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The first carnival in Vienna since Austria became part of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany (and Vienna became its second largest city) was a big event. This is a 83 year old program booklet published by the Vienna Tourist Office for people who wanted to participate in the “First Great Carnival Parade” in Vienna on Sunday 19 February 1939.

Erster Großer Karnevalszug in Wien am Faschingsonntag, dem 19. Februar 1939 unter der Devise von A bis Z, is the official program which lists the designers who participated in making floats (similar to the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, California) and costumes and lists the songs to be sung by the different musical groups that participated in the parade (29 total).

Along the 6 kilometer parade route bleachers were set up for spectators. Tickets were available for purchase at theater box offices prior to the parade and the ticket price depended on row and location along the Karnevalzug (carnival “train” literally). This program also lists the locations where First Aid stations were set up along the carnival parade route.

This rare original 4-¾ x 8 inch, 32-page Third Reich carnival parade program is in very good condition and still has the orange Wiener Verkehrsverein seal on the open edge. It is complete and has no offensive odor. Unusual Third Reich ephemera!

While most songs were funny, some are quite anti-Jewish and political in tone. Page 22 has the lyrics of a song about Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) of “the Jewish Years”, page 24 has a song about “The New Era” and contains anti-Jewish and anti-Communist lyrics and page 28 has a song with the title “Axis Rome-Berlin via Vienna”.

The carnival parade started at 13:00 on the big Heldenplatz (Heroes Square) in central Wien where less than a year earlier Hitler spoke to hundreds of thousands of admirers as “Führer and Chancellor of the German Nation and the Reich”.

A period illustration of the festive carnival parade on 19 February 1939 with the Stephansdom or St. Stephen's Cathedral in the background. (for reference only)