The German satirical magazine “Kladderadatsch, ” issue dated 3 September 1933. Germany is undergoing a revolution ahead of the “Victory Congress” summarizing the Nazi Party’s seizure of power – on the cover appear massive marches of the SA and SS symbolizing the passing of the old order and a Germany united under the “Führer” toward a new world, as reflected through the window of what appears to be a Jewish cobbler with stereotypical features (large nose, thick beard, traditional dress, and skullcap) sitting in his workshop with indifference to the events taking place.
The editorial article, titled “The Spirit of Nuremberg, ” extols the courage of the German people to begin a new era – “Germany shall rise again” in the face of the corrupt Marxist enemy. Further on appears a passage mocking the Zionist Congress in Prague, describing the Jews: “These immigrants are elements that have become intolerable due to their excessively invasive activity. They must be regarded as highly undesirable and as an actual plague upon the land!” A satirical article condemning the Americans and the English also appears. On the center pages appears a propaganda caricature praising Hermann Göring for his support of legislation protecting animals in Nazi Germany (in August 1933, shortly after the Nazis rose to power, Göring declared a complete ban on conducting experiments on animals without anesthesia and threatened to send violators to concentration camps). Also included is a caricature depicting Jewish emigrants attempting to change their names in order to be accepted by countries willing to receive them. It is further claimed that the propaganda war against racial theory in the United States would ultimately fail, and more. On the reverse of the issue appears a caricature mocking Alfred Braun (a journalist, actor, and popular radio director during the Weimar Republic who symbolized “freedom”). The issue presents, in the form of “then and now, ” the period during which he reveled at parties, and finally him sitting with additional figures (some of them Jews), depicted in a stereotypical manner, eating thin soup inside a concentration camp under the supervision of a Nazi guard. Alfred Braun was arrested by the Nazis almost immediately after their rise to power in 1933 because of his ties to Weimar politics and the “Jewification” of radio broadcasting. He was imprisoned in the Oranienburg and Dachau concentration camps due to his political views and his connections with the establishment of the Weimar Republic.
Kladderadatsch was a German-language satirical magazine founded by Albert Hofmann and David Kalisch, which began publication in Berlin on 7 May 1848 and appeared “daily, except on weekdays.” It was published continuously until 1944 and was considered one of the finest magazines in terms of colored graphic design issued during the 19th and early 20th centuries. During the Weimar period, the magazine’s position was German-nationalist. After its takeover by the industrialist Hugo Stinnes in 1923, the magazine came under Nazi Party control and its content became increasingly antisemitic. During the years of the Third Reich, and especially after 1933, the newspaper became a distinctly antisemitic propaganda tool, disseminating racist imagery and expressions of dehumanization against Jews. The caricatures of this period portrayed Jews with exaggerated physical characteristics as part of the broader system of public brainwashing intended to justify their exclusion, humiliation, and ultimately their extermination. Under the guise of political entertainment, the newspaper served as a powerful instrument in embedding Nazi ideology within the public consciousness.
12 pages. Complete issue. Very good condition.
