ANTI-NAZI SATIRE.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Swelled-Headed Adolf (The Modern Struwwelpeter). An accomplished and witty typescript for an unrecorded satirical version of the famous German children's book Struwwelpeter. It lambasts the Nazi regime by portraying Hitler and his allies as monstrous children. Churchill and his ministers are illustrated and referenced throughout.Struwwelpeter, published by Heinrich Hoffmann in 1845, was a picture book showing naughty children being punished in gruesome ways for bad behaviour. It quickly became popular, was translated into English in 1848, and spawned a variety of satires and parodies. These include Harold Begbie's The Political Struwwelpeter (1899), E. V. Lucas's Swollen-Headed William (1914), and Robert Spence's Struwwelhitler: A Nazi Story Book (1941).This example, likely prepared for a publication, closely resembles Spence's work. The tales include "The Story of Cruel Adolfus", recounting the invasion of Poland and how Churchill would soon come to the rescue; "The Dreadful Story about Adolfie and the Matches", satirizing British and American appeasement during the invasion of Czechoslovakia; and "The Story of Gory Goering who Preferred Guns to Butter", predicting that German rearmament would bring famine within five years.It is unclear if this example predates or follows Struwwelhitler. References to Churchill's "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech show that it cannot have been produced before May 1940. The illustrations are closer to the 1848 English translation of Stru

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.