What's new in 2023 ?

 

A  German proverb says, " Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei." (Everything has an end, only the sausage has two.)

Translation: We are winding down our acquisitions and will only consider purchasing or winning at auction especially one-of-a-kind, "once in a lifetime" type German Film treasures which enhance our large Collection. Our collecting days are basically now over.  It has come time to consolidate. We have sold off most of our duplicate items although you will find a few posters  and rare film ephemera for sale in our Store.

Furthermore, with the December 2022 publication of our fourth book on/about Director Karl Ritter and his propaganda films;  our new book Hitler Youth Quex – A Guide for the English–speaking Reader concludes our  fifteen year–long book publishing effort.  We have fully exploited our film archive collections to provide readers with rare and heretofore often neglected research material and have now exhausted our primary sources to make further contributions in this manner. We have also recently received word from Argentina that further access to the Karl Ritter diaries "would be too dangerous for conservatorial reasons,"  so we can only be grateful that our tetralogy of books on or about Ritter and his films were researched when scans could still be made. 

New acquisitions of importance shall be added to this page as the year unfolds......  and we will continue well into the future adding new pages and images and themes to this website and keep it as current as possible.

Thank you for visiting, and returning,  to this website.

 

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The first new acquisition this year was actually won at auction in November 2022 but arrived on 9 January. It is a facsimile (not original) complete press-book for the Harlan film JUD Süß.  There is no indication printed on it as to who produced it. The 28 page booklet is printed on burnt orange paper throughout, so it is hard to read and even harder to scan properly.  Below is the cover in the burnt orange paper used:

 

 

Here are some sample pages we have colour-corrected/adjusted:

Considering the major Jud Süß poster collection as well as  the extensive ephemera we have collected on this film over the decades, the press-book, even if only the facsimile, is a welcome addition and without doubt the final Jud Süß item we shall ever find.

 

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A colourful cinema handbill for the superb  1936 WWI feature film In Drumfire on the Western Front, for which we own the huge 288 cm x 126 cm (9.4 feet x 4.1 feet) Litfaß outdoor advertising poster. We won this  handbill at auction on 11 February. In June, we also acquired a nice Gaufilmstelle handbill for Ohm Krüger, also shown below.

 

 

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Would there be a more appropriate way to conclude our poster collecting than winning at auction a Karl Ritter film poster? We do not think so. Here it is... won on 13 May and now in our Poster Gallery on this website. It is 70 cm X 50 cm large....  Alles gut!

 

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We continue to seek out original publications from 1933 which feature a film reveiw or article on Hitlerjunge Quex and  we have just acquired the September 1933 issue of the publication Graphische Jugend. It was a monthly magazine for graphic design apprentices who were HJ members.  This 80 page large format issue has instructional articles on lithography, book binding, copper plate printing, types of paper, type fonts, a how-to article on 'Photography for Sport,' an article on the German Youth Movement, one reprinting Hitler's speech to the HJ at the 1933 Nürnberg Party Rally, book reviews,  etc. We had received in late 2022 scans of the Quex article in this issue just in time to quote it in our then forthcoming book. We now have been able to purchase the original magazine, which is rare. BELOW you can see the top third of the first page of a three page article on the film. The magazine was especially proud that the role of Heini Völker was that of an apprentice in a printing shop:

The fate of Quex, a Hitler Youth apprentice printer, should be of particular interest to young graphic artists. Not only that he learns this craft, but also that he knows how to use it in case of the greatest need, makes him appear in a special light for the graphic youth

 

 

 

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We have purchased the rare 1942/1943 internal handbook for Ufa film studio staff, called  Richtlinien für den Film-Vertrieb, 1942/43.  The book has 167 pages, and bears the  control number 157 and was intended for the Arnold Funke production office. The title of the book in English would be: Guidelines for film distribution, 1942/43.  The book presents  Ufa's policies and guidelines for every aspect of its film distribution network, from first-run capital city premiere cinemas to 16mm prints for rent to film clubs, to wider cinema screenings  in towns and villages via the Gaufilmstelle mobile truck (Tonfilmwagen)  in the Greater German Reich, as well as in the  occupied territories, to  the Wehrmacht , and even to HJ Ordenburgen and  various NSDAP membership groups.

