SIMPLICISSIMUS Verlag Knorr & Hirth Kommanditgesellschaft – Weekly Issue Simplicissimus – “Very Simple” – Published by Knorr & Hirth. Munich, July 16, 1941 – Antisemitic title page with an illustration of a judge and English gentleman praying to a Jew who coronates Stalin.
The title page has an illustration of a Jew with a Magen David on his clothing and two angel figures in the image of a jewish old man and a Jewish baby with Magen David flags (the Russian flag with a Magen David at its head), to the right and left are figures of an English judge and gentleman kneeling in prayer to the Jew with stereotypical facial features and a Magen David patch on his clothing, and the text: “Huldigung der Demokratie S.M. des Konigs von England” – “Honor the Democracy of the English King”, and below a text that connects Stalin to the English. The caricature hints at Jews behind the alliance between Russia and England against Nazi Germany.
SIMPLICISSIMUS a German satirical weekly magazine founded by Albert Langen in April 1896 based in Munich, published continuously until 1944 when it ceased, and reappeared between 1954-1967. The magazine took a bold, daring line accompanied by impressive graphic style, authors including Thomas Mann and Rainer Maria Rilke wrote in it. With the Nazis’ rise to power, the magazine was attacked and editor Thomas Theodor Heine – a Jew, was forced to resign and go into exile. In those years the magazine effectively served the antisemitic line led by the Nazi party by adopting the caricature style of the Nazi magazine Die Brennessel. Writers Karl Arnold, Olof Gulbransson, Edward Thoeny, Erich Schilling and Wilhelm Schulz were responsible for publishing issues of distinct antisemitic nature, and for this they were rewarded by the Nazis.
In its early years the magazine covered Kaiser Wilhelm’s visit to Eretz Israel in 1898 and that edition was banned by the German government – the publisher spent five years in Swiss exile and was fined 30,000 German gold marks. Six months imprisonment was given to caricaturist Heine and seven months to writer Frank Wedekind. All defendants were accused of “insulting His Majesty”. This only served to increase circulation, which peaked at around 85,000 copies.
16 p. Complete issue. Very good condition.
