This is a newspaper I’d not heard of until the day I stumbled across one for sale online. Immediately struck by the visuals of the thing, and as a steal at £25, I couldn’t rightly let it pass by. You know how it is. Sometimes you see a piece, and it grabs you. You’ll try to ignore it, but it keeps coming back until you scratch that itch and buy it.
Such is the case here. It was advertised as an original copy, and I believe it is. It has that musty smell that you only get from very old paper, and it feels extremely fragile. I wouldn’t know the finer techniques for identifying a period newspaper, so that’s an educated guess on my part.

Preliminary research reveals this to be a copy of ‘Illustrierter Beobachter,’ a propaganda magazine published by the NSDAP from 1926 to 1945. This one is dated 16th/17th March 1935. This issue appears to be entirely dedicated to an official function of some sort, with all the ‘main players’ of the party prominently featured. My overall grasp of German being poor, I would have to guess this was a state funeral of some kind, noting in particular the bearing and laying of a large wreath, and the somber looks on the participants’ faces.
I particularly like the advertisements on one of the pages, a surreal juxtaposition to the bold Third Reich imagery.

I’ve attached the best quality photographs I can manage, to display as much of the fine detail as possible. It’s amazing just how sharp these period photographs can be.

For your perusal.

B.B.

Click to enlarge the picture