[Above: This book says:

'Terra Paese
Senza Senza
Fame Tempo'
(Earth Country
Without Without
Hunger Time).

This 1928 book by E.H. Schrenzel has 90 illustrations and was published in Berlin in 1928 and Italy in 1935. It is described as:

'Abyssinia, to which the eyes of the world are turned today, is still largely a closed and mysterious country,
because few have been able to visit and study it freely. This book allows us to enter it,
to peer into the intimacy of its life, with the guidance of an intelligent and sincere interpreter.
From the fabulous antiquity of its origins and the constancy of sleepy traditions
to today's reality of its inhabitants, customs, crops, religious and erotic superstitions, Schrenzel paints,
with admirable confidence and evidence, the strange country still shrouded in an atmosphere of unexplored promise.
And his testimony as a traveler and scholar acquires in our eyes a special merit,
for not being dominated by preconceptions but inspired by disinterested and rigorous objectivity.']

[Above: Ethiopians saluting the 'Great White Father' Mussolini, Mekelle, Ethiopia.]

[Above: Ethiopian boys of the 'Gioventù Etiopica del Littorio' (Ethiopic Youth of Littorio), late 1930s.]

[Above: Ethiopian soldiers parade past lines of civilians.]

The scholar Abba Jobir Abba Dula was the sultan of Ethiopia. He was a staunch ally of fascist Italy and was even imprisoned in the early 1930s for working with the Italians. When Italy invaded the country in 1937 they released their old ally and gave him the task of leading the country. He worked extensively with Italy and helped them hunt Allied agents with the country. During WWII Abba Jobir recorded radio broadcasts to the Arabic-speaking world, in an attempt to educate the listeners to the Anglo-Jewish threat. In 1942, following the Italian defeat, Abba Jobir was imprisoned once more, but was later pardoned by Haile Selassie I.

[Above: Mussolini and the Sultan Abba Jobir Abba Dula at a military parade in Rome, 1938.]

[Above: Mussolini and the Sultan Abba Jobir Abba Dula at a military parade in Rome, 1938.]

[Above: Ethiopian army commander and a member of the royal family of Ethiopia Ras Seyoum Mengesha, Ras Getachew Abate, who worked with fascist Italy and Ras Kebbede Guebret meeting with Mussolini in February 1937.]

[Above: Italian troops march past a large Mussolini sign in Ethiopia.]

[Above: Italian occupation of Ethiopia using an Italian note overprinted for 'Italian East Africa', 100 Lire, 1938.]

[Above: Italian occupation of Ethiopia using an Italian note overprinted for 'Italian East Africa', 50 Lire, 1939.]

[Above: Laura Ingalls.]

She was born in Brooklyn, New York, a descendant of one of the early pilgrims to America, who arrived in New Amsterdam on May 9, 1661. Educated in the best private schools, she even studied in Vienna and Paris. After graduation she studied nursing in New York. However, she decided it wasn't for her and later danced in ballet and vaudeville.

Maybe you've heard the name Laura Ingalls before? Well our aviatrix was actually a distant cousin of Little House on the Prairie's Laura Ingalls Wilder. You might remember her from her popular series of books or television series. Her books have recently been banned from some libraries for being 'racist' due to her description of American Indians (I've read her books, they were not 'racist', but a product of the time. Her mother was fearful of American Indians and her dog didn't like them. Her father also sung a 'racist' song as well). The American Library Association even went so far as renaming its Laura Ingalls Wilder Lifetime Achievement Award to the Children's Literature Legacy Award in 2018. They've actually censored parts of her books as well.

But back to our Laura Ingalls. She was very inspired by her mother growing up, whom she described as

'she possessed the trait I find most exciting in the American character... the ability to hurdle difficulties and achieve the reputedly impossible. I grew up under such influence.'

In 1928, at age 25, she learned to fly a plane at Roosevelt Field, New York. Within two years she was setting records in acrobatic flying. In 1929 she attended Universal Flying School, obtaining a Limited Commercial license that same year, and by the next year she obtained a Transport license. In 1930 she was the sole female in her graduating class of Universal Flying School Transport course, where she scored a whopping 98/100. She wasted no time and immediately began making and breaking records and winning awards. One record-breaking feat she performed 344 loops, breaking the last record of only 47 loops! 1930 was a busy year for her, she even established the world barrel-roll record for men and women of 714 rolls! A little later she won $800 for coming in third in the Women's Dixie Derby from Washington, D.C. to Chicago, Illinois. 1930 would close with another record, this time she established the first women's transcontinental round trip record between Roosevelt Field, New York and Grand Central Air Terminal, Glendale, California.

[Above: Laura Ingalls.]

