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1930s Germany Laid Waste By Polish and Czech Bombers.
Absolutely fascinating early-1930s map of Germany showing the supposed threat posed to it by the airforce's of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Belgium, and France.
The map shows foreign bombers fanning out from Prague, Posen, Bromberg, Warsaw, Luttich, and Metz, blanketing every German industrial region (dotted-white outline) and every city with a population over 100,000, other than Kiel on the northern coast. Each plane silhouette is supposed to represent 250 warplanes.
In retrospect, the idea that Germany faced an existential threat from Poland and Czechoslovakia seems ironic in the extreme. So much so that it would be comical if it were not so tragic. However, at the time it was made, this image and ones like it fueled German national feelings of geopolitical victimization and potential weakness. Domestically these ideas helped justify the rearmament policy pursued by the Nazi regime during the 1930s, and Germany's eventual bellicosity towards its neighbors at the end of the decade.
Rarity
No copies in OCLC. There is one entry for a similarly-titled item in the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Leipzig, which is actually quite different.
There are a few images online of maps that are essentially variations on this same theme. The dating of those maps to 1933 informed our dating of this map.
It appears that this map also appeared on a postcard, though this map is much larger.
![[ Bohemia / Western Czechia ] Koenigreich Bohmen nach Muller und den Neuesten Beobachtungen verfasst](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/103022.jpg)
![[ Poland ] General Karte von der Koniglichen Republik Polen mit den verwandt en Landern und dem konigreiche Preussen](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/101325.jpg)
