Don't miss the Nazi era Julius Meinl company history and other Third Reich company magazines (Ford, Siemens, Bayer) for sale on USMBOOKS.com.

This very rare bound collection of Third Reich Julius Meinl company magazines is **SOLD** + postage (see below).

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This lot consists of a large hardbound book measuring 8-1/4 x 11-3/4 inches by 1-1/2 inches thick! It contains bound, heavily illustrated examples of the magazine Meinl Rundpost, from the first issue in November 1940 through the 50th issue dated November / December 1944 as well as a few issues of company's previous magazine Im Zeichen des Mohren (Under the Sign of the Moors). We don't know if the run of the World War II issues is complete or not, but we suspect it is as we can't find anything torn out, defaced or missing.

The Julius Meinl family had a very long and successful history from its early days in Wien (Vienna, the second largest city in Hitler's Greater Germany) as an importer and distributor of coffee, tea and other items. The prestigious company grew into the largest retail packaged grocery concern in eastern Europe and ultimately it had branches from Hamburg to Bucharest and Trieste to Warsaw. The Meinl family was Jewish but the company prospered under the Nazis with Julius Meinl II at the helm, expanding its retail reach, providing many company employees for the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS, and supplying food stuff to the government and armed forces of Grossdeutschland.

There is a great deal of information on the internet about the Meinl company, and some about the family, but a dirth of information about the Meinl family or company during the Third Reich when 99% of the voters of the country of Austria voted for the country to become a part of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany. It did.

There is not the slightest doubt when examining these Meinl company house-organs or in-house magazines that the management of the company was extremely pro-government, pro-German, pro-Nazi and very much caught up in the euphoria that consumed the rest of Nazi Germany at the time. The Meinl ship logo used as a masthead at the top of the front page of the Meinl Rundpost (Meinl Company News) has a swastika surrounded by the cogged wheel of the Nazi DAF. The first war death reported in the first issue of the Meinl Rundpost in November 1940 was that of SS-Rottenführer Alfred Lippmann who worked for the Meinl company on Adolf Hitler Platz in the city of Graz, and fell on the "Field of Honor" for his Führer, Nation and Homeland. The same issue shows Hitler Youth members along with Betriebsjugendwalterin Berta Wallner, a report from the NSKK Motorsturm 5/M94 in the factory, etc. Each of the many company reports ends with "Heil Hitler!"

Subsequent issues of the Julius Meinl company magazine Meinl Rundpost contain interesting stories about what went on in the grocery business, but far more information about who from the company was in the Wehrmacht, and who died where in service to the German Reich. In some issues there are historic details of the founding of the company in the town of Eger by Julius Meinl Sr., the father of the CEO during the Third Reich. Many pictures contain swastika backgrounds, pictures of Nazi company awards, etc.

As World War II progressed and Julius Meinl AG expanded, there were more and more photos of employees who had gone off to war and employees who had been killed in the service of the government of Germany. There are issues of the magazine with Hitler on the cover and glowing articles about the man and his National Socialist regime. The NSKK Motorsturm collected money for the Day of German Police in their specially arranged truck with swastika flags covering the top and a huge collection can in the back (photo right).

Some issues have pictures of soldiers on the cover and most have photos of what was going on at the various Meinl locations all over Europe. There are photos and stories of Nazi sport days for Meinl employees, KdF trips for the employees and maps of targets like England, to keep the employees up to date with what was going on in the war.

A special section in many of the magazines is one on the personal profile and heroic deeds of Meinl employees who won the Iron Cross. Some soldiers sent photos from the front for use in the Meinl Rundpost. As employee deaths in combat continued to increase there were full pages of photos of the dead inside of black borders. By March of 1942 the Meinl Rundpost ran a feature of the Symbols of Loyalty - the War Medals and Decorations of Greater Germany. Pictures of Meinl employees who gave their lives in combat for the Führer and the Nation included members of the Luftwaffe, the Kriegsmarine, the SS and the Army.   By August of 1942 there were very comprehensive photo features about Julius Meinl I and the presence of his son Julius Meinl II at the celebrations for the 80th anniversary of the company.

The covers of the magazine became very patriotic and articles featured the Julius Meinl company Luftschutz battalions and their fire protection equipment. There was a celebration of five years as part of Hitler's Greater Germany, and a cover shot of Braunau am Inn (the birth place of Adolf Hitler). There are photo articles about the Meinl company operations in Berlin, operations in the East, and company outlets in Belgrade.

Issues of the company magazine became less frequent in 1944 covering two or three months each. The quality of the paper was poorer, the stories less positive and the general tone of the Meinl Rundpost had little to do with the success of the business and far more to do with the problems in a war-torn country where most of the men were at the front fighting for their very existence.

Make no mistake, this is extremely important historical material supplemented with lots and lots of photographic images that can't be found anywhere else. It presents a near-perfect picture of the euphoria and success within a large Julius Meinl family company in parallel with the success of Nazi military action in the field. As German military successes waned, the Meinl company felt those effects throughout every level of the enterprise.

This 70+ year old material tells a story that isn't told elsewhere. Many of the English and German language websites we looked at concerning the Julius Meinl company don't even mention the years from 1938 to 1945. They simply avoid it entirely. There are few photos on the internet; there are no reports about the pro-Nazi activities within the Meinl company or the war-time profits and expansion of the company. Just try to find any of that anywhere! 

The Julius Meinl company has transformed itself many times since the end of World War II, and it is still in business, apparently very successful and still has a beautiful retail store at one of the fanciest addresses in the world - 19 Graben at the end of the pedestrian zone in downtown Vienna (photo below). It has expanded into many other businesses, including banking (photo left).

These original Third Reich issues of Meinl Rundpost, bound in hard covers are in very good used condition and may be unique.