In 1934 she won the coveted Harmon Trophy after flying from Mexico to Chile, over the Andes Mountains to Rio de Janeiro, to Cuba and then to Floyd Bennett Field in New York, marking her the first flight over the Andes by an American woman. Among her pioneering aviation records:

Longest solo flight by a woman (17,000 miles).
First solo flight by a woman from North to South America.
First solo flight around South America by man or woman.
First complete flight by a land plane around South America by a man or woman.
First American woman to fly the Andes solo.

In September 1939, she flew over the capital, Washington, D.C., and dropped anti-intervention pamphlets! She was quickly arrested for 'violating White House airspace', but was soon released. After Germany defeated France in 1940 she made contact at the German embassy with Ulrich von Gienanth, who was a diplomat and Gestapo representative in the United States, also serving as second secretary of the German Embassy. She wanted to find a way to help Germany and suggested that she could make a solo flight to Europe, and with the ensuing media attention promote National Socialist Germany. For reasons unknown, Von Gienanth told her it would be better if she stayed in the USA and worked with the America First Committee.

She took his advice and soon gave speeches for the America First Committee, where she referred to the USA as a 'lousy democracy' and even gave stiff arm salutes to the spectators. Von Gienanth was impressed and even praised her oratorical skills. Much of the material she proudly based on her studies of such books and pamphlets as Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, My New Order and Germany and the Jewish Question. She also found inspiration in another famous woman of the day, Elizabeth Dilling.

[Above: Ulrich von Gienanth, 1954 and Elizabeth Dilling.]

In April 1941 she wrote an unknown German official, defiantly saying:

'Some day I will shout my triumph to a great leader and a great people... Heil Hitler!'

Sometime after the German declaration of war on December 11, 1941, she was given a list of contacts from von Gienanth and was arrested shortly after. In violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 she was charged with failing to register with the government as a paid German agent. Unsurprisingly, the FBI testified that they had kept her under surveillance for several months. Predictably, she was convicted and sentenced to eight months to two years in prison on February 20, 1942. She was released from prison on October 5, 1943 after serving nearly her full sentence -- 20 months. However, she would remain on probation for an unknown amount of time.

She was undaunted and prison had not lessened her zeal to fight for what was right. A few months into her freedom, she valiantly said of the Normandy landings:

'This whole invasion is a power lust, blood drunk orgy in a war which is unholy and for which the U.S. will be called to terrible accounting... They [the Germans] fight the common enemy. They fight for independence of Europe—independence from the Jews. Bravo!'

In July 1944 she was arrested at the Mexican border with her suitcase containing so-called 'seditious materials'. The tyrannical Roosevelt government barred her from entering Mexico, yet mysteriously did not charge her. That's enough to spell out her innocence. In the 1950s she applied for a presidential pardon for her erroneous charge, but was denied and multiple times after.

One of the replies said that she had been:

'special value of the Nazi propaganda machine'

I can't think of a better compliment.

This great woman passed into glorious history on January 10, 1967, in Burbank, California. She was 73 years old.

[Above: 1935 Laura Ingalls autographed envelope.]

So what was Blaupunkt up to in WWII? They contributed to the German war effort in a number of ways, including the manufacture of field radios and even primers for anti-aircraft shells. Their work was a critical war industry and was moved underground to protect it from Allied bombers. Like other important companies and their work toward the war effort, they were moved to the reinforced-concrete bunkers beneath the Berlin Olympic Stadium.

After the German surrender the Allies began a mad scramble to steal anything they could get their hands on. The British uncovered the remains of a top secret radar factory under the Olympic Stadium. It had been run by Blaupunkt for the Luftwaffe, but the Soviets had beaten the British and everything was already stolen. Like nearly every German company during WWII, the Allies laid accusations to Blaupunkt of using slave labor. Nevermind the fact that the Allies used German slave labor until the 1950s, with many German slaves being worked to death.

[Above: This poster, from 1935-36, says 'Blaupunkt Radiogeräte' (Blaupunkt Radios) and features a sailor with an accordian formed from the word 'Blaupunkt'.]

[Above: Blaupunkt business envelope canceled in Berlin (where Blaupunkt was headquartered) on November 2, 1935. The cancel says 'Verwende Wohlfahrtsbriefmarken' (Use charity stamps), this encourages the use of semi-postal postage stamps, which is the price of the postage plus another small amount going toward whatever charity.]

[Above: This Blaupunkt advertisement is from the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, September 15, 1937, number 37. It says:

'Sie wünscht es sich schon lang...
[...]
Was die Welt funkt hör mit BLAUPUNKT'

(She has wanted it for a long time...
[...]
Listen to what the world is doing with BLAUPUNKT)]

[Above: This Blaupunkt advertisement (from Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, June 17, 1943, number 24) features the coal thief. This was a campaign to fight waste. It says:

'Da freut sich Kohlenklau

wenn nur für ihn das Radio spielt. Wir alle aber sind geschädigt: denn Strom und Kohle sind verschwendet!

