The visits of Mr. X in Germany of 1937



Trad. Christian Surle

Warning : the symbols and uniforms that appear in the following pictures are here for historical purpose, as an evidence of the darkest hours of Europe. There is no ulterior motive in this presentation. Likewise, I wish that you avoid any criticism about the presence of Mr.X in Germany in the year 1937, sometimes among the “brown plague”. This implies no complacency. Didn’t Chamberlain and Daladier shake Hitler’s and Mussolini’s hands eighteen months later ?.  
One can wonder why Mr.X did not throw the nazi flag away. Once more, everything lies in the context. In 1937, the German pavilion of the Paris International Show includes many other nazi flags and symbols. It seems that this small flag never went out of the album in which it has been sent.
In order to avoid any disagreement, the real name of Mr.X has been removed from all the documents.

This is the story of these documents : some months ago, a sympathetic correspondent informed me that he wanted to give documents about Leitz, Agfa and Rollei factories to me. He had found them in an antiques auction, and thought that they could be more useful to me than to him. So he sent the documents below to me. After I received them, he mailed me that there was in fact a small nazi flag among them. Dealing with this kind of things is pretty particular, so he had not sent it to me; As I found it a pity that these elements were not together, I asked him not to throw it away, and to send it to me.

Ensemble des documents

Contents : In 1937, a delegation gathering photo and cinema French dealers was visiting the main German factories. Mr.X was among them, so he received the photographic memories that follow. There are two albums. The first one was sent by Leitz factory, including a letter signed by Ernst Leitz himself. The second one was sent by Agfa factory, including a letter from their office in Berlin.

Leitz album: 40 x 26 cm size, red cover written “Wetzlar, 14 April 1937, Mr.X” in gold letters. There are ten carton sheets inside, including black and white photos of different sizes stuck in it. Some small photos are also stuck with transparent sticking corners. To see this album, click here.

The last page being empty, Mr.X put some own photos on it, showing his visit to Rollei factory, as well as on the inner last cover page.

Agfa album : 26 pages, 25 x 17,5 cm size. Only the Agfa logo is on the cover.


To see this album, click here.



Carte