Hitler Youth Poster

[Will Junior]

dean 427: The watermark does not mean a print is old or is from specific era. Watermarks are used today just as they were hundreds of years ago. Your piece is printed on paper called 'Ingres' and it most likely came from Cartiere Miliani Fabriano in Italy. One source on Ingres paper said; "Particularly recommended for deiuxe [sic] editions, advertising (posters, monoqraphs, calendars, brochures, catalogues), bookbinding, drawing, (pastels, tempera) and collage. The fibre direction runs parallel te the long sides...watermark INGRES FABRIANO is to be found on the two long sides of the sheet..." The source was Legatoria d'arte a Firenze e laboratorio di restauro. . I checked Cartiere Miliani and discovered this on their website; "Pietro Miliani che nel 1782 fonda le Cartiere Miliani". Translated, 'Peter Miliani is who in 1782 founded the Miliani Papery'. Website: www.cartieremilianifabriano.com-- hence, the company is very old. Yet the same site says the company changed its name in 1947 to 'Cartiere Miliani Fabriano'-- a good indication of the age of your paper because of the Fabriano water mark. The art work is smaller than the paper size and the size of the paper to me points that this is a re-print but not a 'fake'. I believe your piece is a post-war commemorative off-set print from the original poster. I say this because the lines of the images appearing in the photos look like the work of an off-set press. True, the paper stock has lines, but the art work does not look like a lithograph with inked sheen typically seen when you hold a lithograph to the light. In short, I feel you have a post-war re-print made on high quality Italian paper stock.

[Will Junior]

Allow me to share other facts about the poster print. Geithain is a town in Sachsen/Saxony, the Eastern part of Germany. The town is within the administration of Leipzig. The Bann and Jungbann 213 are bands/units of youth organizations, obviously Hitler Youth (HJ). The Bann was a part of a district of the HJ. The Deutsches Jungvolk (DJ) was a minor unit and I think this is what is mentioned by the term 'Jungbann'-- young unit 213. For example, see the photo I located at a German auction house site showing a letterhead for a Bann in Hamburg. Also see the postcard for Geithain I obtained from Flikr.com--interesting!