Die Mondexpedition (1966)

 

Die Mondexpedition is the original  German book that was translated into English in 1969 as The Log of a Moon Expedition. It's full title at the time was Die Mondexpedition: 14 Mal 24 Stunden auf dem Mond roughly translated as The Lunar Expedition: 14 times on the moon for 24 hours. Which I simplify as "The Lunar Expedition: 14 days on the Moon."

The author and illustration was Ludek Pesek, a well known space artist. See his Wikipedia article here.

He illustrated space and planetary themes in books and National Geographic illustrations since 1963. This was his first science fiction novel which he chose to illustrate with lush paintings of an expedition to the Moon. I blogged about the English language copy of this book in 2009.

If you have not seen these before I am happy to show you some wonderful art you might have missed.

Pesek, Ludek. Illustrated by Pesek, Ludek. Die Mondexpedition: 14 Mal 24 Stunden auf dem Mond . Recklinghausen: Paulus Verlag. (126 p.) 

The Great Experience (1963)

 

I have been collecting these books for such a long time that it is rare to come across one I haven't seen.  I know there are still many out there but my language skills are poor enough that I rarely find  the many books that exist in other languages. So I present today The Great Experience, a book from the DDR and written in German. It is loaded with paintings and rocket plans and the wonderment these books can bring to me. 

Meil, Werner. Illustrated by Rade, Hans. Das Große Erlebnis (The Great Experience.) Thuringen, DDR: Rudolf Forkel KG. (19 p.) 1963. 

Das Neue Universum, Volume 67 (1950)

 

Das Neue Universum (The New Universe) was a German science annual series aimed at older children.

From the German Wikipedia site (translated) : "The New Universe is a German children's literature series with themes in the fields of knowledge , research , adventure and entertainment . In addition to factual topics , Das Neue Universum also publishes fictional texts, e.g. by Isaac Asimov , Hans Dominik , and Michael K. Iwoleit . The choice of topic and content design were traditionally characterized by optimism about the future , science and feasibility from – nowadays also supplemented by more critical elements. While early volumes were aimed at the "mature youth" as a target group, today's readership, according to the publisher, consists of young people aged 15 and over and adults. Published since 1880 with 120 volumes up to 2020."

This annual had many interesting spaceflight articles over the years. In this 1950 volume (#67) they highlighted space stations with an article about a fictional voyage, with factual data.. They had a beautiful fold-out illustration in the front of the book. My friends shared their copy with me, which they treasured growing up.

DETAILS OF THE SPACE STATION ILLUSTRATION

"The New Universe 67 – 1950 Front folding panel: The artificial moon orbits 1,300 kilometers from Earth. Watercolor by K. Bürgle"

Incident with Heliopolis. A true story from 1958. By Heinz Gartman

Himmelsstürmer (1963)

 

This book is not about spaceflight but has a lot of nice space-age illustrations. It is a book of paper airplane models but as you see I don't know if it came with a kit or these were ideas to build. I am a fan of Thunderbirds (Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, 1964), and this has that same futuristic feel to the building and aircraft. The title roughly translates to "a person with highflying (and idealistic) plans."

Himmelsstürmer Hans Linde. Leipzig : Rudolf Arnold Verlag.  32 p. 1963.