Original Item. Only One Available. This is a great Pre-WWII Olympia 1936 German Winter Olympics hardcover "cigarette card" album collectors book, complete with the original dust cover. This is the first volume of a two part set published by Cigaretten-Bilderdienst (Cigarette picture service) of Hamburg-Bahrenfeld. These books were originally purchased empty and customers would get a photograph cards with every purchase package of cigarettes. These served the dual purpose of helping to stiffen the packaging, as well as being collectible items. This wonderful example contains EVERY photo, yes, none are missing! It also has had papers inserted between pages to prevent the photos cards from sticking to the opposite page. With the original dust cover, this offering would be nearly impossible to improve upon!

Under the dust cover, the book has a dark blue cover fabric cover with an embossed gold "bell" bearing a German eagle perched on the 5 Olympic rings, the emblem of the 1936 Olympics in Germany. The bottom of the bell has the script Ich rufe die Jugend der Welt! ("I Call the Youth of the World!"), and surrounding the emblem is the following text:-

Olympia
1936

BAND 1
DIE OLYMPISCHEN WINTERSPIELE
VORSCHAU AUF BERLIN

The subscript translates to "Volume 1, The Winter Olympic Games, Preview of Berlin". The book is 127 pages long with short a introduction and a fold out map of the Olympic Stadium at the very end, which is still intact. It measures 9 3/4" x 12 3/8", and is in very good condition. The pages give a summary of the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a ski resort town in the very south of Bavaria in the Alps. Following this is a history of the modern Olympic Summer games, going back to the first held in Athens, 1896, and then the rest of the book is a preview for the Summer games in Berlin. At this point in history, the Winter Olympics had only occurred 3 times previously, and the Summer Olympics were really the major draw, featuring the classic "Olympic" sports, well as many others.

The dust cover shows some wear and small tears near the edge, but is still in very good condition. The cloth cover underneath is in great shape, and there is just a bit if wrinkling to the pages, so it was probably stored someplace a bit damp for a time, but otherwise it's a lovely example. Ready to research and display!