בידספיריט | Adolf Hitler Propaganda Postcard

Adolf Hitler Propaganda Postcard - A period real-photo postcard bearing the printed caption ”Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler” beneath a half-length portrait, produced by Photo-Hoffmann, Muenchen, Theresienstr. 74, as noted in the small imprint. The reverse carries a franked stamp and two special commemorative postmarks for Wien, dated 20 April 1938 and 10 April 1938, referencing ”Des Fuehrers Geburtstag” (the Fuehrer's birthday) and the plebiscite slogan ”Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuehrer.” These postmarks correspond to the April 1938 Austrian plebiscite on the Anschluss and Hitler's birthday commemorations, tying the card to specific propaganda events staged in Vienna that year. This postcard relates to two closely linked propaganda events of April 1938: Hitler's 49th birthday on 20 April, marked annually with mass celebration under the NSDAP, and the plebiscite of 10 April 1938 held to retroactively legitimise the Anschluss, Germany's annexation of Austria the previous month. The commemorative Vienna postmarks and the slogan ”Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuehrer” were part of the coordinated campaign to present the annexation as an overwhelmingly popular act of national unification, in which the vote was conducted under conditions of intimidation and one-sided state control. The image itself derives from Heinrich Hoffmann's Munich studio, which served as Hitler's official photographer and the principal source of his public portraiture throughout the Nazi era.