PRAGER, Willhelm und Dr Nicholas Kaufmann
Wege zu Kraft und Schonheit.
£45
Berlin: Hergestellt von der Kulturabteilung der UFA. n.d..
Revised edition. 155x235mm. pp. 32. In pictorial paper covers, some wear and a repaired tear to front cover but overall in very good condition. Bound into blue boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Ten pages of text (in German) and nineteen photographs. Undated, this appears to be an abridged, smaller version of the book that accompanied the 1925 film made by Prager in praise of the beautiful and athletic body. The film and these photographs taken from it profess to be about sporting prowess: there are images of the runner Paavo Nurmi and the American high-jumper Harold Osborn. But these are squeezed in at the end after several photographs of naked and semi-naked girls engaged in "rhythmic gymnastics". Some poses set in an imaginary ancient Greece encourage us to make the connection between nudity, classicism and athletics.
Revised edition. 155x235mm. pp. 32. In pictorial paper covers, some wear and a repaired tear to front cover but overall in very good condition. Bound into blue boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Ten pages of text (in German) and nineteen photographs. Undated, this appears to be an abridged, smaller version of the book that accompanied the 1925 film made by Prager in praise of the beautiful and athletic body. The film and these photographs taken from it profess to be about sporting prowess: there are images of the runner Paavo Nurmi and the American high-jumper Harold Osborn. But these are squeezed in at the end after several photographs of naked and semi-naked girls engaged in "rhythmic gymnastics". Some poses set in an imaginary ancient Greece encourage us to make the connection between nudity, classicism and athletics.
