Description
Signal
Nr. 7 / 1. Jahrgang • Berlin • 15. Juli 1940
Publisher: Deutscher Verlag, Berlin SW 68, Kochstraße 22–26 | Editor-in-Chief: Harald Lechenperg | Frequency: Fortnightly (alle 14 Tage) |
Pages scanned: 48
Overview
This expanded 48-page issue marks a clear editorial pivot from battlefield triumph to political and economic consolidation, leading with Italy’s entry into the war and the German occupation of Paris, presenting the first photographic coverage of German soldiers in the occupied French capital, and coupling that with major geopolitical and economic analyses arguing that Britain cannot survive economically against the new German-controlled European order.
Articles and Features
Taten sprechen / Actions Speak
A two-page political essay with photographs justifying Italy’s entry into the war on 10 June 1940, presenting Mussolini’s declaration from the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia and crowds in Berlin and Rome celebrating the Axis alliance.
Die deutschen Panzer / The German Tanks
A comprehensive illustrated tactical study of German armoured doctrine, tracing tank warfare from its WWI origins through the 1940 Western campaign, with five annotated wash-drawing diagrams showing formations (column, wedge, halted fire, assault on field positions, air-liaison) and a panoramic bird’s-eye illustration of a Panzer division on the march.
…und das Hirn der Division / …And the Brain of the Division
A photographic supplement to the Panzer article depicting General Heinz Guderian commanding in the field, motorised divisional staff cars, signals troops laying telephone lines, dispatch riders, and a field staff conference — illustrating the mobile command infrastructure behind the armoured thrust.
Gefangene, in Frankreich gemacht / Prisoners Taken in France
A colour photo-feature presenting French colonial prisoners — North African, West African, and Senegalese troops — in a German collection camp, showing their customs and daily life; framed in the magazine’s racial-hierarchy propaganda idiom as evidence of France’s reliance on non-European soldiers.
Von Reuter nicht dementiert / Not Denied by Reuters
A two-page naval feature with photographs taken from the German battleship Gneisenau showing it firing a full broadside against the British carrier HMS Glorious off Norway, with the carrier sinking and British destroyers attempting a smokescreen; the title alludes to Reuters not having denied the German claim of the sinking.
Getroffen und geschont / Struck and Spared
An aerial-photography feature presenting German precision bombing claims: vertical reconnaissance photographs of the destroyed Beauvais-Tillé airfield, a Stuka bomb exploding over Calais harbour, rail yard strikes at Culoz, and three photographs of the Cathedral of Amiens showing that the structure survived despite intense nearby combat.
Priscilla berichtet für den „Tatler“ aus Paris / Priscilla Reports for The Tatler from Paris
A bilingual (German and English) feature reproducing a column from the London magazine The Tatler, issue of 22 May 1940, written by a Paris correspondent named Priscilla, offering a wry account of wartime Parisian social life, charity balls, and the mood of the city just before the fall — presented by Signal as evidence of Anglo-French frivolity in the face of defeat.
Historische Stunden um Paris / Historic Hours Around Paris
A historical essay and photo-feature drawing a parallel between the 1918 armistice negotiations at Compiègne — recounting Marshal Foch receiving the German delegation in the forest railway car, quoting extensively from British military writer Liddell Hart’s account — and the June 1940 German entry into Paris, illustrated by the Arc de Triomphe, German cavalry on the Avenue Foch, and burning oil tanks north of Paris.
Paris, 24 Stunden nach dem Einmarsch / Paris, 24 Hours after the Entry
A photo-essay documenting the first day of German occupation of Paris: Parisians at Champs-Élysées cafés alongside German soldiers, German troops climbing the Eiffel Tower, Alsatian prisoners released to walk to assembly camps unescorted, French police adjusting to German military presence, and a Paris veteran of 1870 in conversation with a German corporal.