Der Kohlenklau, den alle heut' verfluchen, hat auch am Blaupunkt nichts zu suchen!

(The coal thief is happy

when the radio plays just for him. But we are all harmed: because electricity and coal are wasted!

The coal theft that everyone is cursing today has no place at Blaupunkt!)]

[Above: Here is another advertisment (from Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, February 25, 1943 - number 8). It says:

'Wenn in jedem deutschen Haushalt in einer Woche nur 1 Schaufel Kohlen unnötig verfeuert wird, so fallen 2,5 Millionen Tonnen Kohlen "Kohlenklau" zum Opfer. Das ist dieselbe Menge, die nötig ist, um z. B. 28 000 schwere Panzer oder 22 000 Bomber herzustellen.

(If every German household burns just one shovel of coal unnecessarily in a week, 2.5 million tons of coal will fall victim to "coal theft". That is the same amount that is needed to produce, for example, 28,000 heavy tanks or 22,000 bombers.)

Wow, that is pretty amazing!]

[Above: The coal thief was also featured on a set of fairly rare postcards, as seen here. They say:

'Faßt
Kohlenklau!
Verderbt dem Kohlenklau den Spaß
und spart mit Kohle, Strom und Gas'

(Catch
the coal thief!
Spoil the coal thief's fun
and save on coal, electricity and gas)

[Above: Sultan Ibrahim of Johore.]

'Malaya was the colonial British term for its colonies on the Malay Peninsula. The modern countries in the area are: Malaysia which incorporates most of the peninsula plus several island territories. Singapore was part of Malaya, a densely populated and highly developed island city-state at the tip of the peninsula.'

Now let's look at Johore specifically:

'Johore is a state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. It borders with Pahang, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan to the north. Johor has maritime borders with Singapore to the south and Indonesia to the east and west.'

Johore, Pahang, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan are only four of thirteen states that make up Malaysia, but we're only interested in one: Johore, and more specifically, its Sultan.

Sultan Ibrahim of Johore was a very complex and interesting fellow. A lover of nature, from 1930 on he was an active patron of the state's forestry department, helping them to designate some of the remaining virgin forests in Johore as nature reserves. Among the Sultan's many friends was Tokugawa Yoshichika, whom he had been close friends with since the 1920s. Yoshichika was a member of the Tokugawa clan, whose ancestors were military leaders, or shoguns, who had ruled Japan from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

[Above: Yoshichika Tokugawa was a Japanese botanist, hunter, patron of the arts and sciences, politician and Japanese military advisor in Japanese-occupied Malaya.]

We'll let the next picture speak for itself...

[Above: 'News from Germany', No. 8, May 1939.]

Sounds like they were angry that the Sultan attended Adolf Hitler's birthday celebration. But alas, the British and the powers-that-be found it hard to keep the Sultan on their colonial chain.

On December 8, 1941, Japanese troops, led by the brilliant general Tomoyuki Yamashita, also fondly known as the 'Tiger of Malaya', invaded Malaya to free it from the colonial occupation of Britain. They drove the British out of Malaya, just as they had successfully drove all of the colonialists out of Asia. No race of people should be ruled over by another race.

By the end of January 1942 Japanese troops reached the capital of Johore and were greeted to a warm reception. General Tomoyuki Yamashita himself was warmly greeted by Sultan Ibrahim of Johore. Traveling with Yamashita was the Sultan's old friend Yoshichika Tokugawa, who the Sultan later recommended that he be the Japanese political advisor, which he became.

Yamashita and his officers stationed themselves at the beautiful royal palace, the Sultan's residence, called Istana Bukit Serene, and also at the state secretariat building. Yamashita wasted no time however and immediately began planning for the liberation of Singapore, which was a shocking defeat to the British, whom had lost one of the jewels in their imperial crown. Yamashita's victory cemented him as one of the greatest military minds of WWII. But that's another story.

In the end the United States used a monstrous weapon against Japan, which brought Japan to its knees, and to this day it is still a vassal of the United States. The Asian countries once again fell under colonial rule. The dream of a united Asia was over.

But the Malaysian people had a taste of freedom and for the first time they saw Asians beat the 'White' occupiers, and soon they would be free.

[Above: The Sultan of Johore with some of his officers and soldiers.]

[Above: The Sultan of Johore in military garb.]

[Above: A Malayan sentry of the 'Giyugun Volunteer Army' stands at his post, 1944. He is armed with a Japanese Arisaka Type 38 rifle.]

[Above: Singapore, Malaya, August 1945. A British officer talks with two young Malayans from a pro-Japanese volunteer paramilitary organization. In the chaotic days after the Japanese surrender to the Allies, due to a lack of troops, they had to use paramilitary forces like these to keep order, especially with the fear of communists taking control during the chaos.]

