1936 Reemtsma Cigarettes Olympia Set

Posted on September 8, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	Reemtsma Cigarettes Olympia
Year	1936
Size	3 1/8″ x 4 3/4″
Images	Black and White
Type	Tobacco
Number in Set	375

1936 Reemtsma Cigarettes Olympia Overview

Founded in the early 1900s, Germany-based Reemtsma is one of Europe’s biggest manufacturers of tobacco. In 1932, the company produced a set of 200 cards for the Olympic games and in 1936, they produced another issue.

The set was seemingly produced in somewhat large quantities. They cards are relatively easy to find on eBay.

As this is a German set, the technical name of the issue is Reemtsma Cigarettenfabrik (translated to cigarette factory) Olympia. The Reemtsma name is not actually on the cards themselves. However, they are identified as the distributor of these cards by their presence on their blue collectible albums that were created for collectors to glue their cards into.

The ‘cards’ are more like photos, actually, measuring about 3 1/8″ x 4 3/4″. Some were printed in full color while others are black and white. And covering the Olympics, obviously, a number of sports are included. Other noteworthy sports in the set include boxing, wrestling, and track and field. Track and field, by far, has the largest presence in the set, making up almost half of it. Famous figure skating legend Sonja Henie is also featured in the set.

Jesse Owens, Major Sports the Highlights

Cards of track and field legend Jesse Owens are typically the most sought after. Owens is featured on a total of seven cards (though I have also heard of eight Owens cards from some collectors). Three of Owens’ cards picture him individually while the other four picture him with others. Typically, the single-shot Owens cards are the most desired. Those individual card prices fluctuate a great deal as, aside from eBay, you don’t find many opportunities to buy them. However, they typically start in the $30-$50 range each for decent raw examples.

The prize here (in addition to the cards of Owens) for many other sports collectors are the several hockey cards and a basketball card. The basketball card, in particular, is one of the earliest ones in the sport featuring actual players. These were also possibly the first Olympic basketball cards produced since that sport’s Olympic debut happened in the same year.

Two sets of these cards were produced known as Band I and Band II. Each Band included numerous subgroups and both the Band and ‘Gruppe’ number are printed on the backs.