Reinhard Tieste - uncensored !

[Martin Harding]

Does anybody either own or have come across Reinhard Tieste Volumes where the Swastika's are present on the front cover of the Books.
Below I have posted pictures of my 2 Volumes where the swastika's are present...very strange as I was under the Impression that In Germany showing the Swastika on the front covers of Books was prohibited, hence the Swastika is usually absent on his 2 volume front covers.
Regards Martin

[Dietrich Maerz]

Maybe these books were printed in a time in Germany when the political idiocy had not risen to the current level of thinking that covering up a swastika is necessary to protect the free and thinking citizens to turn into Nazis. If the state is not thinking for the people, the people might think on their own! So covering something up makes it, well, just not there!

I grew up in the 60-80 when Germany was still a free country were freedom of speech and thinking was still in high regard and I have a big problem with this "rule", the more so since the rest of the world has shown sufficiently that being exposed to a swastika does not immediatley create the urge in every human being to attack Poland.

A state that needss to forbid symbols of past history is a weak state!

[Br. James]

I don't have either of the two editions of Reinhard Tieste's excellent work on tinnies which you show, Martin, though I do have an earlier edition -- perhaps the first -- but I can't put my hand on it now, given the chaos that is my library! And I don't recall whether there are any swastikas on the cover of that volume. But I do have at hand the book on the Honorary GPB by Klaus Patzwall, which was published in 2004 in Norderstedt, near Hamburg, and the cover unmistakably presents a swastika. I'm not sure when the ban on the swastika came into effect in Germany...

Br. James

[Jo Rivett]

And worse, photos of swastikas from FANTASY badges!!
Why would you put fantasy badge on the cover? Others at least hide them inside....

[Wood]

No swastikas on the covers of the fifth edition (2006)
Regards,
Pete

[TPK]

I have one dated 1994 and it has them on cover. TPK

[wilhelm Saris]

The swastika is still a problem in Germany: for sake of the good cause, swastika's are avoided with my wall plaque book, as well as my gorget-book, both published in Germany, respectively released 2009 and 2012.
And to not wind up persons like customs and authorities it was decided not to show swastika's with the coming new book, published by Bender Publishing (release-date March coming).
But what the heck, a cover can be nice and attracting even without that symbol!

[Dietrich Maerz]

Wilhelm, basically I agree with you: one can come up with good cover designs without the swastika or not showing it in full (as seems to be the rule). However, when I do my books in English language I will not chance the cover (which is usually the badge or the order the book is about) just to please the people who came up with that stupid rule (and a rule it must be since the paragraph 86 exists since a very long time, the "cover up rule" is a far later brain fart of the Bundestag, because they evidently had no other important things to do ...)

When I do a book in German language I "obey" to the rule. Not because I like it, but because I want to make the life for the book sellers easier. All the other books from B&D Publishing LLC (which are selling in Germany very well!) need stickers and that is not my problem. Some of the sellers are getting regularily a visit from the Gestapo which was alarmed by the customs, but it never turns into something. Other than wasting tax money, that is.

[wilhelm Saris]

It is not quite my decision, but mr. Bender tries to "protect" - anyway with the new book - buyers from boring questions from German customs or whatever. I don't care if there is a swastika or not, not even when the book is filled with this symbol (and it is). At shows in Germany one sees most often the swastika being covered. Germans apparently have problems with their past and history!

[Dietrich Maerz]

Not the German per se, but some idiots in the government!

You really think that the "German people" are upset when they see a swastika (they were no betwee 1945 and 2005) - after more than 70 years? Only a group of very loud people who always try the "re-educate" the unwashed masses think so.
Why they not ban hammer and sicle, the symbol of the murderous regime in East Germany is puzzling - or maybe it is that the party of the former murderous regime (SED) is now in the Bundestag (Die Linke) and found a partner in crime with "Die Grünen"?

[Wim Vangossum]

Not the German per se, but some idiots in the government!

You really think that the "German people" are upset when they see a swastika (they were no betwee 1945 and 2005) - after more than 70 years? Only a group of very loud people who always try the "re-educate" the unwashed masses think so.
Why they not ban hammer and sicle, the symbol of the murderous regime in East Germany is puzzling - or maybe it is that the party of the former murderous regime (SED) is now in the Bundestag (Die Linke) and found a partner in crime with "Die Grünen"?

Well said!


Regards, Wim

[mametz]

I have one dated 1994 and it has them on cover. TPK

The one I have is dated June 1994 but is a purple card cover without the swas
Mamets

[TPK]

Sorry just pulled it out and realized the soft cover in purple no swaz, outer dust cover that came with it in English and has swaz, I got the book used so now assume outer cover was married to it. TPK

[feldpost 58]

Hi,

I know the situation about displaying a swastika in Germany is very odd.
Militaria dealers, flea market vendors and shops have to cover a swastika with a sticker or something to prohibit the display of this insignia.
Often we find European dealers and collectors on this site doing the same, which most US and UK people find strange.
In Germany, however most people (not all) find the swastika a symbol of a period in time that they would prefer to forget.
If I called someone a "Nazi" here in the UK, it would not be taken too badly, and probably laughed off, but in Germany it may be a gross insult.
I have learned this from personal experience, my wife is German and her family lived through the TR.
Most German people want to get on with their lives, have no interest in Hitler or the Nazis; but are stigmatized by John Wayne movies, Band of Brothers, etc and to them the Thid Reich is ancient history - and something they would prefer to forget.

Best wishes,

John.

[Dietrich Maerz]

Hi John,

then why does the German government not pass a law to cover the hammer and sickel symbol of the communist dictators which ruled until 1989? Far younger history and a lot more living people are and were affected.
Somebody who thinks that covering a symbol up makes the past fogotten is like a child closing the eyes and thinking everything goes away.

And, by the way, 99% of all Germans born in the last 30 years do not care about the past history of Germany. They only ask themselves why there is a law like that telling them what they can see and what not.

But there is nothing one can do, just waiting for the next stupid law. Which will come for sure!