[Above: Sultan Ibrahim on a 1921 postage stamp.]

[Above: The signature of the Sultan of Johore.]

[Above: Anthony Jacob.]

Jacob was born on October 8, 1919, in Hendon, which is today in the London borough of Barnet, but which then was an urban district of Middlesex.

As a teenager he traveled by himself all over Europe, doing deals for the family business. His travels eventually took him to Hitler's Germany, where he witnessed firsthand its revitalization. It was something he would never forget.

'The worst thing about coming back to London after a visit to Germany in those days was seeing the slums and degradation of Britain compared to Germany. In Germany there were no tramps shuffling around, all the buildings were neat and clean, and the fire services would actually go around hosing down any structures which grew muddy. Back in London, it was depressing to see old dirty buildings, the shabby looking people...'
--White Man, Think Again!, Introduction to the 2017 edition, pg. 9

Jacob was also present during the historic 1938 Austrian Anschluss and was actually present during the huge gathering in Vienna at the Hofburg Palace to hear Adolf Hitler speak on March 15, 1938. He was fluent in German and was said to have realized then that the 'democracies' would wage war on Germany.

He was 20 years old when World War Two finally was forced on Germany. He was one of the first to be drafted and served with the Royal Artillery in the Far East, first in India, then in the hellish jungles of Burma.

After the war he returned to England to find it a much darker place. His family business was gone and he was forced to do odd jobs, including writing for the local newspapers. There he realized his great talent for writing. He was a 'voracious reader', learning information of all kinds, which only added to his writing prowess. In 1948, after three years of drifting from job to job he was offered work in South West Africa, working as a salesman. This was a pivotal decision and he never returned to Britain. Thus began his vast African travels. From there he moved to Rhodesia and eventually to South Africa in 1955. He also traveled up Africa to Kenya and back, seeing many countries like Bechuanaland, Basutoland, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi, Uganda, Eritrea, Egypt, Sudan and Portuguese East Africa.

Ten years later, in 1965, came the publication of White Man, Think Again!

[Above: An original South African hardcover version. Note the color is different from the subsequent versions.]

The book earned him fame amongst free-thinking whites and infamy and hatred amongst certain Jews who eventually had his book banned in South Africa on July 20, 1966. However this didn't stop his book from being sold in the underground and many unauthorized versions popped up. Unauthorized versions of White Man, Think Again! circulate to this day, serving to keep it in print through the years. Although now there is a much superior 2017 edition published by Ostara Publications.

[Above: Unauthorized version. Front/back.]

[Above: Authorized version from Ostara Publications. Front/back.]

After the publication and banning of his book he met and befriended many people from around the world, some of them famous, like the author of The Dispossessed Majority, American Wilmot Robertson (John Ireland). When Robertson started a magazine called 'Instauration' (the act of restoring something after decay…) he was given a regular column called 'From the White Tip', giving news from embattled South Africa. The column became one of the magazine's most popular pieces, although he wrote it anonymously.

[Above: The cover of a 1976 Instauration issue.]

He also befriended a young Arthur Kemp, who would years later write the celebrated 'March of the Titans: A History of the White Race'. Kemp was also given permission to officially release White Man, Think Again! in an updated form. It would be a long thirty years later before Kemp finally released it. The new 2017 edition contains 543 footnotes and 4 major appendices. Unfortunately Jacob never lived to see its republication, he died in Cape Town on April 6, 1993 at age 73.

Below are two PDFs of Instauration:

-Instauration (Vol. 1, No. 1, December 1975)-

-Instauration (Vol. 1, No. 4, March 1976)-

[Above: Here is a black man serving in the Imperial German army. He was a member of Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 25.]

[Above: Here is the full portrait with the above man with WWI era German comrades.]

[Above: Studio portrait of black officer and comrades.]

[Above: Black officer in parade regalia.]

[Above & below: Elo Sambo, kettle drummer of the German Leib Garde Hussars. Elo was originally from the German colony of Kamerun (Cameroon).]

[Above: German newspaper illustration showing Cameroon Africans serving the German military in Europe. Circa 1886.]

[Above: Gustav Sabac el Cher (March 10, 1868 - October 4, 1934) was a Prussian military musician from the 'Musikkorps des 1. (Ostpreußischen) Grenadier-Regiments Nr. 1 'Kronprinz''.]

[Above: Gustav Sabac el Cher (center, front).]

[Above: Gustav Sabac el Cher as a student at the Königlichen Hochschule für Musik, Berlin, 1894.]

[Above: Africans weren't the only race to serve with the German military. This is a picture of Lt. Tep from Siam (Thailand).]

