The Third Reich Series

Last updated
The Third Reich
Edited byJohn R. Elting, Charles Victor Pennington von Luttichau, et al.
Illustrator John Batchelor, et al.
Cover artistvarious
Country Alexandria, Virginia, USA
London, UK
Barcelona, Spain
Languageen-us, en-uk, es
GenreHistory
Publisher Time-Life Books. Inc.
Caxton Publishing Group
Ediciones Folio, S.A.
Published1988-2009
Published in English1988-1991
Media typeprint
No. of books21
24 (Spain)
OCLC 44777881

The Third Reich is a series of books published by Time-Life Books that chronicles the rise and fall of Nazi Germany, relating historical events as experienced by the German side. [1] The series began its release run on the home market from 1988 onward, followed a year later by a European dissemination release, typically by series subscription through the "Time-Life Books B.V." Amsterdam-branch subsidiary, among others in the UK. [2] Each book focused on a different topic, such as the SS, Afrika Korps and various campaigns.

Contents

Release overview

Each volume in the series was 192 pages in length, heavily illustrated and with pictorial essays on specific topics within the volume. Each book was executed in faux black leatherette with silver and red text imprints, and featured a large glued-on picture on its front. The books were issued without a dust jacket, though there are some rare, later UK-specific first print versions with redesigned covers and newly assigned ISBNs known to have been issued with one by the London-based Caxton Publishing Group, [3] who partially reissued the (British-spelled) series for their home market in the years 2004-06. They did so under a full license from the Amsterdam "Time-Life Books B.V." European branch (as specified in the colophons of the UK volumes), which had managed to stay in business a few years longer after its American "Time Life Books, Inc." mother division had gone defunct in 2001 as a dedicated book publisher. [4] Each volume came additionally with a bookmark/map key insert explaining the military symbology used on the maps as featured in the series.

The overall Editor-in-Chief for the series was the renowned military historian Col. John R. Elting, already a regular contributing editor on Time Life's prior World War II (the de facto progenitor series for The Third Reich publication) and The Civil War series. The second-most prolific series contributor concerned American military historian Charles Victor Pennington von Luttichau, who was singularly well suited to serve as such as he had been a participant on the German side in several of the campaigns covered in the series as a Luftwaffe antiaircraft officer during the war; shortly before the outbreak of war his American mother managed to evade Nazi Germany, but her son was not able to, resulting in that he became drafted by the Wehrmacht. [5]

The technical hardware illustrations were done by John Batchelor, a renowned British technical illustrator of the era.

International editions

In stark contrast to the World War II progenitor series (which had seen a plethora of international editions in translation), there is only one other international edition of The Third Reich known besides the UK Caxton edition, the 2008-09 Spanish-language El III Reich y Hitler series released by Barcelona-based Ediciones Folio, S.A. [6] likewise fully licensed by "Direct Holdings Holland B.V." (the Dutch branch of the worldwide holding company that had acquired Time Life in December 2003) per the book colophons, as Time-Life Books B.V. had by then become defunct as well – likewise with radically redesigned covers. [7] Noteworthy was, that the Spanish edition had three 248-page UK/non-Time-Life pedigree volumes included which had been lacking from the originating English-language release; the first "Hitler: máquina de guerra" title by William Carr ( ISBN   9788441327856) had originally been the "Hitler's War Machine" release ( OCLC   2585107) from 1975. The second by military historian Christopher Chant authored "Los generales de Hitler" ( ISBN   9788441327153) actually concerned his older "Hitler's Generals and Their Battles" title ( ISBN   0890090491) he had already written in 1976. The third "La Luftwaffe de Hitler" ( ISBN   9788441327849) title by historians Bill Gunston and Tony Wood, had likewise been a reissue of their older "Hitler's Luftwaffe" book ( ISBN   0517224771) from 1977.

Interested customers in other-language territories were, alongside their 1990s UK and Spanish contemporaries, offered the opportunity to acquire the original American version via mail through their nearest Time Life Books subsidiary, the aforementioned Time-Life Books B.V. in particular, typically by series subscription.

