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As most collectors are aware, during the Third Reich the country of Germany was divided into 42 Gaue or administrative districts, each headed by a Gauleiter. Many don't know that there was a 43rd Gau - GERMANS LIVING ABROAD - under the watchful eye of the Auslands-Organisations der NSDAP or AO and its Gauleiter Ernst Wilhelm Bohle. The organization was created by Adolf Hitler to spread the Nazi gospel to and through foreign Germans and ethnic Germans living anywhere in the world outside Grossdeutschland, as well as Nazi Party members working at sea who spent more than 6 months per year away from Germany. Its headquarters was in the city of Stuttgart which was officially called die Stadt der Auslanddeutschen or "City of Germans from Abroad" during the Third Reich.

Offered on this USMBOOKS web page is nice 6 x 8-1/2 inch, 416-page hardcover example of the Jahrbuch der Auslands-Organisation der NSDAP 1940. The heavily illustrated hardcover book examines matters related to German commerce, culture, colonies, education, celebrations, congresses, economics, technology, Reichsautobahn, youth, film, manufacturing, and Germanic populations outside Grossdeutschland, or Adolf Hitler's Greater Germany. The 1940 AO Yearbook was the last year that it was published in one volume. From 1941 onward, two volumes were published, Band II covering matters concerning the German Merchant Navy.

After a foreword by AO Gauleiter Bohle, the book is filled with stories, data and photographs of important people and events. This 1940 AO yearbook contains articles about the the end of the Treaty of Versailles, Wehrmacht in Poland, NS-Frauenschaft, WHW charity collection results, special homes set up for ethnic Germans returning to the Reich, German farmers, the independent spirit of Germans abroad (including AO members in Baltimore), the economic successes of the Nazi Four Year Plan, even illustrated articles by Generalbauinspektor Albert Speer (about large National Socialist building projects) and by Dr. Ing. Fritz Todt (about the importance of expanding the German road network).

There are full-page portrait photos of Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess and Gauleiter Bohle, as well as rare photos of Adolf Hitler in Prague with Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich, Hitler with Hermann Göring, architectural models for big Nazi building projects, Reichsfrauenführerin Getrud Scholtz-Klink, the German war industry, harvest celebrations in Batavia, etc.

This 1940 AO yearbook contains many, many pages of excellent illustrated advertising from German firms such as Junkers, Steyr, Telefunken, Shell, Neophan sunglasses, Sauer, Deutsche Bank, Hohner harmonicas, IG Farben, Mercedes-Benz, Henschel, Opel, Focke-Wulf, Junkers, AEG, DWM, Famo and Lanz tractors, Hensoldt binoculars, Auto-Union, Sauer rifles, banks, insurance companies and tourist destinations.

This 1940 hardcover Jahrbuch der Auslands-Organisation der NSDAP is complete and in used condition with the red Ex-Libris stamp of a previous owner on the title page and subsequent page. The cover shows wear, but the internal pages are in nice used condition. No offensive odor. Condition is reflected in the price.