Schnee, Heinrich (Hrsg.): Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon. 3 Bde. Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer 1920. 25,7 x 17,2 cm. Contains 33 mostly colour fold-out maps, 39 colour plates (including 1 double-page plate), 208 black-and-white plates and numerous illustrations and maps within the text. XXX pp., 1 fol., 776 pp.; 2 fol., 698 pp.; 2 fol., 778 pp. Original half-linen binding with an illustrated spine, title on the front cover and spine. Head edge stained (blue).

(Covers are scuffed and have missing sections. pp. 199–202 are loose; pp. 247–250 are held together by just one staple. pp. 561–576, including maps, are loose. Staples are rusty.)

Kainbacher 420. – First edition. – The publication of the Colonial Encyclopaedia had actually been planned for 1914, but was prevented by the outbreak of the First World War. Described as ‘the result of the collaboration of some 80 of the most eminent representatives of colonial scholarship and practice’ (Preface), it contains, in alphabetical order, a wealth of valuable material on all aspects and figures relating to the German colonies. – The editor, Heinrich Schnee (1871–1949), was Governor of the colony of German East Africa from 1912 to 1919. ‘Following the loss of the colonies, S., supported by his wife Ada, championed a positive view of German colonial history and the regaining of the colonies through numerous roles, lectures and publications, particularly in the Dt. Kolonial-Lexikon and in his study ‘Die koloniale Schuldlüge’ (The Colonial Guilt Lie), a standard work of German colonial revisionism, as well as in school textbooks. In 1925, an ‘Inter-factional Colonial Association’ was founded on his initiative. However, his attempt after 1933 to implement his ideas within the NSDAP and to prevent the ‘Gleichschaltung’ of the German Colonial Society failed: in 1936, all colonial affairs were placed under the authority of the Nazi Reich Colonial League. S. resigned from almost all his presidential posts” (NDB XXIII, p. 280 ff.).