Here, my Leader, is my Grandchild Cigarette card photo of Hitler greeting a young girl and her grandfather
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 4.750 inches (12.065 cm) | Width: 3.250 inches (8.255 cm)
Creator(s)
- Cigaretten-Bilderdienst, Gm.b.H. (Publisher)
- Heinrich Hoffmann (Photographer)
Biographical History
Heinrich Hoffmann (1885-1957) was a German photographer and Nazi propagandist. The son and nephew of photographers, he worked in the Hoppé studio in London before setting up in Munich as a portraitist and photojournalist. His photograph of cheering crowds on 2 August 1914 unwittingly captured the young Adolf Hitler, an event which would later benefit Hoffmann's career. Drifting to the far right after the First World War and revolutionary events in Bavaria, he joined the Nazi Party in 1920 and convinced an initially camera-shy Hitler of photography's political value. Hoffman’s assistant, Eva Braun, became Hitler’s mistress in 1930. After 1933, his virtual monopoly of Hitler photographs, as ‘the man who sees the Führer for us’, made him one of the Third Reich's major profiteers. His scenes of carefully constructed intimacy, presenting his master, especially in the regime's early years, as a clean-living, nature-loving man of the people, were massively disseminated. After 1945, though claiming to have been a mere chronicler of events, he was fined and imprisoned. His extensive photo archive survives, including photographs of German political and religious figures, as well as actors, painters, and musicians.
Archival History
The cigarette card was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2012 by Martin Shallow III.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Martin Shallow III
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
Cigarette card, Hier, mein Fuhrer, ist mein Enkelkind, from series 15, ADOLF HITLER - Bilder aus dem Leben des Führers [Adolf Hitler - Pictures of the Life of the Führer), card 57, from group 64, sereis 15, about 1936. The card features a black and white photograph of an older man presenting his young granddaughter to Adolf Hitler. Cigarette cards were a popular collectible item in Germany beginning about 1920. Large albums with text, but no pictures, were published for each series and the cards were collected to be added as illustrations. The album for this series has text and photo captions that tell the story of Hitler's life from birth in 1899, to his 1933 appointment as Chancellor, and then Fuhrer of Germany.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Small, rectangular paper card with a halftone photographic print with white borders treated to look like a glossy photograph. It depicts Adolf Hitler in a plain suit with a Reichsadler lapel pin, seated with his face turned right and his right arm extended to touch the chin of a young girl with long, blonde braids, wearing a checked shirt. An elderly man stands behind the girl with his hands on her shoulders, looking down at her and smiling. The head of a man in a Nazi uniform is in the upper left and there are leafy trees and a distant mountain in the background. The back of the card records the title, picture and group number, with a paragraph of German fraktur text.
People
- Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945--Pictorial works.
Corporate Bodies
- Nazi Party
Subjects
- Cigarette cards--Germany.
- Heads of state--Germany--Pictorial works.
Genre
- Information Forms
- Object