The images and the entire text used on this and all other USMBOOKS web pages are the copyrighted property of USM Inc.  Those images and the text may be used by others ONLY AFTER completion of a formal international licensing agreement and payment of a licensing fee! It is therefore, illegal for anyone to take any of the material found on USMBOOKS.com and use it for their own purposes without our written permission, irrespective of any excuse they may feel they have for doing so.

The magazine offered here is a 1939 example of the Third Reich international magazine Freude und Arbeit (Joy and Labor - Gioia e Lavoro - Alegria y Trabajo - Joie et Travail) published by Nazi Organization Leader Dr. Robert Ley for distribution around the world.

For a comprehensive overview of both Dr. Ley and his magazine Freude und Arbeit see additional background information at the bottom of this USMBOOKS web page. *

Other heavily illustrated features cover the visit of Italian Minister of Corporations Dr. Ferruccio Lantini and Dr. Ley showing him Adolf Hitler’s new Germany, the Christmas celebrations hosted by Dr. Frick and Reichsleiter Philipp Bouhler in Berlin, the 10th anniversary of Heinrich Himmler as Reichsführer-SS, Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg (“Creator of the Myth of the 20th Century”), the December 1938 labor meeting of the International Central Agency Freude und Arbeit in Berlin, the plight of the local population in “Red Spain”, the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth II, art and agriculture in Bulgaria, a special exposition at the Palace of Versailles about 17th century art in France, modern Portugal, children from the Sudetenland during a Christmas visit to Berlin, the official visit of Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop to Paris, Nazi Minister for Economic Affairs Walther Funk, social services provide by the welfare organization Bonvoisin in France, the highly positive opinion of the Italian press of Dr. Robert Ley’s new book Mann an der Fahne, the new Polish Embassy in Berlin, Captain Heinrich Falkenbach, the new commander of the KdF cruise ship Robert Ley, carnival celebration in Vienna, etc.

The Freude und Arbeit magazine we offer here is the heavily illustrated 120-page Issue 1 of Year 4 or 1939. Behind a colorful big 10-½ x 14-½ inch cover the magazine opens with the famous highly-detailed color painting of Generalfeldmarschall Hermann Göring with his marshal’s baton and Blue Max medal by Klaus Kühl.

The portrait is followed by an interview with Hermann Göring who was celebrating his birthday on 12 January. The interview was conducted by (SS-Oberführer Ministerialdirigent) Dr. Erich Gritzbach who was responsible for assembling the material for the new book Hermann Göring Reden und Aufsätze (Hermann Göring - Speeches and Magazine Articles) which is mentioned in this magazine article. This January 1939 issue of Freude und Arbeit also contains a double-page spread with photos of Göring’s country estate Carinhall, on the Schorfheide north of Berlin, shown at the top of this USMBOOKS web page.

Few people know it but World War I flying veteran and close friend of Adolf Hitler, Dr. Robert Ley was the genius behind most of the organization of the Nazi Party. As Reichs Organization Leader from 1931 onward, he was responsible for the publication of the Organisationsbuch der NSDAP, which outlined how every Nazi paramilitary unit from the SS to the Hitler Youth was organized, what uniforms they wore and what their mission was.

As Reichsleiter of the DAF he built the Ordensburg Castles at Vogelsang, Crössensee and Sonthofen. He built the towns and factories that produced everything from Volkswagens to tanks and airplanes to ships and plywood. He oversaw every laborer that worked on the Reichsautobahn.

The part played by Dr. Ley in organizing the rag-tag political party Hitler dreamed up, is without parallel and is poorly reported on or understood today. The NSDAP could not have existed without Dr. Ley, and no one should attempt to discuss, write, or lecture on the subject of Nazi Germany without first gaining a good grounding with regard to Dr. Ley. It is absolutely fundamental to any understanding of the Nazi Party, or any aspect of the history of the country of Germany from 1920 to the present day.

An understanding of Ley’s renown outside of Germany may be gotten from the fact that at the World Congress for Leisure Time and Recreation in Hamburg, Germany in 1936 Dr. Robert Ley was elected President. This was not a German organization but an international organization of 51 independent countries. Ley used his position in the World Congress for Leisure Time and Recreation to create an Internationale Zentralbüro Freude und Arbeit (International Headquarters of Joy and Work) which in turn published a huge, beautiful, multi-lingual 10-1/2 x 14-1/2 inch, magazine called Freude und Arbeit (Joy and Labor - Gioia e Lavoro - Alegria y Trabajo - Joie et Travail).

Shown left is a page from this 1939 Freude und Arbeit magazine with portraits of General der Flieger Karl Bodenschatz, the WWI aviator who would become the liaison officer between Hermann Göring and Adolf Hitler in World War II and Paul Körner, the State Secretary of both the Prussian State Ministry and the Four Year [Economic] Plan). Note the Nazi Forestry uniform Körner is wearing in the bottom picture.

Nearly every issue of Freude und Arbeit magazine has a portrait of the wife or family of a high-ranking Nazi government official. This issue features Helene “Heli” Bouhler, the wife of Reichsleiter Philipp Bouhler (shown below) who was Chef of Hitler’s Reichschancellery as well as the Chairman of the Commission for the Protection of National Socialist Literature (Chef der Kanzlei des Führers und Vorsitzender der Parteiamtlichen Prüfungskommission zum Schutze des NS-Schrifttums). Mrs. Bouhler (shown left) was nicknamed the “most beautiful woman at the Reichschancellery”.

This 1939 issue of Freude und Arbeit has consumer advertising from Reemtsma cigarettes, the Winter-Garten nightclub in Berlin, Philips lightbulbs, Awag and Karstadt department store, Afifa film products, Telefunken and Blaupunkt radios, Mauser guns, Westfalia DAF Schönheit der Arbeit approved tableware (shown below), Wanderer typewriters, Junghans clocks, Bayer, and the back cover has the stunning Klokien advertising poster for the 1939 International Autobomile and Motorcycle Exhibition in Berlin.

Many of the captions and articles in Freude und Arbeit are in English as well as in German, French, Italian and Dutch, depending on the subject. This fine 85 year old Third Reich magazine is complete and in very good used condition. It has no offensive odor.

* THE BACKGROUND OF DR. LEY AND THE MAGAZINE FREUDE UND ARBEIT

Several letters of praise for the Joy and Labor organization are reproduced, one from a hotel operator in Sudetenland and another from a language teacher in France, for example.