Volkischer Beobachter Honorary Membership Book

[zzumwalt]

Figured I should post this since these don't pop up every day. These are photos from my Volkischer Beobachter membership book - apparently the WH-Heer Officer pictured on cover 1 had honorary membership since there not only is no dues page, but his personal information is left blank apart from his name. Any opinions or comments would be helpful.

[jabnus]

As a passes and ausweiscollector i like it a lot!

[Br. James]

Quite a striking piece, Zzumwalt; I've never seen one before! One question: are there pages cut out of the binding just prior to Max Amann's photo page? It seems to look like there are a few pages missing there.

Br. James

[zzumwalt]

That's what it looks like to me. I'm assuming these were the dues stamp pages since the binding of the pages are multi-colored. Whoever "cut" these out did a very good job.

[der-hase-fee]

Not sure how many were printed each day, but shouldn't there have been a large number of regular readers of the VB, and these booklets accordingly ?

[zzumwalt]

You would think. But I'm assuming, that just like the NSDAP, many members destroyed these books linking them to the Party - which would forbid them from de-nazified status (which meant they couldn't find employment, or receive rations or food stamps). I'm not sure if these carried a jail sentence with them like NSDAP books did.

[JUNGCO]

I have a later soft linen cover for the years 1936-38. The inside cut pages did have monthly dues type stamps. Some were quit colorful. The photo on the inside cover is an add on.
Jeff

[zzumwalt]

Post pictures if you have them, I'd like to see that

[JUNGCO]

Volk

Here you go. The 1936 through 1939 booklet

[JUNGCO]

volk

Hitler's forward and owner's name. The first page of stamps.

[JUNGCO]

Volk

The colored stamps change to common stamps. Several inner pages devoted to Zeitschriften

[JUNGCO]

Volk

Photos of Amann and Rosenberg and the rest devoted to the story of the printer during the struggle.

[Br. James]

Thanks, friends! Great stuff...about a subject I didn't even know existed! Can someone explain what this VB booklet represented, and what the monthly dues paid for? Was this simply a way of subscribing to the newspaper?

Br. James

[zzumwalt]

Beautiful! Thanks for posting, amazing to see the immense differences in just a few years between the books. And to James yes, this was a newspaper subscription. From my earlier post, this represented party "loyalty", which eventually, like NSDAP books and cards, eventually came to hurt the owner - since these was a clear connection to the NSDAP. It has to be said, that without the VB, the NSDAP probably wouldn't have achieved mass success, at least as quickly, as they did.

[jabnus]

Hi Jungco, thats a great pass as well. Im suprised to see the old style eagle this late.

These passes are truly amazing


best regards,
Gaston