World At War Virutal Museum

Tobacco Cards

Die deutsche Wehrmacht 10 Parade der Panzertruppen
Image 10 from a military set of 270 images.

The back reads:
Am 20. April 1936, dem Geburtstage des Führers, erregte die im Zeichen der wiedererrungenen Wehrhoheit neu gebildete Kraftfahr-Kampftruppe besondere Begeisterung – vor allem ihre Tanks und ihre Spähwagen.

In the early days of automatic cigarette package wrapping it became clear that something was needed to stiffen the packages. Adding a piece of cardboard prevented the cigarettes from becoming crumbled. The tobacco card, also known as trading cards, was born. It did not take long for some companies to put advertising or pictures on the insert to make the product more attractive to the smoker.

Some images were grouped in a series to make it more attractive to collect them. For the sport fans there were series of baseball cards. For nature lovers there were many series covering birds, animals, trees, flowers, etc.

In World War I, military tobacco card sets were very popular, which extended into the Second World War. Both the Allied and Axis forces used cigarette cards for propaganda campaigns.

World at War Virtual Museum

Tobacco Cards