This stereoscopic album titled “Danzig - Werden und Behauptung einer deutschen Stadt” (Danzig - The Development and Assertion of a German City) from 1940 represents a remarkable example of National Socialist propaganda literature that utilized the then-modern technology of stereoscopy. Published by Röhrig Verlag in Munich, this bound volume contains 134 pages with 112 stereoscopic images designed to be viewed without special viewing glasses.

The Free City of Danzig had received a special political status after World War I and the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. As a largely autonomous city under the protection of the League of Nations, it developed into a focal point of German-Polish tensions. With a predominantly German-speaking population of approximately 95 percent, Danzig quickly became a symbol of what was perceived in German public opinion as the unjust provisions of the Versailles Treaty.

The Nazi takeover in Danzig occurred as early as 1933, concurrent with the seizure of power in the German Reich. The NSDAP under Albert Forster won elections in the Danzig Volkstag and began politically coordinating the city. Pressure on the Free City of Danzig increased continuously in the following years, reaching its peak in the summer of 1939.

On September 1, 1939, World War II began with the German invasion of Poland, and Danzig was immediately incorporated into the German Reich. The city lost its status as a Free City and became part of the newly created Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. The publication of this stereoscopic album in 1940 thus occurred immediately after the annexation and obviously served the propagandistic justification of this action.

The stereoscopic technique had experienced its heyday in the 19th century but underwent a renaissance in the 1930s. The technology is based on the principle of presenting two slightly offset images side by side, which when viewed with appropriate aids convey a three-dimensional impression. This album apparently used a variant that allowed viewing without special glasses, possibly through the use of anaglyph images or parallax stereograms.

Röhrig Verlag in Munich was one of several publishers that specialized in producing stereoscopic albums. These albums covered various subjects from landscapes to city portraits to politically motivated representations. In the context of the NS regime, such technically advanced media were deliberately used for propaganda purposes.

The title “Development and Assertion of a German City” clarifies the ideological orientation of the work. It suggests a continuous German history of Danzig, thereby legitimizing the annexation as the supposed restoration of a natural state. This narrative deliberately ignored the complex multicultural history of the region and the rights of the Polish population.

Such propaganda publications served multiple purposes: they were meant to convince the German population of the legitimacy of expansionist policies, portray newly acquired territories as inseparable parts of the Reich, and convey an idealized image of the “German” eastern territories. The use of modern imaging technology lent these messages additional authority and appeal.

From today's perspective, such objects are important historical sources that provide insight into the propaganda methods of the NS regime. They document how the regime instrumentalized modern media technologies for its purposes and how it attempted to legitimize territorial expansion and aggression. The preservation of such materials in archives and collections serves the scholarly examination of this dark period in German history.

The album also represents the intersection of technology and ideology in the Third Reich. The National Socialists were eager to present themselves as modern and progressive while simultaneously propagating backward-looking völkisch ideologies. Stereoscopic albums like this embody this contradiction in a vivid manner.