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!
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
William Gillespie has been an avid film collector and researcher for more than thirty years. He graduated with honors in 20th Century European History from a leading American university, has worked in Europe, Japan and Asia, and is an Australian citizen. Joel Nelson has been an avid film collector and researcher since 1978. He holds a Master s degree in Psychology and resides with his wife and two daughters in Los Angeles, California
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
German Film History and Iconography together,
By Max Sebastian "Max" (Burlington, Vermont) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Film Posters of the Third Reich (Perfect Paperback)
This book was given to me as a birthday present and I have to say what a delight it was! Since reading the reference work Film in the Third Reich by David Hull in the early 70s I have been fascinated at how little is really available in the way of balanced material on this subject. One would be led to believe that all films made in Germany from 1933 to 1945 were simply rubbish and should be disregarded altogether. This assertion could not be farther from the truth. Even though the politics behind the scenes had changed drastically from the Weimar Republic to the National Socialists there was still a great degree of conscience and skill that went into film as an art form and not merely as a means of generating income. Having collected and studied hundreds of these films for my doctoral dissertation and knowing how difficult they are to locate outside of Germany I was pleasantly surprised to see a publication not only treating the films with some degree of respect but also providing an education as to the promotional aspect of these films. One might refer to it as the "propaganda of propaganda". It is fairly common knowledge among scholars that Germans were not forced to watch movies, so what exactly did attract the average person to the cinema to see a film such as The Eternal Jew ? What kind of iconography could attract someone to see a documentary film such as Victory in the West when so many young men were being killed on the battlefield? These posters represent the films which, as the authors have described it "led a nation to it's destruction". I have no doubt the book will be of interest to a fairly wide audience, possibly film students, militaria collectors, certainly film poster enthusiasts, and finally to those with a general interest in WWII or graphic design. In conclusion I would definitely recommend it to those who would invest a few dollars in a limited edition that will certainly become a collectors item. The poster images are simply fantastic.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great book about a difficult subject !,
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This review is from: Film Posters of the Third Reich (Perfect Paperback)
This book by mister Gillespie and Nelson is definitely the standard on this very unknown subject. It is still taboo to talk about anything thattouch the nazi regime even today in 2008. This is why I salute the guts shown by these two gentlemen who were not afraid to dig into this lost era regarding the german cinema.If you are interested in the history of cinema or in anything concerning the last World War, this book is a must!
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