[Above: This photo was taken by Heinrich Hoffmann (whom would later become Hitler's official photographer) in May 1919. It is of 'Mohamed Husen' in Munich. Husen was a highly decorated officer who served in East Africa with the Germans and later with a Freikorps unit. The inscription on the photo reads in part 'To the battles: Munich. A loyal East African fighter.' Mohamed Husen is shown here while working with the 'Lettow-Vorbeck Freikorps' acting as a chauffeur. He is what is called an 'askari' (An askari was a local soldier from Africa serving in the armies of the European colonial powers, particularly in East Africa, Northeast Africa, and Central Africa. The word was not only used by the Germans, but also the French, English, Italian, Urdu and Portuguese).]

Mohamed Husen (birth name Majub) was born in Tanzania (German East Africa) in 1905. At the age of nine Husen volunteered to fight with Germany against his country's invaders in WWI. After the war he was given combat pay by Germany for his deceased father who was killed in action during the war.

Sometime later he found a job as a steward in a German ship. This job enabled him to travel to Germany, first to Hamburg and later to Berlin.

During this tumultuous time he joined the revolutionary 'Lettow-Vorbeck Freikorps' acting as a chauffeur. Sometime during this time he earned German citizenship and later got a job in a circus as an entertainer. In his spare time he also taught Swahili to German government civil servants and diplomats, who would later use these language skills in Africa.

[Above: Mohamed Husen]

After Adolf Hitler came to power Husen began appearing in German films and proved to be a popular actor. He appeared in eleven films from 1934 to 1941.

A London Guardian news article reported about him:

'...by the mid-1930s, he was dressing up in military gear and appearing at rallies in front of National Socialist banners.'

Not much is known further about Husen. It is reported that he had a wife while in Germany and later children. Reports say that at least one of his children died in Allied Terror Bombings and possible his wife as well.

One thing is clear: Husen's story is another piece of proof that the National Socialists were not the racists their enemies teach that they were.

[Above: Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck (March 20, 1870 – March 9, 1964). Circa 1913. Courtesy of the Bundesarchiv.]

• In WWI the askari were led by their most beloved German leader Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck. Lettow-Vorbeck was a general in the Imperial German Army and the commander of its forces in German East Africa. For four long years, with a force that never exceeded 14,000 (3,000 Germans and 11,000 Africans), he held in check a much larger force of 300,000 British, Belgian, and Portuguese troops. His loyal troops and he endured hunger, malaria and the elements in what has been described by Edwin Palmer Hoyt as 'the greatest single guerrilla operation in history, and the most successful.'

Lettow-Vorbeck's force was undefeated in the field. His fluency in the Swahili language earned the respect and admiration of his African soldiers. He appointed black officers, proclaiming to his men what he believed in his heart:
'we are all Africans here'.

[Above: Poster bearing the image of General Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck on horseback leading African soldiers. Text at top reads 'Colonial War Funds Donation'.]

• The historian Charles Miller stated 'It is probable that no white commander of the era had so keen an appreciation of the African's worth not only as a fighting man but as a man.'

After the armistice of WWI Lettow-Vorbeck's army surrendered to the British. The British repatriated the white German soldiers but confined the askaris in filthy concentration camps. General von Lettow-Vorbeck refused to leave until he had won promises of decent treatment and early release for his black troops.

General von Lettow-Vorbeck brought back some of his askari soldiers to Germany where they served in his brand of Freikorps.

[Above: Postcard with the picture of General Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck and Governor Dr. Heinrich Schnee.]

• 'In 1953 in Dar Es Salam (Tanzania-ed.) I wanted to greet my old Askari. At mid-day I arrived at the local market place and I was surrounded by over 400 Askari, they had tears in their eyes and covered my hands in kisses. Around open campfires the Askari talked all through the night and they said that I had shaken the hand of every one of them, they said it is something that the English never did'.
-Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, from his 1957 book Mein Leben (My Life)

• Click here to see more pictures of the Freikorps

-Radio Wehrwolf, 1945.

[Above: Post WWI Freikorps era postcard with skull and crossbones and 'Wehrwolf' theme. This is based on a 1910 novel that took place during the 30 Years War which used themes of heroic resistance.
'Wehrwolf sein, heißt Deutschland befrei'n!' = 'To be a werewolf is to free Germany! Later, in the final days of WWII, the Wehrwolf movement of resistance fighters was formed, with the intention of fighting the Allied occupiers after the war.]

[Above: Postcard from 1924 showing a memorial in Webicht of National Socialist martyr and hero Albert Leo Schlageter, who was executed May 26, 1923. Schlageter was an underground freedom fighter during the French occupation and one of the Third Reich's first martyrs. This postcard was released by the Weimar Wehrwolf resistance organization.]

[Above: Graphic on the back of the above postcard.]

