Proletarischer Kindergarten. Ein Märchen- und Lesebuch für Groß und Klein by Friedrich, Ernst, ed. [Käthe Kollwitz] - 1921

Berlin: Buchverlag der Arbeiter-Kunst-Ausstellung, 1921. First edition. 8vo, 232 pp, bound in illustrated boards backed in black cloth illustrated by Käthe Kollwitz. Profusely illustrated in black and white. Edges of text block died red. Text in German. Inscribed by the editor, Ernst Friedrich, at the first blank and dated 1923.

The first edition of this remarkable anthology which attempted to create socialist, working class fairy tales and other stories for youth, including works by Berta Lask, Lark Ewald, and Robert Grötzsch. The book was published by the Ernst Friedrich, who in 1924 would publish the great photobook Krieg dem Krieg, and would create the Anti-War Museum in Berlin, under which imprint he would publish a second edition of this work in 1924. The collection was destroyed by the Nazis in 1933. It re-opened in 1982 with a new collection and continues to this day.

The cover features a haunting image of a mother and child by the great Käthe Kollwitz.

Binding chipped and frayed, with the unprinted paper backing the spine completely gone, and with a heavy crease to upper tip of front board cracking the surface of the endpaper, some light tidemarking to the fore edge of the rear board, and heavy rubbing to extremities, with some crumpling and 2" closed tears to several pages near the end, and the spine pulling A battered, fair only copy, but complete and rare inscribed.