Along the Rhine: a priest, a Coca-Cola sign and Krupp lorries, 1937
A priest walks over a landing, a young man drinks Coca-Cola beneath an enamel sign, and Krupp lorries roll along the riverside road below vineyards.
A rowing boat lies in the shallows and a small town with a church spire sits beneath a wooded hill. At a landing where planks meet the cobbles a couple rides past on a motorcycle and a priest in cassock and broad hat walks towards the camera. By the roadside a young man drinks from a bottle beside a sign that promises Coca-Cola, Hier stets eiskalt; heavy lorries with trailers pass, one with KRUPP on its radiator, and a tug hauls a barge below vineyards and a castle.
The American soft drink and the Essen armourer's lorries shared the same road. Coca-Cola's German company, founded in 1929, prospered under the regime; Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach had kept his works busy with lorries while Versailles forbade guns. In the spring of 1937 Pius XI's encyclical Mit brennender Sorge had been read from every Catholic pulpit in Germany.
Film Coca-Cola by the roadside: Hier stets eiskalt, 1937
Film A rowing boat on the river bank, 1937
Film A small town on the river, 1937
Film A priest and travellers at a river crossing, 1937
Film Lorries on the riverside road, a Krupp radiator, 1937
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