I collect German books-magazines-newspapers 1919 - 1945. It has to be the safest collecting area in this field, as far as repros go. Books are expensive to produce, 2010 printing technologies are light years ahead of 1945 technology, and new paper just doesn't look/feel like paper which is 65 years or more old.
Still, some repros have cropped up. (I'm not talking about books which are legitimately reissued with no intent to defraud, like Schiffer's edition of "Waffen-SS im Westen".) I'd like to start a list of books out there which can be fraudulently offered, or innocently passed along, as real items when they are not. My list of books is pretty short..
1. "Organisationsbuch der NSDAP", 1943 edition. This was printed in the 1970s (in England?). It originally came with a small saddlewire Glossary pamphlet, in English, which was inserted inside the cover of the book. This is missing from most copies now, and there is no indication in the book itself that it's a reprint. It's easy to tell this fake: it is bound in purple cloth not even close to the original red. The front cover has the profile drawing of an SA man from the cover of "Deutschland erwacht," the cigarette coupon album, and the spine has an eagle/swastika which didn't appear on the original. The text has art picked up from "Deutschland erwacht as well (not present in original printings).
2. "Die Uniformen und Abzeichen der SA, SS und des Stahlhelm, Brig. Ehrhardt, Hitler-Jugend, Amtswalter..." (1933) I think this small saddlewire color uniform guide was reprinted in California in the late 1960s, though there's also a printing done in Berlin in 1970. All copies I've seen are cleverly done - the staples holding the book together are usually rusty, and there's a Party stamping on the front cover. Beware this one! The paper is the key, it is too thick and modern to pass for a 1933 book. The printing is not very good quality either.
If anyone knows of any other books which are being passed off as original please post. As I remember others I'll post them....
Still, some repros have cropped up. (I'm not talking about books which are legitimately reissued with no intent to defraud, like Schiffer's edition of "Waffen-SS im Westen".) I'd like to start a list of books out there which can be fraudulently offered, or innocently passed along, as real items when they are not. My list of books is pretty short..
1. "Organisationsbuch der NSDAP", 1943 edition. This was printed in the 1970s (in England?). It originally came with a small saddlewire Glossary pamphlet, in English, which was inserted inside the cover of the book. This is missing from most copies now, and there is no indication in the book itself that it's a reprint. It's easy to tell this fake: it is bound in purple cloth not even close to the original red. The front cover has the profile drawing of an SA man from the cover of "Deutschland erwacht," the cigarette coupon album, and the spine has an eagle/swastika which didn't appear on the original. The text has art picked up from "Deutschland erwacht as well (not present in original printings).
2. "Die Uniformen und Abzeichen der SA, SS und des Stahlhelm, Brig. Ehrhardt, Hitler-Jugend, Amtswalter..." (1933) I think this small saddlewire color uniform guide was reprinted in California in the late 1960s, though there's also a printing done in Berlin in 1970. All copies I've seen are cleverly done - the staples holding the book together are usually rusty, and there's a Party stamping on the front cover. Beware this one! The paper is the key, it is too thick and modern to pass for a 1933 book. The printing is not very good quality either.
If anyone knows of any other books which are being passed off as original please post. As I remember others I'll post them....
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