[Above: Wehrwolf postcard 'The Wehrwolf Calls'. Circa 1930.]

[Above: Book cover of Der Wehrwolf by Hermann Löns, (c)1920.]

[Above: Inside graphic of Der Wehrwolf by journalist Hermann Löns, (c)1920 (first published in 1910). Click to see more pictures!]

[Above: Showing off a beloved, ragged copy of Der Wehrwolf]

• Special thanks to mein Wehrwolf Marco R.!

'The Wehrwolf movement represents a minority. Only the best of our people belong to it.
It is more worthwhile and more promising of success to fight with a hundred determined men and women than to have a thousand [nominal] members.'
-Radio Wehrwolf, April 7, 1945.

Hermann Löns was a life long nature and animal lover who found immortality through his beloved Der Wehrwolf novel. Although he wrote a handful of other books, none are so well known and loved as Der Wehrwolf. To this day over seven million books by Löns have been printed. He was also a beloved poet, in 1911 he released a collection of poems. One of these poems, the 'Matrosenlied' (Sailors' Song) has the chorus 'Denn wir fahren gegen Engelland' (For we are sailing against England), was put to music by Herms Niel and was one of the most-sung German military songs of World War II!

But Hermann Löns would never see the fame and wealth that largely escaped him during his tumultuous life. At the age of 48, after first being rejected for ill health, he managed to join the German Army and fight in WWI. On the dark day of September 26, 1914 the great patriot and naturalist fell. Löns died just three weeks after enlisting on September 3. Of the 120 brave men in his unit only about two dozen survived an assault on a French position at Loivre near Reims in France.

[Above: Hermann Löns (August 29, 1866 – September 26, 1914)]

[Above: Third Reich era copy of Der Wehrwolf. By 1945 the Wehrmacht alone sold more than 865,000 copies of the book! This made him one of the most successful authors in Germany at the time.]

• Löns was a poet whose poems often dealt with the natural world. He was a pioneer of nature conservationism. In fact, he was co-initiator of the Heideschutzpark at Wilseder Berg which later grew into the famous Naturpark Lüneburger Heide (Lüneburg Heath Nature Park), which was the first nature reserve in Germany.

[Above: This copy of Der Wehrwolf was printed with proceeds going to help needy soldiers in the Wehrmacht (left). On the right is one of the many editions for soldiers to read at the front.]

• Löns was buried on the battlefield where he fell. In 1934 his remains were located and reburied in Germany. Today there are some 113 memorials to Löns in Germany, plus another eight in Austria and 19 in other countries. There are also 247 streets and roads in Germany which have been named after him. Twelve schools also bear his name and even a stadium.

[Above: 'Here rests Hermann Löns'. The grave marker near Walsrode where the body of Hermann Löns was reburied in 1935. Click to see more!]

[Above: Pin from The Reichskolonialbund (Reich Colonial League).]

• The Reichskolonialbund was a collective body that absorbed all German colonial organizations during the time of the Third Reich. It was led by Franz Ritter von Epp.]

[Above: Card from German East Africa showing a traditional African warrior carrying the German Imperial flag.]

[Above: Franz Xaver Ritter von Epp (October 16, 1868 – December 31, 1946) was an army officer in the Imperial German Army in the early 20th century. He eventually rose to the office of Reichsstatthalter of Bavaria. After the war he was arrested and sent to an Allied death camp in Munich where he was murdered in detention on December 31, 1946.]

[Above: Membership book from The Reichskolonialbund (Reich Colonial League). Circa 1939.]

[Above: German colonial exhibition.]

[Above: Here is a postage stamp from colonial German East Africa. Circa 1901. This shows an illustration of the Kaiser's yacht.]

[Above: Here is a picture of a black East African German colonial soldier, or askari. Unlike other European nation's colonies around the world, Germany didn't take any of her colonies by force.]

[Above: Askari soldier of German General Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeckin posing for history.]

[Above: German East African gold coin from 1916.]

[Above: Askari men of German General Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeckin relax in camp. Courtesy of the Bundesarchiv.]

[Above: This strange and spectacular photo is of a tribal chief from Cameroon wearing a German helmet, armor, and uniform during a funeral.]

[Above: Men from Germany's lost colonies, which were blatantly stolen from her after WWI by the Versailles treaty. Note what is obviously a swastika armband on the black African.]

[Above: This is a donation stamp to the Reichskolonialbund (RKB). Click on the image to see more stamps from the set.]

[Above: Postcard that says: 'Germany your colonies!'.]

[Above: A beautiful Reichskolonialbund lottery ticket from 1939 for 125,000 Reichsmarks.]

[Above: German BDM girls on a trip to East Africa in the 1930s.]

[Above: German BDM girls celebrating May Day in Africa.]

