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This is a very nice original hardcover 1938 First Edition of Finanzkatastrophen und Spekulanten (Financial Catastrophes and Speculators) by Anton Mayer.

It comes with a tipped-in presentation page with a Nazi eagle and swastika at the top showing it was given as a Christmas gift in 1940 by a Nazi Kreisleiter to a loyal employee. The presentation page is hand-signed in blue ink by the Kreisleiter.

The well-illustrated Finanzkatastrophen und Spekulanten shines light on a series of financial catastrophes over several centuries due to speculation in Holland, France, England, Italy and the United States. It shows how speculators took advantage of the credulous masses pursuing their own self-interest. Subjects covered are railroads in England, tulip mania in Holland, New York real estate, currency counterfeiters, financing the Panama Canal and more.

In the foreword, the author explains he wrote the book as a result of the terrible financial situation in Germany after World War I that saw inflation destroy German national wealth. By showing historical examples of speculation he hoped to inform the reader how to avoid future financial debacles, on a personal and national level. Interspersed in the text are 20 pages of photos printed on glossy paper.

Author Anton Mayer was the son of a bank director who after service in World War I studied art history and received his doctorate at the University of Halle. He became a museum director and art and music critic in Berlin. Inflation in Germany in the 1920s caused financial hardships and forced him to become a full-time literary editor and author. In 1937 he became a member of the Reichsschrifttumskammer of the RKK, with special permission as he was considered a Mischling (the Nazi-era classification of people of partial Jewish descent under the Nuremberg Race Laws). Anton Mayer died in December 1944 in the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg, a sub-camp of the Konzentrationslager Sachsenhausen.

This 6 x 8-¾ inch, 292-page example of Finanzkatastrophen und Spekulanten was published by Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag of Leipzig in 1938. It has a nice orange linen hardcover with black blocking on the front cover and spine and comes with its original dust jacket. It has no offensive odor.

We think that an interesting part of the fun of buying this book would be for the buyer to do an internet search to find the identity of the NSDAP Kreisleiter that presented it! We did not have the time to do it but the Kreisleiter may have become a very well-known man after this book was presented in 1940, greatly increasing the book’s value.