Deutsch-Holländische Zusammenarbeit im besetzten Gebiet / German–Dutch Cooperation in the Occupied Territory
A diplomatic photo-feature presenting Reichsminister Dr. Arthur Seyss-Inquart, appointed Reichskommissar for the occupied Netherlands, and Wehrmacht commander General Christiansen reviewing portraits of Dutch generals in The Hague’s Transport Ministry, framed as orderly civilian-military cooperation.
Waffen machen Seitenspringen / Weapons Make Side-Leaps
Karl Friedrich Brust
A four-vignette illustrated article by Signal contributor Karl Friedrich Brust presenting improvised or unexpected weapon uses during the Western Campaign: a German torpedo boat attacking a British transport aircraft with machine-gun fire, a coastal Flak battery engaging French tanks, a Stuka forcing the surrender of an entire French battalion, and German sailors using hand grenades against a British warship in the Channel fog.
Die neue dänische Gesandtschaft in Berlin / The New Danish Legation in Berlin
A photo-feature on the newly completed Danish legation building in Berlin’s Tiergarten diplomatic quarter, showing Excellency Kammerherr Herluf Zahle, the Royal Danish envoy, in the library, together with the building’s entrance portal and reception rooms — designed jointly by Danish and German architects.
Irgendwo in Frankreich: Das Ende einer verteidigten Stadt… / Somewhere in France: The End of a Defended Town…
A three-page colour photo-feature showing street-by-street combat damage to an unnamed French town: a German soldier watching a building burn with vivid orange flames (p.†23), a bird’s-eye colour view of a half-destroyed town centre with a church spire visible (p.†24), and a wide aerial colour photograph of rooftops shattered by artillery and bombing (p.†25).
Schwimmende Insel / Floating Island / undefined
A full-page colour photograph of a German pioneer squad crossing a river in a camouflaged inflatable raft, paddling silently through reeds, identified as one of the key crossing tools used during the Belgian and northern French campaigns.
Westflanke des Illimani bezwungen / West Flank of Illimani Conquered
An adventure photo-feature reporting the first-ever ascent of the steep western face of the 6,500-metre Illimani massif near La Paz, Bolivia, accomplished during Easter 1940 by three Germans: Wilfrid Kühm, Dr. Friedrich Fritz, and Rolf Boettger, with photographs of the approach by mule, the dawn climb above the clouds, and the German flag planted at the summit.
Was würden Sie tun, wenn ——— / What Would You Do If ———
A two-page psychology feature by Dr. Ehrig Wartegg presenting eight partially drawn geometric doodles and inviting the reader to complete them, arguing that how a person unconsciously continues the drawings reveals character traits of will, intellect, and emotion — a method tested on over ten thousand subjects, with full solutions promised in the next issue.
Wir erinnern uns bei Schlagern… / We Remember through Hit Songs…
A celebrity entertainment feature on Swedish film star Zarah Leander, tracing her German film career through stills from „Es war eine rauschende Ballnacht,“ „Der Blaufuchs,“ „Zu neuen Ufern,“ and „Heimat,” illustrated with musical score snippets of her signature melodies, and concluding with a candid railway-platform photograph of Leander returning from Sweden to Berlin to begin work on her new film about Mary Queen of Scots.
Intrigen in einer Edinburgher Badestube / Intrigues in an Edinburgh Bathhouse
A film preview spread for the new UFA production „Das Herz einer Königin“ (The Heart of a Queen), written by Harald Braun, showing Zarah Leander as Mary Queen of Scots, with stills of court intrigue scenes, the Edinburgh bathhouse set designed by architect Walter Haug, and the murder of Riccio (Friedrich Benfer) in Holyrood Castle.
Die Wunderpille und andere wissenschaftliche Neuigkeiten / The Wonder Pill and Other Scientific News
A science and medicine column covering three current research topics: a German-made stimulant pill chemically related to ephedrine that suppresses fatigue (the „Wunderpille“); corneal transplant surgery advances by a Dr. Hippel; and Professor Bering of Cologne’s X-ray treatment of paralysis, with an aside on Professor Wagner-Jauregg’s malaria-based therapy for paralysis.
