The Third Reich is a series of books published by Time Life Books that chronicles the rise and fall of Nazi Germany, relating historical events as experienced by the German side. The series began its release run on the home market from 1988 onward, followed a year later by an European dissemination release, typically by series subscription through the "Time-Life Books BV" Amsterdam-branch subsidiary, among others in the UK.[1] Each book focused on a different topic, such as the SS, Afrika Korps and various campaigns.
Each volume in the series was 192 pages in length, heavily illustrated and with pictorial essays on specific topics within the volume. Each book was executed in faux black leatherette with silver and red text imprints, and featured a large glued-on picture on its front. The books were issued without a dust jacket, though there are some rare, later UK reprint versions with redesigned covers and newly assigned ISBNs known to have been issued with one,[2] by the London-based Caxton Publishing Group, who partially reissued the (British-spelled) series for their home market in the years 2004-06. They did so under a full license from the Amsterdam "Time-Life Books B.V." European branch (as specified in the colophons of the UK volumes), which had managed to stay in business a few years longer after its American "Time Life Books, Inc." mother division had gone defunct in 2001 as a dedicated book publisher.[3] Each volume came additionally with a bookmark/map key insert explaining the military symbology used on the maps as featured in the series.
The overall Editor-in-Chief for the series was the renowned military historian Col. John R. Elting, already a regular contributing editor on Time Life's prior World War II (the de facto progenitor series for The Third Reich publication) and The Civil War series. The second-most prolific series contributor concerned American military historian Charles Victor Pennington von Luttichau, who was singularly well suited to serve as such as he had been a participant on the German side in several of the campaigns covered in the series as a Luftwaffe antiaircraft officer during the war; shortly before the outbreak of war his American mother managed to evade Nazi Germany, but her son was not able to, resulting in that he became drafted by the Wehrmacht.[4]
The technical hardware illustrations were done by John Batchelor, a renowned British technical illustrator of the era.
There are 21 volumes in the series:
| Title | Consultants/Authors | Volume | Year published (US, UK) | ISBN (US 1st printing, UK 1st printing) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The SS | George H. Stein | 01 | 1988, 2004 | |
| Fists of Steel | George H. Stein | 02 | 1988 | |
| Storming to Power | 03 | 1989 | ||
| Wolf Packs | Timothy Patrick Mulligan | 04 | 1989, 2004 | |
| The Reach for Empire | 05 | 1989, 2006 | ||
| The New Order | William Sheridan Allen | 06 | 1989, 2006 | |
| Afrikakorps | Williamson Murray | 07 | 1990 | |
| The Twisted Dream | Robert G. L. Waite | 08 | 1990 | |
| Barbarossa | Charles V.P. von Luttichau, Williamson Murray | 09 | 1990 | |
| The Southern Front | Charles V.P. von Luttichau | 10 | 1991 | |
| War on the High Seas | Robert O. Dulin, Jr., William H. Garske, Jr., Charles S. Thomas, Charles V. P. Luttichau | 11 | 1990, 2004 | |
| Lightning War | Charles V.P. von Luttichau, Williamson Murray | 12 | 1989 | |
| Conquest of The Balkans | Charles V.P. von Luttichau, Williamson Murray | 13 | 1990 | |
| The Center of the Web | Peter Hoffmann, Robert G. L. Waite | 14 | 1991 | |
| Apparatus of Death | John M. Bridgman, Sybil Milton | 15 | 1991 | |
| Road to Stalingrad | Charles V.P. von Luttichau | 16 | 1991, 2004 | |
| The Heel of the Conqueror | Norman Rich | 17 | 1991 | |
| Fortress Europe | John M. Bridgman | 18 | 1991 | |
| Scorched Earth | Charles V.P. von Luttichau | 19 | 1991 | |
| The Shadow War | Charles V.P. von Luttichau | 20 | 1991 | |
| Descent Into Nightmare | Charles V.P. von Luttichau | 21 | 1991, 2004 | |
Two further titles have been reported for a slated release as well, Empires in the East and Homeland Besieged,[5] but the series was cancelled before they could be issued resulting in that no bibliographical data are recorded in the Library of Congress.[6]
In stark contrast to the World War II progenitor series (which had seen a plethora of international editions in translation), there is only one other international edition of The Third Reich known besides the UK Caxton edition, the 2008-09 Spanish-language El III Reich y Hitler series released by Barcelona-based Ediciones Folio, S.A.[7] likewise fully licensed by Time Life Inc. - through Dutch agent "Direct Holdings Holland B.V." per the book colophons, as Time-Life Books B.V. had by then become defunct as well - with radically redesigned covers as well.[8] Noteworthy was, that the Spanish edition had three 248-page UK/non-Time-Life pedigree volumes included which had been lacking from the originating English-language release; the first "Hitler: máquina de guerra" title by William Carr had originally been the "Hitler's War Machine" release from 1975. The second by military historian Christopher Chant authored "Los generales de Hitler" actually concerned his older "Hitler's Generals and Their Battles" title he had already written in 1976. The third "La Luftwaffe de Hitler" title by historians Bill Gunston and Tony Wood, had likewise been a reissue of their older "Hitler's Luftwaffe" book from 1978.
Interested customers in other-language territories were, alongside their 1990s UK counterparts, offered the opportunity to acquire the original American version via mail through their nearest Time Life Books subsidiary, the aforementioned Time-Life Books B.V. in particular, typically by series subscription.
Contrary to several other Time Life Books history series, no spin-offs from this particular series are known, save one; it turned out that Time Life had been commissioned by the BBC to sell their 1997 six-part documentary series on DVD in North America. For the BBC's North American July 2006 four-disc DVD set release, Time Life provided retail distribution and promotional services, which included at least one television commercial.
Time Life Books' usual standard operating procedure in the late 1970s and 1980s to promote their book series was to embark on a vigorous television ad campaign in the form of a series of commercials transmitted either in first-run syndication or during late-night television programming. This was complementary to their standard practice of sending out elaborate multi-sheet mailings to their already existing customer base, in which a series was introduced in detail to a potential subscriber; having taken out a subscription once, a customer was then registered in Time Life Books' customer database, at the time a crucial business model marketing tool for the company, making that customer eligible for receiving the company's mailings henceforth.[9]
However, in this particular case though, Time Life appeared to have taken a more low-key approach because of the sensitive nature of the series' subject matter, particularly restraining themselves in regard to television ads, as very few were aired, though there is at least one known. That one commercial was subdued in comparison to Time Life's sensationalized commercial made a decade earlier for the "The Nazis" volume of the progenitor series World War II.