Collection of 73 political flyers distributed during the 1919 and 1920 electoral campaigns in Bavaria
German Political Parties, 1919–1920. Hardcover. Variant sizes. Original printed flyers on different paper stock in various colors.
An extraordinary mirror of the political climate in Bavaria two years after the end of W.W.I exhibited in 52 letter size and 21 smaller size election flyers. The collection contains flyers of the following parties: Bayrische Volkspartei (6), Sozialdemokratische Partei (7), Bayrische Mittelpartei/Deutsche Volkspartei (12), Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei (2), Deutsche Demokratische Partei (2) Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (3), and NSDAP (1). Additional 19 flyers by special interest groups, newspapers, and government institutions issuing political messages, e.g. Munich's Police President on the assassination of the first Republican Premier Kurt Eisner, and 21 flyers issued by various militias (Wehren), citizens, and associations, etc., mostly with political statements but w/o direct party affiliation.
The tenor of all flyers reflects the extremely agitated atmosphere of the time warning the voters in drastic language to beware of corruption of the Hoffmann government and its followers on one hand, and of Bolshevism and Socialism as administered by the representatives of the Räterepublik on the other. The content of the flyers varies from patriotic and direct attempts to recruit soldiers for the military, respectively militias, in order to protect the Räterepublik, to educational and pseudo-educational bids to expose the "true" nature of the Räterepublik. The flyers often address a specific segment of the population, e.g. craftsmen, women and girls, or farmers, or announce specific events, e.g. the arrest of the Russian Eugen Levine, a member of the second Münchener Räterepublik, on May 13, 1919; he was executed on June 4, 1919.
Among the parties and institutions responsible for the distribution of the flyers are the Communist Party, the Bayrische Ordnungsblock, the Bayrische Volkspartei warning women and girls of radical leftist elements, the NSDAP, this with a specific anti Jewish message of a "Times" report about the enslavement of the peoples of the world under Jewish leadership, the Deutschnationale Volkspartei, the Bayer. Mittelstands-Partei (Bavarian Middle-Class Party) announcing that no Jews are members while belaboring the failure of the current government, Social Democrats, the German Citizen Association, and various government offices, the military and militias, all having grievances with the government or opposing parties, and/or attacking Jewish citizens, stock marketeers, communists and traitors. A flyer of the Deutsche Volkspartei (German People's Party) is printed by a Berlin publisher and depicts the virtues of the party in a Wilhelm Bush like style of caricatures in color and rhymes.
The 23 smaller size flyers include a government appeal to join the militia, an appeal to donate for Upper-Silesia as well as another flyer calling for a protest march denouncing the theft of Upper-Silesia. The collection includes a special issue by the "Bayrische Kurier" from June 24, 1920, on the General Strike in Germany (15 x 10"), and a red and black printed flyer by the German Democratic Party asserting "This is Election Swindle" (6 1/2 x 10 1/2"), but these flyers are generally held in the same tone as the larger size flyers. A few flyers are dated 1921 with relating mesages.
Text in German. The letter size flyer all have filing punch holes on the left side. There are small tears, chips, creasing and some age toning. One flyer with some staining due to water exposure. Few flyers are in fair, most of them in good to very good condition. fair to vg. Item #41592
Price: $3,750.00