Napoleon I: „Die Armee marschiert mit dem Magen“ / Napoleon I: ‘The Army Marches on Its Stomach’
A humorous illustrated article on Wehrmacht field rations and military nutrition science, explaining caloric standards (3,600–4,000 calories per day), the role of vitamins, dried and compressed field rations, the new fish-based diet introduced into troop provisioning, and the Army’s own cooking schools and test kitchens, illustrated throughout with comic cartoon drawings of cooks and soldiers.
Ein Tor im Osten / A Gateway in the East
A nine-photograph feature on German–Soviet trade under the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, showing at the border crossing: steel bars being loaded onto Russian freight cars, cotton bales transferred between trains, mineral oil pumped from Russian tank wagons into German ones, grain flowing across the border, and a Russian locomotive arriving with grain for Germany — presented as a functional and growing economic partnership.
Theater im Krieg / Theatre in Wartime
A colour photo-feature on Berlin’s cultural life continuing through the war, with a colour stage photograph of the Berliner Staatsoper’s new production of Richard Strauss’s „Der Rosenkavalier“ and a colour photograph of a Berlin variety revue chorus line in glittering costumes — arguing that wartime Berlin offers the same quality of entertainment as peacetime.
Vom Kriege: Militärisch-politische Betrachtungen / On War: Military-Political Observations
A lengthy strategic analysis by an unnamed German colonel reviewing the full scale of territory and coastline gained from Norway to the Spanish border, presenting tables of coal, iron ore, steel, and pig-iron production comparing Germany, France, and Britain before and after the campaign, and arguing that Germany now controls the Atlantic coast and has permanently cut Britain’s European economic lifelines.
Hier brachen die deutschen Truppen durch / Here the German Troops Broke Through
A colour photo-feature showing the remains of the extended Maginot Line: a destroyed armoured turret embedded in rubble photographed in full colour close-up (p.†39), and a wide-angle colour landscape of dragon’s-teeth anti-tank obstacles stretching across a green field (p.†39 bottom) — presented as proof of the Line’s defeat.
Kann Deutschland wirtschaftlich niedergerungen werden? / Can Germany Be Brought Down Economically?
Prof. Dr. Hunke
A detailed economic counterargument essay by Prof. Dr. Hunke refuting the Allied economic warfare strategy, presenting tables of German versus British and French industrial output across six product categories, tracing Germany’s resource base from the Vierjahresplan through the territorial gains of 1938–1940, and arguing that Germany’s synthetic materials programme and eastern trade relationships make an economic blockade futile.
Hier ein Bild aus dem deutschen „Ersatz“-Dasein / Here a Picture from German ‘Ersatz’ Life
A lighthearted illustrated feature arguing that German synthetic and substitute materials — Kunstholz (artificial wood), Zellstoff (cellulose), Buna rubber, Kunstleder (synthetic leather), Glaswolle (glass wool), and others — are actually superior to natural originals, illustrated with a large red-and-black infographic cross-section of a house showing twelve synthetic materials in everyday use.
Englische Leuchten auf großer Fahrt / English Lights on the High Seas
A satirical illustrated commentary on the declining value of the British pound and franc since September 1939 — presented as a table of exchange rates at seven crisis moments from December 1938 to June 1940 — accompanied by a large caricature illustration of a bloated John Bull figure riding an inflated pound-sterling balloon over a burning sea.
