Third Reich propaganda in collectible cigarette cards: set of 50x minature (63 x 48mm) photographic collector cards ...

Third Reich propaganda in collectible cigarette cards: set of 50x minature (63 x 48mm) photographic collector cards of the series called "Hitler's Path to Greater Germany", published by the Austria Tabakwerke company, circa. February 1940. The series uses the then-recent annexation of Austria into the Third Reich (March 1938) to draw the collector into the notion that Austria was liberated by Nazi Germany and returned to the German fold.

The cards here include images of Hitler in his childhood; Hitler, Goebbels, Arthur Seyss-Inquart and other figures; political/military events of the the 1920s & 1930s & more. The cards were distributed solely on the Austrian market, in packets of a popular cigarette brand called 'Korso'. The cards were distributed inside the cigarette packages and were to be mounted in a large, long, elaborate collectors book, obtainable for 1 Reichsmark at tabacconists, called 'Wie die Ostmark ihre Befreiung Erlebte' ("How the Eastmark [Austria's name after the Anschluss] experienced its liberation"). The book featured a multicolored cardboard cover and contained 96 pages of text and space for the 312 cards issued in the series to be pasted in - the cards in this lot have not been pasted; most are in good, preserved condition; a few have creases and scuffs. The book was anonymously written and organized into 14 chapters based loosely on Hitler's biography and rise to power.

A researcher of this subject writes that Hitler's personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffman, edited the images (a few also look doctored). The production was short-lived as on 1 May 1942, the production of cigarette cards was discontinued due to wartime paper shortages.