New Postcard Additions...

[Christopher G.]

Hello,

I just wanted to show off a few new postcard additions I was able to pick up at a local militaria show over the weekend.

If anyone has anymore information about them I would be greatly thankful...are any of these actaully rare or are they run of the mill?

Also, I dont know of any good postcard sites to check prices to see if I got a good deal or got scammed. So I was wondering if anyone had any postcard websites that I can take a look at...I may want to purchase more of these little works of art.

Regards,
Chris G.


The First one is a 1933 Nurnberg Rally...

[Christopher G.]

Here is a Nurnberg 1935 that has a really cool design!

[Christopher G.]

Here is another cool one with the BLOOD FLAG!

[Christopher G.]

Here is the final card...

Sportfest Breslau 1938...

[panzer1432]

cards

Very nice, Chris !!

Congrats, cards are super !

Mike

[randy@treadways]

That Hoffmann card is #20 in a "1923" series that spanned several years (more cards got issued each year during the Munich remembrance day each November). But they are *very* hard to build a comprehensive list. I think I might have 8 or 9 different, but the numbers range a lot bigger than that.

Four or five in the series are color art by Hans Friedmann, like this Blood Flag card. The rest are black & white photo postcards of the parades and activities on remembrance day.

The two Nürnberg cards are official Party Rally cards by Franz Eher, and are quite common, but still get good prices because they are attractive. Their value is about the same as the Breslau Sports Day card I'd say. All these cards values are enhanced by the special postal cancellations that tie to the same event the cards publicize.

[Br. James]

Many thanks for sharing your new acquisitions, Chris -- very nice indeed! I always like post cards with canceled stamps, even philatelics, since they each have a life and a history all their own. The Hoffmann card #20 from the events of 8/9 November 1935 is a beauty, as they all are, though I have never thought of the flag on it as being the Blood Banner. Not only does the bearer not resemble Jakob Grimminger, at least to me (Grimminger's rank as of the 1935 Putsch events was SS-Stürmbannführer while the person characterized on the card was an SS-Untersturmführer), it seems highly disrespectful for a flagbearer to dip his charge -- and especially so revered a charge as the Blutfahne! -- so as to allow it to rest on the ground. And where does this stylized scene supposedly take place? It appears that the SS officer is standing in the open air in the Odeonsplatz in front of the Feldherrnhalle, though the brazier behind him is reminiscent of those found in the Temples of Honor...and the Temples were not within sight of the Feldherrnhalle!

Br. James

[randy@treadways]

Odeonsplatz.

If we look at Friedmann's three other works in this set, there is a whole lot of artistic license. .... particularly one showing the coffins on the left side in the Odeonsplatz.

There are at least three cards in this Hoffmann set, showing the flag either touching the ground or touching one of the coffins. Remember that the blood flag was alleged to have got blood on it during the 1923 Putsch. Ceremonially touching the 'hallowed ground' with it.. or the coffin of one the martyrs... continued to give it magical power which could be transferred to the thousands of banners which Grimminger touched with it during flag dedication each year. All part of the propaganda mysticism that Goebbels pushed.

I believe I heard that when it wasn't being used for these ceremonies and parades, the blood flag was kept in the flag rack in the entryway of the Brown House in Munich. When the Brown House was bombed toward the end of the war, the blood flag was destroyed.

[Bigbander]

WOW...the sports one is great! I love that style of art.

[randy@treadways]

The SA Nürnberg postcard is by Hans Schweitzer, a famed artist of Nazi posters, who used the nomme de guerre "Mjölnir" for his art signature. Mjölnir posters are very collectable.
He is seen here with Goebbels in 1936.

[Br. James]

A great photo, Randy; one I don't recall seeing before! Schweitzer was a close associate of Goebbels, being the chief cartoonist for Goebbels' Berlin newspaper, "Der Angriff." This photo appears to have been taken at a museum or other public event, though the HDK did not open to the public until the summer of 1937. If this photo dates from 1936, then it may have been taken in Berlin; could that model be of the new Olympic Stadium? (I guess it could also be a very large and elaborate birthday cake...save me a corner piece with lots of icing!!)

Br. James

[Br. James]

Thanks for the additional information on the artists of the Odeonsplatz, Randy. Knowing as I do the extreme reverence in which the Blood Banner was held by the NSDAP, I can certainly understand it being touched to the bronze coffins of the "Putsch Martyrs" -- whose blood had "consecrated" that flag -- either when they resided in state in the Feldherrnhalle or as they were entombed at the Temples of Honor but, at least to my sensitivities, it seems a "desecration" for that flag to be touched to the ground, even as it is pictured in front of the Feldherrnhalle's entrance staircase, while the actual spot of "the Martyrdom" was in the small sidestreet to the Feldherrnhalle's left.

While I know that the Blood Banner was ceremonially used to "consecrate" the new standards of newly-formed SA, SS and NSKK regiments during each year's Party Day celebration, those standards were returned to their home regions where local flags were touched to the now-"consecrated" standard during local ceremonies of recognition.

The Blood Banner was kept at the Brown House when not in use for a ceremony or event somewhere in Germany and Jakob Grimminger had to travel to Munich to collect it and "sign it out" for each trooping. He returned it to the Brown House promptly after each "airing." Originally, when at the Brown House it was publicly displayed as the centerpiece of a large group of historic Nazi flags in the Hall of Honor in the main entrance hallway of the Brown House but, in the early 1940s when arial bombing became a possibility, all of the historic banners displayed there were removed to the basements of the building complex for safe storage. The last time the Blood Banner was publicly seen was at a ceremony on October 18, 1944, after which Grimminger returned it to storage at the Brown House. While the Brown House was partially destroyed by war's end, there is no proof or reason to believe that the Blood Banner and the other standards and historic flags stored with it were destroyed. Indeed, as we saw recently regarding the Desk Set from Hitler's office in the Führerbau just across the lawn from the Brown House, Allied soldiers of the occupation of Munich scavenged the whole Königsplatz
and the Desk Set was found in storage in the Führerbau's cellars -- so we may never know where the Blood Banner is located now; it may be up in an attic in the house that belonged to a returned WWII soldier, stuck back in a dusty corner and waiting to be discovered again!!

Cheers,

Br. James