Verordnung über den Waffenbesitz im Gebiet des Protektorates Böhmen und Mähren. Vom 1. August 1939. / Nařízení o držení zbraní v území Protektorátu Čechy a Morava. Ze dne 1. srpna 1939.
Prague: 1 August 1939. First edition. Original bilingual broadside, printed in black on red paper. Text in German and Czech beneath the German national eagle surmounting a swastika within an oak wreath. Official municipal distribution copy, bearing the circular stamps of the Municipality of Dobřichovice (Obec městyse Dobřichovic), the contemporary manuscript warning “Poškození se přísně trestá” (“Damage is strictly punished”), and receipt signatures. Ca. 950 × 630 mm. Folded, lightly tanned along the fold lines, otherwise in fine condition.
An early official Protectorate proclamation establishing the legal framework governing civilian possession of firearms, ammunition, and explosives in occupied Bohemia and Moravia.
Issued less than five months after the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the present bilingual broadside was signed in print by Reich Protector Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath (1873–1956). It introduced a comprehensive system regulating the possession, registration, manufacture, and trade of firearms, ammunition, and explosives, while requiring the surrender of numerous categories of weapons and prescribing criminal penalties for violations. The ordinance formed one of the legal foundations for controlling civilian access to firearms throughout the Protectorate.
Konstantin von Neurath, a conservative German diplomat and former Foreign Minister, was appointed the first Reich Protector following the German occupation of the Czech lands in March 1939. Although formally the highest civil authority in the Protectorate, his administration increasingly gave way to the growing influence of the SS and the security apparatus, culminating in the appointment of Reinhard Heydrich as Acting Reich Protector in September 1941.
The present copy preserves evidence of its official distribution through the local administration. It bears the circular stamps of the Municipality of Dobřichovice, receipt signatures, and the contemporary manuscript warning “Poškození se přísně trestá” (“Damage is strictly punished”), added before public posting. Like other official Protectorate notices, such broadsides were intended for temporary display and were ordinarily removed and discarded after serving their purpose, making surviving official distribution copies comparatively uncommon.
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Price: €2,000.00