27th January 1942
'Der Adler'

'Der Adler' (The Eagle)

Der Adler was the title of the propaganda illustrated magazine of the Luftwaffe of the German Reich. It was published by Scherl-Verlagin Berlin.

On 1st March 1939, the Reich Aviation Ministry had begun publishing a magazine specialising in the activities of the Luftwaffe, Der Adler. In terms of content, Der Adler relied heavily on material from the Reich Propaganda Ministry and was intended to inspire German youth to serve in the Wehrmacht. The 'Probeheft …-1939' was published as early as February 1939.

The Adler 's editor-in-chief was Georg Böse, and the editorial office was in Berlin-Charlottenburg. The Adler appeared every 14 days initially only in German; nevertheless, it was sold abroad right from the start. The issues were printed 'Price abroad 15 Pfg.' or 'Abroad 15 Rfg'. With No. 23-1940 (Setting No. 19-1944), a separate German-language foreign edition for European countries appeared for the first time with additional reports on civil and cultural life in Germany. At its peak, this version was published in the following countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Italy, Croatia, Norway, Protectorate, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkey, Hungary. Regardless, there were French, Italian, Romanian, Spanish and English language editions.

French editions: No. 14-1940 to No. 11-1941 as a bilingual French/German version, from No. 12-1941 to No. 17-1944 only in French. Initially the French-language edition was intended for Belgium, France, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland, Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece and Yugoslavia, later only for France, Belgium, Switzerland and Portugal.

Italian edition: from No. 13-1940 to 14-1944 as a bilingual version Italian/German. It initially reached Italy, Hungary and Slovakia. Later it only appeared for Italy.

Romanian edition: from No. 17-1942 for Romania.

Spanish edition: from No. 14-1940 to No. 13-1944. Until No. 11-1941 it was published bilingually in German/Spanish, after which it was only published in Spanish. Most editions only reached Spain and Portugal; Issue No. 14 and 15-1940 also appeared in Brazil and Argentina.

English edition: from No. 14-1940 to No. 17-1944. From No. 14-1940 to No. 25-1940 the edition was published bilingually English/German for Denmark, Holland and Sweden, from No. 26-1940 only in English.

Although the country information was missing, there were issues no. 1 to 19-1941 specifically for the USA with the imprint 'USA 8 Cents'. After the United States entered the war in connection with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, this imprint was dropped.

In addition to the versions mentioned, there was also a rare Arabic-language edition with coloured images.

The page numbers varied from edition to edition. Due to the war, the pages decreased significantly from the initial 32 or 24 (special issues contained even more pages). However, the foreign language numbers were more extensive due to additional reports.

In addition, free prints were released during publication, eg B. Special prints (or 'special print not for sale'), school editions and an edition V. Issue No. 2-1940 was confiscated by the police due to Hermann Göring's work and No. 2a-1940 was published with a different cover and content. The reason was the depiction of the new Messerschmitt Bf 110. However, a small number of this issue No. 2-1940 remained.

In issue 19 of 12th September 1944, the following information can be read on page 277:

'As a result of the concentration measures in the press sector caused by total war, the Luftwaffe magazine DER ADLER is ceasing its publication with this issue for the duration of the war. This frees up additional forces for the Wehrmacht and armaments. We would like to thank our readers and friends for their loyalty to us. With our confident belief in victory, we hope to be able to deliver the ADLER to all recipients in the usual way after the victory.'

A book series based on the magazine Adler-Bücherei was also published by Scherl-Verlag: the Adler yearbook (only existed in 1941/1942), the Adler calendar (1941–1944), the Adler songbook and the Adler games (war games for children).

Source: Wikipedia

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