Selling under the swastika : advertising and commercial culture in Nazi Germany

341 Pages·2014·14.95 MB·English

by  Swett

Stanford University Press Stanford, California
©2014 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system
without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Swett, Pamela E., author.
Selling under the swastika : advertising and commercial culture in Nazi Germany / Pamela E. Swett.
pages cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8047-7355-3 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Advertising—Germany—History—20th century. 2.
Advertising—Political aspects—Germany—History—20th century. 3. Germany—History—1933–
1945. I. Title.
HF5813.G4S94 2013
659.10943'09043—dc23
2013021445
ISBN 978-0-8047-8883-0 (electronic)
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper Typeset at Stanford University
Press in 10/13 Galliard
SELLING UNDER THE
Swastika
ADVERTISING AND COMMERCIAL CULTURE IN
NAZI GERMANY
Pamela E. Swett
STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Stanford, California
For Matt
Yb
Acknowledgments
Throughout the research and writing of this book, I have often looked forward to
this moment. It is very satisfying to be able to thank all those who helped me
arrive at this point. Let me begin with the institutions and individuals that made
the research possible. The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress was
the first institution to support this project; I am particularly grateful for their
early interest. The Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada
provided me with three years of research funding, including one term of teaching
release. This generous grant covered numerous forays into the archives and
provided some uninterrupted time to write, a precious commodity indeed. The
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation also provided welcome funds for two
research stays in Germany and should be commended for recognizing the desire
of scholars to have their families with them while abroad. Among the many
archivists who helped push this project toward completion, special thanks are
owed to Petra Secunde (Daimler), Sonja Nilson (Henkel), Thorsten Finke
(Beiersdorf), and Birgit Nachtwey (Bahlsen). Dr. Henrich Hunke was also kind
enough to welcome me into his home and share his personal collection of his
father’s writings. I very much appreciated his openness and hospitality.
McMaster University, my institutional home, and its Arts Research Board also
deserve thanks for supporting this project financially as well as for offering a
stimulating environment in which to work. Not least of the perks of being on
faculty at McMaster is the ability to access the McMaster Children’s Centre. The
staff at the Centre has been a part of my family’s life for more than a decade and
has contributed in important ways to any success I have enjoyed.
Thanks also goes to those who invited me to present my research over the last
few years, including Hartmut Berghoff of the German Historical Institute,
Washington, DC; Peter C. Caldwell of Rice University; Till van Rahden,
Université de Montreal; Thomas Schaarschmidt of the Zentrum für
Zeithistorische Forschung, Potsdam; and Annette Timm, University of Calgary.
My editor at Stanford, Norris Pope, was patient while I wrote and a pleasure to
work with through the production process. The two reviewers for the press were
equally collegial and suggested improvements that I readily incorporated. Tim
Mueller, Katrina Espanol-Miller, and Gerulf Hirt provided me with some key
technical assistance down the stretch. I thank them for their help. Wendy
Benedetti and Debbie Lobban also deserve mention for their administrative
skills, without which my job as department chair would be much more time
consuming.
I also owe much to those friends and colleagues whose wise counsel and
timely pep talks were instrumental in the completion of the project. At
McMaster, Stephen Heathorn and Martin Horn have been trusted friends for
many years and came to my rescue in a variety of ways during the writing of this
book. I am grateful to Justin Powell, who continues to provide me a most
welcoming home in Berlin. In addition, I must also thank Richard Bessel,
Belinda Davis, Peter Fritzsche, Jeff Hayton, Claudia Koonz, Lisa Heineman, and
Jonathan Wiesen for their input in discussions of this material. My deepest
gratitude goes to those who read whole sections of the manuscript: Frank Biess,
Paul Lerner, Corey Ross, and Jonathan Zatlin. Their criticism and enthusiasm
were invaluable. In the final inning H. V. Nelles willingly stepped up to the plate
and read the entire book. I am very lucky to know so many generous scholars.
Lastly, I thank my family. My boys, Jack, Nathaniel, and Paul, to my
continued bewilderment show an interest in my work that reminds me on a daily
basis of the connections between historical scholarship, teaching, and a healthy
civil society. Happily, my husband, Matt Leighninger, looks forward to time in
Berlin’s Staatsbibliothek as much as I do. He was probably less excited to edit
this manuscript, but he did so willingly nonetheless. I dedicate this book to him.
Contents
Abbreviations
Introduction
PART I: From Internationalism to “German Advertising”
1. Advertising in the Weimar Republic
2. Coordination from Above and Below
PART II: Branding for the Volksgemeinschaft
3. Advertising and the Everyday in Peacetime
4. Buyers and Sellers
PART III: Preparing for Victory and Surviving Defeat
5. Advertising in the First Half of the War
6. Ads amid Ashes
Notes
Works Cited
Index
Illustrations
1.1. Advertisement for ad space in the Nazi press
2.1. The boycott of Jewish businesses, April 1, 1933
2.2. Heinrich Hunke, 1935
2.3. Proper and improper femininity in advertisements
2.4. Advertisement with women smoking
2.5. Sex still sells in the illustrated press
2.6. New state advertising school on KuDamm in Berlin
2.7. Cooperative advertisement for barbers
3.1. Boys watching Henkel film outdoors
3.2. Dreaming of Henkel products
3.3. Publicity for Henkel’s whaling expedition
3.4. BMW Blätter image
3.5. Weimar-era Mercedes-Benz advertisement
3.6–7. Mercedes-Benz advertisements, mid-1930s
3.8. Osram image of city and country unified
3.9–10. Osram mimics Nazi propaganda
3.11. Osram campaign for “better light”
4.1–2. Siemens brochure images
4.3. Camelia in the illustrated press
4.4. Fear of infection, Bayer advertisement
4.5–6. Competing toothpaste ads from Chlorodont and Nivea
4.7. Entrepreneur as advertiser
4.8. Controversial Fewa advertisement
4.9. Caricature of untrustworthy salesmanship
4.10. Traveling salesman for Henkel walking above flooded streets
5.1. Adman standing strong in war
5.2–4. Advertisements to help Germans cope with war
5.5. Agfa and the separation of war
5.6. Humor in war
5.7–8. Nivea ads—normal life in abnormal times
5.9–10. Dr. Oetker recipes
5.11. Henkel on Hygiene
5.12. 1938 RVA washing primer which encourages the use of Persil
5.13. “Johanna is going—but she’ll be back”
5.14. Daimler-Benz stands behind the war
5.15. Henkel products on sale in the Sudetengau
5.16. Signal cover
5.17. Zeiss binoculars advertisement in Dutch
5.18. Reich lottery tickets
6.1. BMW merchandise
6.2. BMW wartime advertisements in multiple languages
6.3. BMW Blätter cover image
6.4. BMW French poster
6.5. Nivea canisters
6.6. Hansaplast on the home front
6.7. Bahlsen’s abstract aesthetic
6.8–9. Bahlsen packaging and classified, 1944
6.10–12. The hope for resurrection: Maggi, Bayer, and a soldier’s obituary
6.13. Nivea postwar advertisement
6.14. Mercedes-Benz and empire
Abbreviations
The following abbreviations are used in the text:
AFE
Working Association for the Advancement of the Electric-Economy
BFC
Böhme Fettchemie
BIZ
Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung
DAF
German Labor Front
DRV
German Advertising Association DW
Die Deutsche Werbung
GfK
Society for Consumer Research
JWT
J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency
NSDAP
National Socialist Party of Germany