[Above: March 1916 provisional stamps. These relatively rare postage stamps were never issued. The condition of the majority of these stamps is poor due to the fact that they were buried in wet soil and later dug up (in August 1921)! Only a small part of the issues were salvageable, and after being returned to Germany from East Africa, they were put up for auction in May 1922. How odd is that?]

[Above: This is a medal bar containing German medals from WW2 and a German-African medal on the far right.]

[Above: Here is a close-up.]

• Click here to see other pictures of German-Askari soldiers

• Click here to see pictures of art and postal related items

• Athena is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, strategic warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill.
Most interesting in this context, Athena is a devoted companion of heroes and is the patron goddess of heroic endeavor. She was called 'Minerva' by the Romans and Athena by the Greeks.

Here is a quote from the 1930s book 'Die Kunst im Dritten Reich':

'Athena is the goddess of war and art. She personifies the strong, fresh spiritual strength of the human being. She stands freely, upright. She recognizes, measures, and uses the strength of all things in the victorious battle with the enemy and in the conquest of nature for the creation of art. The picture of the goddess is the fitting expression of the heroic character of the Führer and the National Socialist movement and, in the deepest sense, of the art the Führer wants. An art form for which the artist has to fight in a serious and concentrated working procedure so that he may receive a blessing from it.'

[Above: The mighty and wise Athena meets the Bolshevik armies head on! This says 'Europe - Defending its 3000 year old culture against Bolshevism']

[Above: An Eastern European version of the Athena poster above.]

[Above: This poster, showing Athena and a communist, is from a Greek newspaper from March 15, 1943. It says: 'A 3000-YEAR-OLD CIVILIZATION IS IN DANGER']

[Above: Adolf Hitler's spectacular desk in The New Reich Chancellery (Die Neue Reichskanzlei). Of special note are the three panels on the desk (from left to right):
Athena/Minerva, Ares/Mars (Athena's brother) and Medusa (whose head was given to Athena by the hero Perseus and was then added to the magnificent Aegis armor. This beautiful work was done by Hermann Kaspar (April 19, 1904 - August 2, 1986). Kaspar was a respected German designer, painter, university professor and also a close friend of Albert Speer. He also designed the mosaics, frescoes, floors, friezes and wood inlays for the New Reich Chancellery. In 1969 Speer wrote in his 'Memoirs' that Adolf Hitler was very pleased with the desk inlay...]

[Above: Close-up of the desk panels.]

[Above: Here is a view of the desk from the other side.]

[Above: This postcard is from 1934 and done by Richard Klein.]

[Above: 'Absolvia - Damenstift 1937'. This is a school student organization graduation postcard.]

[Above: This is a 1935 catalogue of artists works celebrated on the 'Day of German Art'.]

[Above: This is a 1936 catalogue of artists works celebrated on the 'Day of German Art'.]

[Above: This postcard is from 1937 celebrating the 'Day of German Art'. Click on the image to see the stamp and cancel commemorating the event.]

[Above: This postcard is from 1938 celebrating the 'Day of German Art'.]

[Above: This is the poster version from 1938 celebrating the 'Day of German Art'.]

[Above: This postcard commemorates a 1939 summer rally in Munich. The artist is Gottfried Klein.]

[Above: 1937 poster celebrating the opening of the 'Akademie für Angewandte Kunst' (Academy of Applied Arts).]

[Above: Day of German Culture machine cancel on envelope from July 1937.]

[Above: Day of German Culture cancel on envelope from July 8-10, 1938.]

[Above: Day of German Culture cancel on envelope from July 14-16, 1939.]

[Above: A rare round cancel variation for the Day of German Culture from July 16-18, 1937.]

[Above: Postal cancel honoring the Day of German Art showing Athena from July 16, 1939.]

[Above: Zinc tinnie from 1939 using the same design as the cancel above.]

[Above: This is a 1939 House of German Art folio containing a variety of beautiful German art. Paintings, sculptures and drawings, all very high quality and ready to frame.]

[Above: This is a 1943 House of German Art folio containing a variety of beautiful German art. Paintings, sculptures and drawings, all very high quality and ready to frame.]

[Above: The 1941 edition of the book being presented to Heinrich Himmler.]

• Click here to see other issues and a few examples of the featured art

[Above: House of German Art exhibition catalogs from 1941 and 1943.]

[Above: Advertisement found in the back of the 1941 catalog above. It says:
'Die Kunst im Deutschen Reich
Die führende Kunstzeitschrift
Diese repräsentative Monatsschrift in Großformat gibt Aufschluß über das nationalsozialistische Kunstwollen,
pflegt gute deutsche und artverwandte Tradition und bringt Kunstwerke von höchstem Wert'

(The Art of the German Reich
The leading art magazine
This representative monthly magazine in large format provides information on the National Socialist art movement,
cultivates good German and related tradition, and presents works of art of the highest value).]

