Der Wahre Jacob – A satirical issue mocking the Nazi racial theory and German nationalism before the Nazi rise to power. Issue dated August 16, 1930 – Der Wahre Jacob is an established magazine that began in 1879 and was published almost continuously until 1933 – With the Nazis rise to power they confiscated the magazine’s issues (even earlier ones) and banned its distribution.
Issue of cartoons and jokes against the Nazi racial theory and German nationalism. On page 4 appears a large cartoon entitled “Nationalsozialisten under sich” – “National socialists among themselves” – a depiction of Nazis in Sturmabteilung uniforms (before Hitler’s rise to power) examining each other’s skulls under a magnifying glass, and the mocking caption referring to racial theory: “According to Dr. Günther’s wise standards they examine the shape of each other’s skulls. If you are not satisfied, hit the second man on the head”, in the second depiction they are all hitting each other and the caption: “The public is very pleased with this racial culture, it is simply said that it does not like these skulls”. (Günther was a German professor of racial theory philologist who worked as a racial theorist in the Weimar Republic and Nazi era. He is considered one of the creators of Nazi racial theory, and was one of the leading scientists behind the Nazi extermination machine). Another cartoon mocks a German writer who writes abusive poems about Jews, depicting him as a secret alcoholic. In the jokes section it says: “Recently found in a daily newspaper, on whose tendencies there is no need to elaborate: 36-year-old National Socialist landlord, man of the world, seeks woman, rich, noble, classical… for breeding purposes”, and more.
The magazine was founded by Wilhelm Blos – leading journalist in socialist Hamburg in 1878. The magazine’s name was derived from how Jacob tricked Esau. In the Weimar period the newspaper promoted the republic and its constitution. In the 1920s the newspaper continued to be published despite inflation, but in those years the Nazis fought it bitterly, mainly due to the newspaper’s direct attacks on the Nazi ideology and what it represents, with Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 the issues were immediately confiscated, and the editors were forced to stop publishing. Today it is possible to find issues from the early period in the first years it was distributed, issues from the 1920s and early 1930s are extremely rare, as mentioned they were confiscated by the Nazis.
15 p. Complete issue. Very good condition.