FORTY-ONE ISSUES - THE COMPLETE RUN of THE XXTH CENTURY. Published in SHANGHAI, CHINA, 1941-1945. Founded and Edited by KLAUS MEHNERT.

The XXth Century was an English language, Nazi financed, deceptively scholarly publication about China, Japan, Asia, Germany, and World War II. It had a strong pro-Axis slant, but presented itself as an independent publication filled with articles about Asia and the World. German activities in the War and throughout the world were portrayed in a positive light.

COMPLETE RUN of FORTY-ONE ISSUES, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Oct. 1941) through Vol.. 8, No. 6 (June 1945).

SHANGHAI: The XXth Century Publishing Company / Klaus Mehnert, 1941-1945.

Softcover magazines, 7.25x10.25 inches (18.5x25.5 cm), approximately 80 pages per issue, illustrated with photographic plates and in-text drawings and maps.

COMES WITH A GUIDE / INDEX compiled by Eric Bott at the University of Hawaii under the supervision of Stephan and Patricia Polansky, and published by the Berlin State Library in 2004. The Guide provides the full table-of-contents for each of the 41 issues, and a comprehensive Index for all the issues. It has 73 photocopied pages printed on one side only, bound in clear vinyl covers. It is signed in German at the top of the first page "Schöne Grüße / (??)".

CONDITION: The issues are in GOOD to GOOD MINUS condition, the covers have soiling, scrapes and wear to the spines, and some tender spine folds; some of the early and latter signatures are pulling from the staples but holding; some of the pages have edgewear and edge flakiness; otherwise the issues are complete with pages that are lightly toned at the margins and still bright, clean and unmarked. The exception is the last issue, V.8 N.6, which has disbound covers, light shorelining to the covers and pages, and general signs of wear, otherwise it too is complete. The Guide / Index is in Fine condition.

The Berlin State Library called The XXth Century "particularly remarkable because it is completely free of Nazi propaganda." Far from the truth.

A RARE COMPLETE RUN of Klaus Mehnert's Nazi backed, Shanghai published journal. The University of Hawaii holds one of the few complete runs of this influential publication.

About KLAUS MEHNERT and the XXTH CENTURY magazine (from Wikipedia and the University of Hawaii website):

******Born In Moscow in 1906, Mehnert's family left Russia in 1914. He received his PhD from the University of Berlin in 1928. Mehnert traveled frequently, to America, the Soviet Union, Japan, and China. He was fluent in Russian, German, and English. He married Enid Keyes (d.1955) in California in 1933, and in 1934 returned to the Soviet Union as an author and German newspaper reporter. In 1936 Goebbels ordered German newspapers to stop printing Mehnert's news reports, so he moved to America where he taught at UC Berkeley then at the University of Hawaii.

In June 1941, six months prior to America's entry to World War II, he left for Shanghai, China, where he published an English language journal The XXth Century with financing from the Nazi German Foreign Ministry and Joseph Goebbels' Third Reich Propaganda Ministry.

The XXth Century was an influential promoter of anti-Allied reports and commentary in Asia, The XXth Century was later described by American intelligence as "one of the slickest bits of propaganda work that has been done anywhere". In its four years, Menhert "steered his publication cunningly along a sophisticated path that eschewed overt pro-Axis advocacy", according to the British historian Bernard Wasserstein, with "a wide range of contributors, few of whom were publicly identified with Nazism". The journal was discontinued at the end of the war in 1945, and Mehnert was briefly imprisoned before returning to Germany.******

INTERNATIONAL BUYERS PLEASE NOTE: These 41 Issues are heavy and will require substantial extra postage to ship internationally.

Shaoyang Xian Zhi. A Gazetteer / Chronicle of Shaoyang County, Hunan Province, China.

Printed by Da Zhan Letterpress, printing bureau of Shaoyang, 1875 (1st year of Guang Xu, Qing Dynasty). First edition. TEXT in CHINESE.

Six volumes, wrappers, 5.25x8.5 inches (13.5x21 cm). Four of the volumes have several sections, each paginated separately. Pagination: Volume One: 2, 46, 20, 30, 26 pp; Volume Two: 34, 37, 26, 36 pp; Volume Three: 76, 47 pp.; Volume Four: 120 pp.; Volume Five: 108 pp.; Volume 6: 96, 5 pp.

The previous owner left a couple typed notes (with some handwritten additions) that describe the contents of the volume as follows:

Vol. 1: Tome 1: Harvest; Tome 2: Landscape; Tome 3: Construction; Tome 4: School.

Vol. 2: Tome 5: Ancestral Temple; Tome 6: Finance; Tome 7: Officials; Tome 8: Election.

Vol. 3. Political, Academic, and Meritorious Personages.

Vol. 4: Moral Personages.

Vol. 5: Examples, women.

Vol. 6: Miscellaneous.

FAIR Condition: the wrappers are chipped, worn along the edges, and have tears of various lengths; many of the wrappers are disbound, the rest tenderly attached; the front cover of Volume One has been replaced with a blank (same paper as the other wrappers but no printed title), has a long tear, and is detached along with a few of its initial leaves; the spine covering of all the volumes has perished; overall the wrappers are weary and tender but present. Internally, the pages are age toned, have some edgewear, edge chips, tears, and faint dampstaining; some of the early and latter pages of various volumes are disbound but present; the paper is fragile and chips easily, so small fragments come off with handling. Please handle this treasure with care. Despite the flaws, this is a complete and very rare set of these six volumes.

SCARCE original source documents. This is the only 19th century chronicle of Shaoyang County that I have ever seen.