What equipment did the Nazis use to print photos, posters, etc?

[George L Gregory]

For the 1920s-1940s some of the prints of Adolf Hitler and other prominent Nazis and Nazi events were huge.

How did that manage to do it? What cameras back then took cameras with so many pixels?

[Waleed Y. Majeed]

Pixels was not invented/used back then as a digital tool/unit/measurement. Measurements for printing was defined by lines or dots. See Rasterization.
A photo would probably be scaled to the desired size (and most likely in sections depending on scale). Each section would then be transferred onto printing sheets etc.
I would think an “A0“ sheet of paper in width was used. Lenght would depend on how much is on the roll of paper.
A last thing to consider is the size/diameter of the printing cylinders. Hope this explains some of your questions.

Waleed

[Hans1906]

It is difficult to answer this question, since virtually all the large printing houses of the time produced posters and other propaganda materials for the National Socialists.

NS-Plakate: Kunstvolle Propaganda / Nazi posters: Artful propaganda
Link: https://www.dw.com/de/ns-plakate-kunstv ... a-55742602

Most of the propaganda posters in my own collection were produced by large German printers,
in the best possible quality, very rare in printers outside Germany.

Attached are two photos from the former "Grossdruckerei Carl Werner Reichenbach i.V.". (Vogtland / Sachsen)


Hans

[Hans1906]

Sylke Wunderlich: Propaganda des Terrors (2020)

Link: https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikel ... 1059321382

The book is unfortunately not yet known to me, but probably worth reading...


Hans

P.S. This topic is so complex, it makes no sense to hastily post more answers here.
I myself have been dealing with the topic of German propaganda posters for decades.
And I have not even scratched the tip of the iceberg at that time.
One would need 300 years of one's own lifetime to even begin to read, to understand, to comprehend all that...

[Hans1906]

It is always difficult to classify old posters, I have 35 off the press copies of the poster attached below in my collection.
A flea market find many years ago, for small change.
The 35 posters were rolled up, the flea market price was 5,- German Mark. (For the scrap paper!)

All 35 posters are "hot off the press", as they said in German, but sell, that's another question.
I have always been a collector, never a dealer.

And, of course, such posters do not hang on the walls here in the house, everything is stored in special poster cabinets.


Hans

[George L Gregory]

Heinrich Hoffmann who was Adolf Hitler’s personal photographer used a Leica IIIa 50mm.

[George L Gregory]

Pixels was not invented/used back then as a digital tool/unit/measurement. Measurements for printing was defined by lines or dots. See Rasterization.
A photo would probably be scaled to the desired size (and most likely in sections depending on scale). Each section would then be transferred onto printing sheets etc.
I would think an “A0“ sheet of paper in width was used. Lenght would depend on how much is on the roll of paper.
A last thing to consider is the size/diameter of the printing cylinders. Hope this explains some of your questions.

Waleed

The measurement used was millimetres which can easily be converted into pixels.

[Waleed Y. Majeed]

Millimetets yes, an A0 measures 841 × 1189 mm. And how many pixels can you fit on to that? Not the question as pixels was not a measurement/unit used in press back then. Roy Lichtenstein os a good example of the raster effect. His use was just the opposite of normal use - the finer the lines/dots are the finer the picture will appear to the eye. If you look at his puctures from a distance the dots merge into a solid surface giving the desired color etc. Look at it close and all you see are polka dots in the shape of something.

[Hans1906]

Waleed,

you can throw the finest chestnuts to a wild boar, if it has the chance, it will stomp you into the ground.

And later, very contentedly snort itself...


Hans

[Seppo Koivisto]

Heinrich Hoffmann who was Adolf Hitler’s personal photographer used a Leica IIIa 50mm.

Hoffmann owned a publishing house, photo studios and stores. At least in studio he probably used larger format cameras, the National Archives has 41.000 glass negatives by his company Presse Illustration Hoffmann.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/ ... ts-puzzle/
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/540162

[George L Gregory]

Millimetets yes, an A0 measures 841 × 1189 mm. And how many pixels can you fit on to that? Not the question as pixels was not a measurement/unit used in press back then. Roy Lichtenstein os a good example of the raster effect. His use was just the opposite of normal use - the finer the lines/dots are the finer the picture will appear to the eye. If you look at his puctures from a distance the dots merge into a solid surface giving the desired color etc. Look at it close and all you see are polka dots in the shape of something.

3178 x 4493 pixels. That’s more than enough to print a large poster (24 x 36 inches or bigger).

DPI is a lot lower as an image gets bigger because the image tends to be viewed from much further away.

Billboards are sometimes printed as low as 10-15 DPI, but they are viewed from far away so it’s fine.