Advertisements
p. 2 — Wanderer-Werke AG, Siegmar-Schönau / Continental — Continental Buchungsautomat Klasse 800 accounting machines, Addiermaschinen Klasse 200, and Continental Buchungsschreibmaschine with RAPIDus card-index system
p. 30 — Mercedes Büromaschinen-Werke AG, Zella-Mehlis/Th. — Full-page advertisement for Mercedes office typewriters (K10 Prima, K20 Superba, K30 Selecta, S20 Express), adding machines (Modell 51), calculating machines (10 models), electric typewriters (E10 Electra), and bookkeeping machines
p. 34 — Telefunken — Telefunken Allstromsuper 054 radio receiver; “In jedem Telefunkensuper” advertisement promoting 40 years of Telefunken radio technology sold in over 70 countries
p. 35 — Olympia Büromaschinenwerke AG, Erfurt — Olympia 8 office typewriter, Elite, Progress, Simplex, and Plana flat typewriters
p. 36 — Mannesmann Röhren-Werke, Düsseldorf — Mannesmann seamless steel tubing, coal, coke, ore, pig iron, steel, sheet metal, and structural steel; full-page prestige advertisement
p. 47 — I.G. Farbenindustrie AG, Frankfurt am Main — Full-page corporate balance sheet and profit-and-loss account (Bilanz) for fiscal year 1939, with board of directors and supervisory council listings; Gesamtkapital 691,000,000 RM
Colour Plates Summary
Cover (p. 1) — Black-and-white halftone on red-bordered cover: French civilians queuing for bread distributed by a German soldier in an occupied French town square; caption in red circle: “Nach der großen Schlacht in Frankreich: Brot für die Bevölkerung” (After the Great Battle in France: Bread for the Population).
p. 9 (top left) — Colour close-up portrait of a turbaned North African French colonial prisoner gesturing, in a German assembly camp.
p. 9 (top right) — Colour photograph of colonial prisoners slaughtering an animal according to their custom at the camp.
p. 9 (bottom left) — Colour close-up portrait of a Moroccan prisoner wearing a red fez.
p. 9 (bottom right) — Colour photograph of colonial prisoners preparing and sharing food in the camp.
p. 10 (top left) — Colour close-up portrait of a West African prisoner in a tan turban.
p. 10 (top right) — Colour photograph of an African prisoner eating alone from a suitcase used as a table.
p. 10 (bottom row) — Three colour images: colonial prisoners in a group, an African prisoner’s face, and prisoners resting in a camp.
p. 23 — ★ MOST DRAMATIC COLOUR PLATE: Full-page close-up colour photograph of a German soldier silhouetted in the foreground watching a French town building burn with vivid bright orange flames erupting from windows, rubble-strewn street below. Captioned “Irgendwo in Frankreich: Das Ende einer verteidigten Stadt…” Remarkable for the intensity of the fire colour against the grey-blue sky.
p. 24 — Full-page colour photograph taken from elevation looking down over a partly devastated French town: a church with a rose window still standing, surrounded by burned-out rooftops, orange flames visible from one building, green countryside in the distance.
p. 25 — Full-page colour aerial photograph of a French town’s shattered centre: red-tiled roofs intact on the periphery, the inner streets reduced to gutted façades and rubble, muted earth tones of brick, stone, and scorched timber.
p. 26 — Full-page colour photograph of German pioneer troops in camouflaged helmets paddling a rubber inflatable raft silently through reeds and marsh grass. Caption: “Schwimmende Insel” (Floating Island).
p. 39 (top) — Full-page colour close-up photograph of a destroyed Maginot Line armoured cupola: pockmarked and rust-streaked grey steel dome amid shattered concrete rubble and bent rebar. Caption: “Hier brachen die deutschen Truppen durch.”
p. 39 (bottom) — Colour landscape photograph of the dragon’s-teeth anti-tank obstacles of the extended Maginot Line stretching across a green open field toward a distant village.
p. 40 (top) — Colour stage photograph of the Berliner Staatsoper production of Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier: elaborate Baroque set with red-uniformed footmen, a white-gowned soprano, and gilded decor.
p. 40 (bottom) — Colour photograph of a Berlin variety theatre chorus line of eight women in glittering butterfly-wing costumes performing under coloured stage lighting.
Back cover (p. 48) — Red-bordered monochrome rear cover: four German soldiers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, with floral wreaths around the eternal flame; inscription on the tomb visible in mirror-image. Caption: “JUNI 1940 / Vor dem Grabmal des Unbekannten Soldaten in Paris” (June 1940 / Before the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Paris).