If you’re busy running a fascist dictatorship you really have to control a lot of things–including design elements and branding issues. Fascist branding is a job, actually, and for the Third Reich it was the work of Robert Ley.
Ley became head of the party organization (Reichsorganisationsleiter) in 1931, and eventually went on to produce:
a NSDAP handbook that detailed the organizing principles and mechanics of building the Nazi movement. It is this 550 page, red cloth-bound book titled Organizationsbuch der NSDAP, with the symbol of “Greater Germany” embossed in silver on the front, which turns out to be the elusive standards manual. The DAF was also responsible for typesetting guides and other graphic arts handbooks, but this is the graphic masterpiece of the Master Race.
Apparently the back of the book contains the entire concept of “Blood Mixing” with ten graphic charts.
This is simultaneously the creepiest and most fascinating thing I’ve ever seen. My immediate question is whether all the major motion picture studios own copies of this book so they can accurately costume and design sets for Holocaust movies.
Want to learn more about branding fascism? Apparently there’s a book.
