Bestsellers of the Third Reich

Christian Adam is Head of the Publications Department at the Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr. His previous publications include Der Traum vom Jahre Null: Autoren, Bestseller, Leser (Galiani 2016).

Praise for the German edition:“Draws our attention not only to the breaks in National Socialist cultural policy, but also to the more interesting and generally little-researched continuities.” • Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung“A study rich in material, but written in a pleasant, reader-friendly style.” • Vorwärts“Depicts a lost reading landscape in vivid detail … Not only a scholarly study, but an exciting contribution to intellectual history.” • Der Tagesspiegel

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: ‘Please, God, Keep Me from Writing a Book about Books!’Part IChapter 1. Sifting, Destroying, Controlling and Promoting: The Politics of Literature under the SwastikaChapter 2. Bestsellers in a Dark Time: Their History and ReadersChapter 3. Hitler’s and Goebbels’ Bedtime Reading: What Prominent Nazis Liked to ReadPart II: The Ten Most Successful Book Types in the Third ReichChapter 4. On the Foundation of Facts: Popular Non-Fiction WorksChapter 5. The Colour of Money: NS Propaganda TextsChapter 6. Not So Quiet on the Western Front: The Boom of War BooksChapter 7. Laughing through Life, Jolly Volk: Humour and ComedyChapter 8. From Medical Romance Novels to Science Fiction: The Themes and Authors of Modern Light LiteratureChapter 9. Commodifying Authentic People’s Literature: Karl May, Courths ­Mahler and the Heroes of Pulp FictionChapter 10. Foreign Narrative Art: Bestsellers from AbroadChapter 11. In the Shadow of the Classics: Highbrow LiteratureChapter 12. Blood without Soil: The Successes of National (Social)ist AuthorsChapter 13. Field Grey Pays Dividends: Reading Fodder for WartimeConclusion: On the Trail of BestsellersAppendix: Selected Bestsellers and their Sales FiguresBibliographyIndex