DIE NEUE KOLONIE. ROMAN by Lämmel, Rudolf, writing as "Heinrich Inführ - 1924

Jena: Granula-Verlag, 1924. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 7-293 [294: printer's imprint] [295-296: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], original pictorial tan boards printed in red, green, blue and black, top edge stained brown. First edition, first printing. Also published as ALIS. DIE NEUE DEUTSCHE KOLONIE. DAS ENDE VON VERSAILLES. TECHNISCHER ZUKUNFTSROMAN (Friedeberg: Iserverlag Dresler & Co., 1924). Revenge against France is the theme central to the plot of Lämmel's novel in which ancient Atlantis is discovered and claimed by Germany. "Inführ's hero is Peter Hertenberger, a young man from Styria whose 'peasant blood' and affinity to the 'soil' are combined with a talent for all things technical. This leads to a crisis in which his identity as a true German Austrian prevails, leading him to embark for Berlin in order to 'achieve something greater for the German Volk' as an inventor. In Berlin he meets Ria Wimpffen, the daughter of the president of a 'German-American Stars League' that advocates the strengthening of German elements in the United States. While crossing the Atlantic on the way to visit the United States, Hartenberger discovers the sunken island of Atlantis with the help of a 'nucleon spectrascope' he has invented. He immediately decides to offer the riches certain to be found on Atlantis to the German Reich in order to improve both its financial situation and its military strength. When the French try to hinder his excavation efforts, he destroys their fleet with a ray gun capable of melting iron, thereby ushering in what is explicitly referred to as 'a new epoch in world history.' With the help of the riches discovered by Hartenberger, Germany becomes so powerful that France -- fearing a further military catastrophe -- withdraws its troops from the Rhineland and writes off any further reparations payments. As a result of all these miraculous events, the German population is swept up in a 'wave of healthy nationalism,' leading to Hartenberger's election to a ten-year term as 'national dictator' by the German parliament. During the course of these years, he acts as a peacemaker in the ever-smoldering conflict between the 'swastika' and the 'Soviet star,' annuls all the conditions of the infamous Treaty of Versailles, carries out restoration of Germany's former colonies, and finally leads Austria 'home into the Reich.' After accomplishing all this, however, he does not rest on his laurels but prepares for even more 'immense tasks.' as the last line of the novel so allusively puts it." - Hermand. Fisher, Fantasy and Politics: Visions of the Future in the Weimar Republic, pp. 107; 109. Hermand, Old Dreams of a New Reich: Volkish Utopias and National Socialism, p. 99. Lexikon 2, p. 171. Bloch (2002) 1580. Nagl, p. 256. Boards lightly worn at spine ends, corner tips rubbed, a nearly fine copy. An uncommon book in a delicate binding seldom offered for sale. (#142324)