German film director Karl Ritter (1888 – 1977) scripted, assisted, produced or directed 97 movies and film projects between 1927 and 1945 but his work is known today only to historians and students of National Socialist film. A pamphlet written in 1940 Berlin was the sole  biographical sketch on Ritter ever published.

Yet Ritter was the prototype fascist film director who more than any other director in the Third Reich worked tirelessly for the Nazi ideological cause. Ritter first heard Hitler speak in Munich in 1920, knew him personally from 1923, and joined the NSDAP in 1925.  His creative skills as a soldier, aviation pioneer, technician, graphic artist and film director came to the fore in 1933 when the  Ufa film studio gave him his own production company to make films for the New Germany.  His films for Goebbels were called ‘cinematic tanks that belong to the advance guard on the propaganda front’  by the Reichsfilmkammer’s own  magazine. Film historian John Altmann labelled Ritter ‘the most  irresponsible and dangerous filmmaker of the Third Reich.‘

His WWI trilogy of  Patrioten, Unternehmen Michael and Urlaub auf Ehrenwort  made him one of Germany’s leading film directors in the late 1930’s, and his anti-Bolshevik films Hitlerjunge Quex, Über alles in der Welt, Kadetten and GPU  prompted the Soviets to  demand that he stand trial in 1945 for war crimes. His films are still taboo in Germany and Austria to this day.

Karl Ritter – His Life and ‘Zeitfilms’ under National Socialism provides the first study in English which draws on both German film archives and unpublished sources to present Karl Ritter to a new audience.  A chronology of his life and film work from Weimar silent films through to the collapse of the Third Reich  provides new insights heretofore unexamined.

Translated here for the first time are a 1940 biographical sketch, a 1936 speech on ‘Zeitfilms and Contemporary History’ given by Ritter to a film institute audience in Hamburg, and all the entries in his diaries about Ritter by Dr Joseph Goebbels. Ritter’s dramatic escape from Soviet captivity in May 1945 is told in his own words for the first time.  Rare full color reproductions of original posters of Ritter’s most famous films are included, as well as B&W illustrations drawn from Third Reich and Ritter family sources.

Published by German Films Dot Net.

"Painstaking research…. a very interesting book….presents future scholars with a compilation of (very) rare documents by/about Ritter…. " ––  Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television,  –– Vol.33 #2, June 2013.

We strongly recommend that interested visitors to our website check out the Karl Ritter feature film DVDs and books available from International Historic Films, Chicago, IL. in America, which also sells this book. 

note: €20 is approximately AUD$30. This price includes domestic postage to addresses in Australia.

NOTE:  You will receive the  hugely expanded 2nd edition, which has  295 pages ( xxii, 253, plus 20 fuill colour poster plate pages ) and is the most extensive material on Karl Ritter ever published.  Autographed by the Author on request.

NOTE: There are fewer than 75 copies of this 2nd Edition remaining in stock, before the book goes out-of-print.  Order now and do not miss out!

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Ritter, Hannes Stelzer and a Hero’s Death

by William Gillespie


This 28-page booklet provides the most information available on the matinee idol, film star, and Luftwaffe pilot HANNES STELZER (1910–1944) who died a hero’s death in December 1944 in Eastern Europe.  Stelzer was one of a handful of young film stars who fought for Hitler and died prior to war’s end.

Stelzer was born in 1910 in Austria and commenced his career in earnest in 1928 with an engagement at the Neuen Theater in Frankfurt am Main. After three years as a contracted artist, he was called to the Landestheater in Darmstadt, and in 1935 he was considered for the role of the young Friedrich in Steinhoff’s biopic Der junge und alte König with Emil Jannings as his father. After first committing to the role, he eventually declined it in order to take up another stage engagement, but Jannings remembered him and in 1936 Stelzer made his film debut in Traumulus with Jannings in the title role. Between then and 1943  Stelzer made a total of 18 feature films, including five with Karl Ritter.

Stelzer was a handsome rising film star whose skills could allow him considerable success in comedies, in costume dramas, and sophisticated contemporary films. In some of his most famous film roles, he played the son of a great industrialist (again Jannings) in Veit Harlan's Der Herrscher (1937), an accomplished acrobat variety artist in Truxa (1937), jilted lover in the screwball comedy Ein hoffnungsloser Fall (1939), Ilse Werner's beau in Bal Paré (1940),  and a young Nazi visual artist in the anti–modern art propaganda film, Hans Zerlett's Venus vor Gericht (1941).

Hannes Stelzer was an active pilot in Germany's Luftwaffe and between film roles he took on combat missions in WWII.  His first film with the director (and Luftwaffe Major) Karl Ritter was the WWI epic Unternehmen Michael (1937), and three years later, he appeared in Ritter's Bal Paré. In 1941 Stelzer starred in Stukas, and in the same year in Ritter's Über alles in der Welt.  His final film role was in Ritter's Besatzung Dora, which finished filming in January 1943. In March of that year the film was banned from being released because scenes shot on the Leningrad front,  in western France and in the Cinecitta film studios in Rome as a last-minute substitute for Tobruk could not be used, as German defeats and setbacks on these war fronts made the film untenable.

This booklet is an expanded version of  the twelve page long Chapter 6 of our Karl Ritter biography, and includes Stelzer’s military records in the Luftwaffe as well as his Reich Film Chamber personnel files. This information has not been published before and is available here in English translation. The booklet represents the most-available information on Hannes Stelzer ever published anywhere.

28 pages, with 11 rare private family photos, behind-the-scenes film photos, and the last photo taken of him a few months before his death posing in his real Luftwaffe uniform in late 1944. Two love letters he wrote from the front in October and December 1944 —the second letter only two weeks before his death — are translated from the German originals kindly provided by his then-girlfriend’s still-living daughter.