Volume titles of The Third Reich

TitleConsultants/AuthorsVolumeYear published (US, UK)ISBN (US 1st printing, UK 1st printing)
The SSGeorge H. Stein011988, 2004 ISBN   0809469502 , 1844470733
Fists of SteelGeorge H. Stein021988 ISBN   0809469669
Storming to Power William Sheridan Allen 031989 ISBN   0809469545
Wolf PacksTimothy Patrick Mulligan041989, 2004 ISBN   0809469758 , 184447075X
The Reach for Empire Gerhard L. Weinberg 051989, 2006 ISBN   0809469588 , 1844470784
The New OrderWilliam Sheridan Allen061989, 2006 ISBN   0809469626 , 1844470776
Afrikakorps Williamson Murray 071990 ISBN   0809469839
The Twisted DreamRobert G. L. Waite081990 ISBN   0809470004
BarbarossaCharles V.P. von Luttichau, Williamson Murray091990 ISBN   080946991X
The Southern FrontCharles V.P. von Luttichau101991 ISBN   0809470160
War on the High SeasRobert O. Dulin, Jr., William H. Garske, Jr., Charles S. Thomas, Charles V. P. Luttichau111990, 2004 ISBN   0809469952 , 1844470741
Lightning WarCharles V.P. von Luttichau, Williamson Murray121989 ISBN   0809469707
Conquest of The BalkansCharles V.P. von Luttichau, Williamson Murray131990 ISBN   0809469790
The Center of the Web Peter Hoffmann, Robert G. L. Waite141991 ISBN   0809469871
Apparatus of DeathJohn M. Bridgman, Sybil Milton151991 ISBN   0809470047
Road to StalingradCharles V.P. von Luttichau161991, 2004 ISBN   0809481502 , 1844470725
The Heel of the ConquerorNorman Rich171991 ISBN   0809470128
Fortress EuropeJohn M. Bridgman181991 ISBN   0809470330
Scorched EarthCharles V.P. von Luttichau191991 ISBN   0809470292
The Shadow WarCharles V.P. von Luttichau201991 ISBN   080947008X
Descent Into NightmareCharles V.P. von Luttichau211991, 2004 ISBN   0809470373 , 1844470709

note: Some, but not all, of the US releases have seen a second printing the subsequent year with newly assigned ISBNs, which were typically eight numbers higher.

Two further titles have been reported for a slated release as well, Empires in the East and Homeland Besieged, [8] but the series was suspended indefinitely before they could be issued resulting in that no bibliographical data are recorded in the Library of Congress. [9]

Spin-off

Contrary to several other Time Life Books history series, no spin-offs from this particular series are known, save one; it turned out that Time Life had been commissioned by the BBC to sell their 1997 six-part The Nazis: A Warning from History documentary series on DVD in North America. For the BBC's North American July 2006 four-disc DVD set release, Time Life provided retail distribution and promotional services, which included at least one television commercial. [10]

Promotion

Time Life Books' usual standard operating procedure in the late 1970s and 1980s to promote their book series was to embark on a vigorous television ad campaign in the form of a series of commercials transmitted either in first-run syndication or during late-night television programming. This was complementary to their standard practice of sending out elaborate multi-sheet mailings to their already existing customer base, in which a series was introduced in detail to a potential subscriber; having taken out a subscription once, a customer was then registered in Time Life Books' customer database, at the time a crucial business model marketing tool for the company, making that customer eligible for receiving the company's mailings henceforth. [11]

However, in this particular case though, Time Life appeared to have taken a more low-key approach because of the sensitive nature of the series' subject matter, particularly restraining themselves in regard to television ads, as very few were aired, though there is at least one known. [12] That one commercial was subdued in comparison to Time Life's sensationalized commercial made a decade earlier for "The Nazis" volume of the progenitor World War II series. [13]

As was customary for Time Life Books at the time, the first book ordered (typically volume 1 in this case) was sent on a ten-day trial basis at a reduced price, after which each bi-monthly next installment could be assessed by customers on the same basis. That first book came additionally with a free bonus gift in the form of a facsimile reproduction – taken from the in the Imperial War Museum kept only known surviving original – of Hitler's 31 August 1939 four-page "Anweisung Nr. 1", considered his very first wartime general directive to his armed forces. The four single print pages came along with an extra publisher's note and translation double print page in a document folder adorned with the Nazi eagle. Customers were allowed to keep the reproduction even if they decided to return the volume it came with.

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References

  1. ↑ "Time-Life: The Third Reich". LibraryThing.com.
  2. ↑ "The SS". Worldcat.org.; the (English-language) releases intended for international dissemination, concerned US reprint editions endowed with ISBNs that were typically eight numbers higher that those on the originating US home market releases as listed in the table in the article.
  3. ↑ "The SS (The Third Reich)". Amazon.com.
  4. ↑ Hatch, Denny. "The Rise and Fall of Time-Life Books". TheFreeLibrary.com. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
  5. ↑ "In Memoriam, Charles V. P. von Luttichau (1917–2005)".; after the war, von Luttichau did rejoin his mother in the USA and eventually became a naturalized US citizen.
  6. ↑ "III Reich y Hitler". WorldCat.org.
  7. ↑ "Las SS (El III Reich y Hitler)". Amazon.com.
  8. ↑ Having already received their respective "080947025X". and "0809470209". ISBNs on Amazon.com.
  9. ↑ "The Third Reich". Leggman's Time-Life Library, a compendium of Time-Life Books information. 23 June 2003. Archived from the original on 2 April 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  10. ↑ The Nazis Time Life BBC on YouTube
  11. ↑ Hatch, Denny. "The Rise and Fall of Time-Life Books". TheFreeLibrary.com. Retrieved 1 April 2021.; Hatch, Denny. "The Rise and Fall of Time Life Books". Target Marketing. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  12. ↑ July 1989 Time Life Books "Third Reich Series" TV Commercial on YouTube
  13. ↑ "The Nazis" Time-Life Books World War II Commercial on YouTube
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