Die deutsche Militarelite 1939-1945: Zeitgeschichte in Farbe (The German Military Elite 1939-1945 in Color)

This superlative color ‘coffee table’ photograph album shows, in previously unpublished, striking color photographs, the military elite of the Third Reich. All the highest ranking officers from the Army, Navy, Luftwaffe (Air Force), and SS are pictured. General Staff Officers, field Marshals, Army Group Leaders as well as the small group of awardees of the highest German military decoration, the Knight’s Cross in all its varieties, are shown in color photographs of outstanding sharpness and brilliance. There are 110 photographs, all of the full page or gate-fold (two full pages) photo.

The photographer who shot many of the pictures, Walter Frenz, was a young German Air Force staff photographer, best known as the cameraman for Leni Reifenstahl’s groundbreaking film Triumph of the Will, in which new cinematic techniques made their debut. Stationed at Hitler’s Headquarters in World War Two, he experimented with color photography on the subjects around him. After the war, the negatives remained buried for nearly fifty years. Superb color photographs throughout, German text with English photo caption summary enclosure, 160 pages.