Johanis1860, that book with the stamp is an interesting collector’s item. It is one that I would be pleased to have on my shelf. The author, Hans Venatier (15 February 1903-19 January 1959), is equally interesting. He was an ardent Nazi, a sort of artistically creative intellectual, and a soldier. He took part in the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch in 1920, fought with the Freikorps in Silesia, and was an infantry lieutenant in France in 1940 and on the Eastern Front in 1941-42.
He held a Ph.D. from the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität in Breslau, and. taught at the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Oberrealschule and at a Hochschule in Sankt Maria-Magdalena. In 1932 he held an office in the Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur (KfdK), a nationalistic anti-Semitic political organization founded in 1928 by Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg. He remained in the KfdK until it was reorganized and renamed the National Socialist Culture Community (Nationalsozialistische Kulturgemeinde) in 1934. Its aim was to make a significant imprint on cultural life in Germany that was based on the aims and objectives of the inner circles of the Nazi Party.
In 1942, he was released from the Army and assigned to Goebbels Ministry of Propaganda. He was released from the Ministry of Propaganda in March 1943 to take-up the office of district head of the NSDAP in Breslau. As a member of the National Socialist People's Welfare (NSV), it was his task in the last months of the war to evacuate the Volkdeutsch population from Wroclaw, which was encircled by Soviet troops. On 31 May 1945, Venatier was arrested and interned by American troops.
The book you have was published in 9 editions in Germany between 1939 and 1944 by various publishers. It is unique because its vehicle is poetry. Venatier said that he used poetry to summarize the German colonization in the east, and the fate of the German people covering two hundred years, and the book should not be misunderstood as a historical source. Despite his standing in the Party, the book did not sell well and most ended up in libraries. Dwight
Thank you very much ,for the analytical infos.
Jannis.
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