[Above: Two tinnies from 1933 & 1937.]

[Above: 1939 House of German Art advertising brochure. Click to see more.]

[Above: House of German Art silverware. From the top we see a dinner fork, an ice cream spoon and a dessert fork. These were used in the two restaurants within the House of German Art. Click to see more.]

[Above: House of German Art silverware. Close-up.]

[Above: House of German Art restaurant. It says:
'Die Gaststätten des Hauses der Deutschen Kunst - Das vornehm-behagliche Restaurant mit Freiterrasse - Das Bierstüberl im Untergeschoß'
(The restaurants of the House of German Art - The cozy restaurant with outdoor terrace - Bierstüberl {like a beer garden or bar} in the basement).]

[Above: This book celebrates 2000 years of German culture. It basically says: 'Pageant on the Day of German Culture in Munich 1939']

[Above: This picture, from the book above, shows Athena's head, carried in a parade procession on the Day of German Art in Munich.]

[Above: Photograph showing Athena's head, very similar to the illustration above, carried in a parade procession on the Day of German Art in Munich, 1939.]

[Above: Parade for the Day of German Art, Munich, 1939.]

[Above: Day of German Culture parade, circa 1933.]

[Above: Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy) festival. Another Athena head.]

[Above: Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy) festival. Another Athena head.]

[Above: Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy) festival. Yet another Athena head.]

[Above: Illustration of Athena from a period German book.]

• Click here to see more images of National Socialist festivals

[Above: 1936 Olympic Games Commemorative Medal featuring the image of Athena. The front of the medal is the image of Athena.]

[Above: SS Allach porcelain book showing Athena figure.]

[Above: SS Allach porcelain Athena figure.]

[Above: German National Prize for Arts and Sciences, President's Neck Badge. A beautiful piece bearing the image of Athena. This is the front of the badge.]

[Above: This is the reverse of the badge. It says: 'Für Kunst und Wissenschaft' (For Art and Science)]

[Above: German National Prize for Arts and Sciences in gold and platinum and set with diamonds (dress copy). Another beautiful piece bearing the image of Athena.]

Many other medals and the like were inscribed with the holy image of Athena. Here's a description of one from the Academy of Art of Munich:

'The Academy of Art of Munich gave Hitler a golden medal. On the front was the head of Pallas Athena. The back featured Pegasus. The medal carried the following inscription: 'To the leader of the German people, Adolf Hitler, who has put national thought in the center of our spiritual life and who has rendered back to art it's old rights. His prophetic plans have given art its own task, to be the language of the people.'
-Art of the Third Reich, by Peter Adam, pg. 115, (c)1992

[Above: Music Festival, Munich 1937.]

[Above: A late-war 16mm German Red Cross film with the image of Athena.]

[Above: 1938 Munich magazine 'Jugend' (Youth).]

[Above: Preparing to raise the flag under the shadow of the Acropolis. Circa 1941.]

[Above: The flag of freedom raised under the shadow of the Acropolis in Greece, circa 1941.]

[Above: The flag of freedom raised under the shadow of the Acropolis in Greece, circa 1941.]

[Above: The flag of freedom raised under the shadow of the Acropolis in Greece, circa 1941.]

[Above: Athena statue seen over Brussel's city hall.]

• Click here to see more pictures of Germans in Greece

[Below: Although the next postcards are not from the Third Reich era, we thought we'd include them anyway because they bear Athena's image.]

[Above: Athena on a postage stamp for an event in Dresden, circa 1925.]

[Above: Athena is seen on this post card from Munich, circa 1901.]

[Above: Athena is shown here on a war exhibition postcard from Hamburg, WWI era.]

[Above: These are postal vignettes bearing Athena's image from a 1913 photography exhibition held in Frankfurt, Germany.]

[Above: This is a WWI era German postcard.]

[Above: An ancient image of Athena with her dress covered in swastikas.]

[Above: Merit badge of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science. This class is bronze, there is also gold.]

[Above: 'Pallas Athena' on canvas, done in 1898 by Austrian/German artist Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918).]

[Above: 'Pallas Athena' on panel, also done in 1898, by German artist Franz von Stuck (February 23, 1863 – August 30, 1928).]

[Above: 'Pallas Athena, Venus and Juno' painted in 1593 by German artist Hans von Aachen (1552 – March 4, 1615).]

[Above: 'Götter' painted in 1901 by Franz Stassen.]

[Above: Beautiful original 1897 Athena lithograph 'Kunst-Ausstellung' by Franz Stuck. Click to see full image.]

[Above: I think this is some sort of table medal, or award. It has a gorgeous rendition of Athena. This was purchased from Italy, but who knows its origin? It must be pretty old, this new world could never produce something so beautiful.]