Bidspirit auction | German Sport: A Look Ahead

German Sport: A Look Ahead to 1936 - Complete Sticker Album - Deutscher Sport: Vorschau auf 1936 ”German Sport: A Look Ahead to 1936” - a sticker album intended to glorify German sport in general and, in particular, the 1936 Olympic Games held in Nazi Germany. Accompanied throughout by texts written by Herbert Obscherningkat - a German journalist, screenwriter, and documentary filmmaker active in the Third Reich who specialized in producing sports and propaganda films in the period leading up to and during the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Published by Cigaretten-Bilderdienst. Complete album. ”We can proudly say today that every sport we practice was pursued by our ancestors for thousands of years, and that the magnificently organized athletic contests of Greece were nothing more than a particularly successful form of ancient Germanic physical exercise.” - from the introduction. The album was published as part of the Third Reich's propaganda apparatus surrounding the Olympic Games. Its purpose was to glorify Germany's sporting achievements, generate anticipation for the Olympic Games in Berlin (and the Winter Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen), and present the German athlete as a symbol of physical excellence. The album includes an extensive survey of the German athletes who participated in the various sports (athletics, swimming, gymnastics, horse racing, and others), photographs of prominent German athletes, and relatively limited coverage of athletes from other countries. At the beginning of the album is a photograph of Adolf Hitler with crowds giving him the Nazi salute, accompanied by a quotation from his book ”Mein Kampf”: ”The national state must proceed from the assumption that a person who possesses little scientific education but is physically healthy, of good and steadfast character, and filled with determination and willpower, is of greater value to the national community than an intelligent weakling.” Alongside numerous stickers documenting German athletes in the various sports are stickers depicting Adolf Hitler with Reich Minister Dr. Frick at the Olympic grounds; Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels watching a horse-racing event, as well as appearing alongside a member of the Hitler Youth; stickers depicting the Hitler Youth engaged in physical exercise; and a street procession in Nazi Germany. A special chapter is devoted to training undertaken by members of the SA and SS, as well as the physical training of the German police: ”So many Nazi fighters in these organizations simultaneously belong to clubs of the gymnastics and sports movement, where they naturally receive training for great achievements...”, it states. Among other items, the rare German sports tax stamp is featured, and more.  In the introduction, Herbert Obscherningkat extensively attempts to associate classical physical culture specifically with the German people, arguing that in ancient times it was trained Germanic tribes that first shook the Roman Empire. He claims that all writers of antiquity praised the racial superiority of those Germanic tribes, and attempts to draw a direct line from antiquity to the modern era through the Middle Ages - periods in which, according to him, the superiority of the German race was conspicuous in the realm of sport. The introduction itself is already accompanied by stickers depicting robust German athletes. He goes on at length to describe the advancement of German sport during the Nazi era and presents the German participants in the 1936 Olympics as leaders of world sport. Blue cloth binding with gilt lettering in Gothic script, a mounted color image of German runners in a cross-country race at the center, and the five Olympic rings embossed in gold at the bottom. 89 [3] pages. 32 cm. Complete album with all stickers present. Very good condition.