Bredel, Willi. Der Kommissar am Rhein. First edition. Moscow: Meshdunarodnaja Kniga, 1940. In German.

Bredel, Willi. Der Kommissar am Rhein : Historische Erzählungen / Redaktor E. Walter. Erste Ausgabe.
Moskau : Meshdunarodnaja Kniga (Das Internationale Buch), 1940. 380 Seiten, Tafeln.
Originaler Leinenband (Hardcover). 17 x 11 cm. Auflage 5.000 Exemplare.
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Bredel, Willi. Der Kommissar am Rhein : Historische Erzählungen (The Commissar on the Rhine : Historical Tales) / editor E. Walter. First edition.
Moscow : Meshdunarodnaja Kniga (Das Internationale Buch), 1940. 380 pages, plates.
Original publisher's cloth (hardcover). 17 x 11 cm. Print run of 5,000 copies.
Binding fair: heavily rubbed, bumped at corners and spine ends, age-related staining to the cloth. Text block good: firm, paper evenly age-toned, clean throughout.

A notable first edition of German exile literature (Exilliteratur) published in the Soviet Union during the early years of World War II. Willi Bredel (1901-1964) was a pioneering figure of German socialist realism and a committed communist who fled Nazi Germany, eventually settling in Moscow. There, he became a central voice for the anti-fascist German diaspora, actively writing and co-editing the influential exile journal "Das Wort". This 1940 collection of historical tales, "Der Kommissar am Rhein," focuses heavily on the French Revolution and its radical factions, using historical narratives such as "Die Sansculotten von Gravilliers" and the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat to explore themes of class struggle, revolutionary zeal, and resistance against tyranny. Published by Meshdunarodnaja Kniga (The International Book), the Soviet state publisher tasked with foreign-language literature, this volume was aimed at the German-speaking exile community and international communist sympathizers. Books produced by German exiles in Moscow during the complex geopolitical climate of 1940 are historically significant and relatively scarce. As the true editio princeps (the book was only published in Germany after the war), this first Moscow edition is a highly valuable acquisition for collectors of anti-fascist literature, Exilliteratur, and Soviet foreign-language printing history. Despite the visible external wear typical for cloth bindings of this period, the text block remains firmly bound and well-preserved.