Publisher: Kosmos

Country: Germany

Date: 1940

Derailleur brand: Fichtel & Sachs

Derailleur: Unidentifiable Fichtel & Sachs single pulley design

This advert, and its matching twin featuring a girl, are powerfully evocative of the Germany of 1940. The overwhelming darkness, the dominant, almost martial, Fichtel & Sachs eagle logo in the centre of a glowing sun/moon and the blond Aryan sport-loving boys and pride-filled girls all echo the terrible torchlit glamour of the Leni Reifenstahl’s images of the Nuremberg Rallies.

But nothing is as simple as it seems, and the actual images of children and their bicycles are curiously humane and affecting. I can’t help liking them a lot.