Background: This is one of the first illustrated books on the Nazi takeover in 1933. It is interesting in that it was not published by an official Nazi source, nor had Nazi guidelines on photographing Hitler taken hold. Hitler is presented as a more or less normal government leader, not the semi-divine figure he would become in the later photographs by Heinrich Hoffmann, who came to have almost a monopoly on photographs of Hitler. Hindenburg is presented as an almost equal figure.
The source: Wilhelm Köhler, Die nationale Revolution in Deutschland. Ein Gedenkbuch in Bildern (Minden: Druck und Verlag von Wilhelm Köhler, 1933).
The National Revolution in Germany
The cover.
Caption: “Reich President Hindenburg greets Reich Chancellor Hitler on Memorial Day” (12 March 1933).
Caption: “Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler, the Führer and liberator of the German people.”
Caption: “Reich President General Field Marshal von Hindenburg, the German people’s true servant.”
Caption: “The national revolution was developing. At the Gera Gau Party Rally, 5-6 September 1931.”
Caption: “Adolf Hitler and Dr. Goebbels speaking in the Berlin Lustgarten.”
Caption: “Adolf Hitler. He wears an S.A. uniform without any signs of rank to display his close relationship with the simple S.A. man.”
Caption: “Memorial Day (12 March 1933): Hindenburg and Hitler.”
Caption: “The Ceremony at Potsdam: Hindenburg is greeted by an S.A. Honor Guard.”
Caption: “The way is open for the people’s chancellor Adolf Hitler’s work of reconstruction. The Reich Chancellor presenting the case for the Enabling Act to the Reichstag on 23 March 1933. It passed with an overwhelming majority vote of 441 to 94.”
