Most cities in Greater Germany had a variety of publications from phone directories to business handbooks that provided commercial and other pertinent information about the population and the infrastructure. In a city like Berlin the material would be found in four of five different books. In Greater Germany’s second largest city Wien (Vienna), there was a different tradition - that sort of information had for decades been found in large, single volumes called the Hand Book of Vienna.

The book opens with a Hoffmann portrait of Adolf Hitler under transparent spiderweb paper followed by the title page with a large, somewhat unusual Nazi eagle and swastika at the top. The back of the title page is also unusual in that it says the book was “Printed in Germania”. There follows a second portrait, a great one of Baldur von Schirach (Gauleiter of Vienna) facing a statement by him about the value of the Handbuch des Reichsgaues Wien and the information contained in it.

The first information in this Handbuch des Reichsgaues Wien is a completely detailed list of every office of the Nazi Party and its paramilitary organizations (SS, HJ, BdM, RAD, DAF, NSFK, NSKK, NSV, Mutter und Kind, etc.) and every Ortsgruppe in each of the ten Kreise of Gau Wien. As an example under the category of SS-Oberabschnitt Donau it shows that the address of the Administrative Office was Parkring 8 and that SS-Obergruppenführer and Nazi Party member Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner was the Stabsführer. It then lists SS-Oberführer and Nazi Party member Konstantin Kammerhofer as the Standortführer, SS-Standartenführer and Nazi Party member Rupert Pinter as the Führer of SS-Standarte 89 and SS-Standartenführer and Nazi Party member Helmut Breymann as the SS-Sturmbannführer of SS-Standarte 11. There are phone numbers and addresses for these last three men. Each and every office of every person involved is shown in the same way.

There is then a huge section on the Reichsstatthalter, the highest civil authority of the Gau, a post also held by Baldur von Schirach. There is a day-by-day chronical of the Nazi period in Vienna from 1938 through 1940, as well as sections on education and educational institutions, even sections on the hundreds and hundreds of street bridges in the city, buildings that belonged to the city, etc. Every apartment building is listed as well as information on taxes, streets, parks, parking lots, street car stops, bus lines, cemeteries, etc., etc., etc. - a real city directory.

This 1941 Handbuch des Reichsgaues Wien also contains great period advertising from companies such as Mauser, KdF, Berndorf, Arthur Krupp, Saurer, Opel, Fischer ball bearings, miscellaneous hotels and insurance companies, RZM representatives selling military accessories, Heller Chocolate, Schwechater Bier, and lighting company Georg Münnich that markets itself as an “Aryan business” (shown right).

This would be a perfect book for someone writing a novel set in the city of Vienna during its Nazi period from 1938 through 1945 as every aspect of the infrastructure is covered in detail. It is also a valuable book for its huge Nazi content alone, and would be invaluable to anyone researching the Third Reich, the Holocaust, etc.

It is doubtful that you will ever see another one offered for sale. It is complete, in nice used condition.

This rare, original 7-pound 1941 Handbook of Vienna is offered for sale for $299.00 plus postage (details below). USM book #312

• Add $14.75 for Priority Mail shipping with USPS Tracking OR $6.95 for Media Mail.

• IF you wish to purchase highly recommended, but optional insurance, add $4.75.

• We will be happy to ship abroad at additional cost, however foreign customers are      responsible for any VAT payments, import duties & customs clearing fees. Please inquire.

Also for sale on USMBOOKS.com, the German Youth publication for Viennese high school students starting a new portion of their life as part of “the mighty army
of productive members of Greater German society.