CHAPTER 1

Advertising in the Weimar Republic

Advertise and don't despair!

Writing in the first months of the Third Reich, Hanns F. J. Kropff, a leadingGerman researcher in the science of advertising, began his book: "In atime in which the word 'rational' shines as a beacon of light on every wall,it is astounding that German ads in many cases are still 'driven by emotions.'The recognition of the utility of a system—in the highest sense ofthe orderly distribution and design of the advertisement—is still far fromcommonplace among all those who work [in the industry]." Kropff's analysis,which began a treatise on the importance of psychology in effective addesign, went on to praise the work of American and British ad designersand included their work time and again in his 1934 text as examples of bestpractice for understanding human desires and motivations, for incorporatingeffective use of color and type, and researching market trends. Kropffserves as a useful example of the modernist strain in National Socialism.The best way to understand culture in Hitler's society is not as a "beautifulillusion"—a mirage of light and color that bewitched the spectator, an orderlysurface that masked irrationality. Rather, someone like Kropff speaksto the ease with which some thinkers moved from the rationalization of theWeimar era to the Nazi period, hopeful that Hitler's regime would fulfillthe promises of reform that had been in the air throughout the 1920s.

Kropff was certainly no friend of Weimar, but he believed the call forrationalization that marked the 1920s to be a path to economic success andprofessional standing for his discipline. Like others, he embraced the "experimenting,reordering, reconstructing" mission of National Socialism. Itis this "spirit of renovation" that we see emerge out of debates in the republicanera and develop more fully after 1933. We begin, therefore, withan analysis of German advertising and commercial culture in the 1920s andthe sometimes collaborative, sometimes competitive, relationship betweenGerman advertisers and their Anglo-American counterparts, who led theway designing the "rational" ads that attracted Kropff. Most important,however, the chapter highlights the manner in which commercial actorsdebated the way forward during the Depression and the political turbulencethat accompanied it. In addition to its uses righting the economy,some hoped that what they saw as an international language of ads couldpromote an understanding between nations that would cement the peace.Others became more protectionist at the end of 1920s and insisted thatproduct promotion should not only highlight the importance of buyinghome-grown goods but should also represent "national character" in formand content. The chapter discusses these debates and concludes with theoffensive of German advertisers like Kropff who adopted the nationalistline as a way to withstand the tumultuous 1920s and prepare a niche fortheir industry in the coming National Socialist era.

ADVERTISING IN THE 1920S: SUPPORTERSAND CRITICS

Germany had a long tradition of commercial advertising. The biannualLeipzig fair had been held since the Middle Ages, drawing exhibitors andattendees from all over the world. Of course, the fair predated the emergenceof a German state by several hundred years, but the Germans claimedit as their own, and even boasted of hosting the European marketplace. Bythe second half of the 1920s, the Leipzig fair could in fact be seen, accordingto Victoria de Grazia, as the center of a new global economy—withregularly sponsored stands representing countries from all corners of theearth. But as de Grazia also argues, commercial fairs constituted only oneof a growing number of advertising methods by the end of the nineteenthcentury. Posters, print advertisements and classifieds, shop window displays,branded collectibles such as match books and trading cards, and theverbal advertisements and demonstrations offered by company representatives,retailers, and door-to-door salespeople were taken for granted bymost as part of daily life. As radio and film became popular media outlets,advertisements found their ways to those venues as well.

In many of these areas, German advertisers and businessmen were notworld leaders. The sales tools that most Germans still upheld as the mostrespectable and dependable were those that had maintained the Leipzigfair as a potent force for hundreds of years: face-to-face meetings betweenmanufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers, the ability to demonstrate thequality of wares and production methods in person, and contracts thatwere negotiated and signed on the spot. These strategies were far removedfrom the new mass marketing techniques that focused on investigations ofconsumer desires increasingly practiced in the United States, and to a lesserextent in Britain.

In the years following the First World War, German businesses did notreadily embrace change. There were both practical (the ailing economy)and principled reasons (a distrust of imported practices) working againstthe adoption of new strategies, such as the introduction of customer surveys,the psychological study of consumer behavior, and the growth offull-service ad agencies to handle all aspects of the branding process. Infact, beyond the handful of branches of American and British agencies thatopened in the mid- and late 1920s, the concept of the full-service advertisingcampaign handled by external experts did not really take hold untilthe 1960s. In the interwar period most German companies continuedto handle their advertisements in-house. In 1930, a large retailer with fivehundred men and women on its payroll was likely to employ twenty-five tothirty of them in the advertising of its wares. Indeed, only a handful of themost established brands had a well-developed image around which theycould base...