This volume is the last one published in this series due to wartime demands, and we have the previous two volumes from 1940/41 and 1941/42 in our Research Library; so we are delighted to complete the set. We cited information from the 194/42 volume in our new book Hitler Youth Quex – A Guide for the English-speaking Reader.

 

 

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Our decision to end further acquisitions as at December 2022 has held true other than the Verräter poster above, and a handful of printed materials such as the important Jud Süß press-book facsimile. We have however continued our keen interest in Karl Ritter posters and ephemera and recently won at auction two 1926 silent film posters that Ritter designed as graphic artist for the comedy The Uncle from the Provinces, directed by Manfred Noa. Both posters have now been  added to our website Poster Gallery.

 

Karl Ritter's signature as the graphic artist can be seen printed on each poster, such as this one from the poster above, left:

 

 

With these latest  finds, we have four Ritter silent film posters from his years at Südfilm A.G. and Bayerische Film/Emelka Film; with two posters each from each studio. The other two posters are those of  Schwiegersöhne und for Heidelberg, ich kann dich nie vergessen.  Ritter's graphic artist skills and talent launched him in the German film world and by the time he left poster design behind, he had created no fewer than 365 silent film posters, and moved on to film studio roles at Walt Disney Produktion, Südfilm A.G; Bayerische Film/Emelka Film Konzern; Reichsliga Film, and then  finally Ufa.

 

 

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The 1933  "Movement"  film SA-Mann Brand  was produced by Franz Seitz Sr; an independent film producer with his own production company. He arranged for Bavaria Film A.G. of Munich (later known as Bavaria Filmkunst)  one of Germany's largest studios, to distribute the film across the nation, and they in turn were able to hire the use of the most prestigious movie palace in Germany, the Ufa-Palast-am-Zoo to premiere the film in Berlin on June 14, 1933. There were two large posters designed for the film, both of which we have in this collection. One of the two large posters, with graphics by Ottler, was also printed as a smaller "A2" sized poster, which is 35cm x 50cm, or about  14 inches x 20 inches. This smaller poster has heretofore eluded us but we managed to win it at auction recently. It is a damaged poster, with holes and rips as can be seen in the image presented by the auction house below:

 

 

The poster is being repaired in Germany for us before it is sent. Once it has arrived Down Under, we shall be adding it to our Poster Gallery. This purchase allows us to own all three posters for the film. Each of them is exceedingly rare. Take a look at the two posters for the film we have in the Poster Gallery and read the fascinating background to the film produced in that pivotal year 1933, along with Hitlerjunge Quex and Hans Westmar.

 

 

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We have purchased privately this rare 1933 film poster, Unter der schwarzen Sturmfahne.  It was a "Blut und Boden" film directed by the Rolf von Sonjevski–Jamrowski, who later directed Ewiger Wald -- both films supported by the Reich Farm Minister Walter Darré.  With the poster we also received the Illustrierter Film–Kurier cinema program on the film, which is also extremely rare. We have watermarked the poster image to prevent other websites from lifting it and using it without permission. It is now to be found in our Poster Gallery, albeit also with the watermark to prevent unauthorised use by other websites.

 

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This page's posters and film ephemera reflect the decision a year ago to all but end our acquisition of new film posters and material.  Three of the five posters above are Karl Ritter–related, either from his silent film graphic artists days or his feature films for the Third Reich. We end 2023 with a 4th Karl Ritter poster, won at auction in Italy, that of his 1938 Pour le Mérite. The poster is a huge 200 cm x 140 cm and is the companion to the other Italian Pour le Mérite poster we have held in our Collection for many years.  This poster is still in Europe, and we shall gain possession in 2024.

 

 

 Happy 2024!