ESSO

Road Maps from Germany

Pre-1939 Road Maps

Esso appears to have started issuing sectional maps in Germany around 1930, when the first Standard maps were issued:

Deutsche-Amerikanische Petroleum was the local Standard company and it issued a series of 30 sectional "Luftbildkarten". All were printed on a semi-gloss paper, although only earlier editions have the white borders. Part of the map itself is shown on the 1930-51 page. Standard also issued a single sheet map of Germany (centre) with simpler clearer cartography.

(Front)

(Rear)

Around 1935 Standard published a sort of promotional atlas "Wohin geht die Fahrt?" (Where to go on a journey). Printed on cheap magazine paper, it consisted of 16 A4 pages forming 8 double page spread outline maps of Germany, illustrated with castles, historic places, industry, festivals, churches, food & drink and miscellaneous attractions. Double pages were alternately in colour and b/w. No roads were marked on any of the maps, though it did advertise the road map series on the rear cover.

By the late 1930s the Esso name took prominence over Standard (top centre right), and immediately before the second World War it was dropped in favour of Esso. This ca1939 sectional map (top right) showed how Austria has been incorporated following the Anschluß, with Czechoslovakia also within greater Germany. Pre-war cartography was generally by Bruckmann of Munich.

Post war Esso maps to 1961

Esso appears to have started issuing maps of occupied Germany as early as 1949, possibly to help people visiting war graves.

In the late 1940s, Esso issued both small format sectional maps at 1:500,000 with slightly different cover images and a national map of Germany, showing the new boundaries without East Prussia, but identifing the Soviet zone of East Germany in the same manner as the three Allied zones. Cartography on these early post-war maps was still by F Bruckmann of München. A larger format series was issued for 1951 and kept for the first version of maps issued in 1952 (coded "j"). Sheet 1 has a busy scene in the Port of Hamburg: the ship (right) is the "Esso Baltic". The single sheet of Germany ("Fernfahrkarte") was used with both the later 1952 and 1953/4 series shown below. These are only credited to Esso AG, and are based upon General Drafting Co designs.

Later in 1952 (coded "t") a third series of covers was introduced, and the maps now bore a cover price of 25 pfennig. As before the maps were at a scale of 1:500,000.

The two Panorama maps (left) are undated but probably from around 1952/3 and were drawn by the usual team of Thiemig-Wenschow. The Hannover map (right) is dated 1956, but was probably first produced at much the same time based on the style. Images and information from Richard Horwitz, Stan DeOrsey & Jon Roma.

With the introduction of more common styles and standards in the early 1950s, Esso moved to a three section approach, sometimes augmented by more local maps, as well as a single map of Germany. Reducing overlaps required the slightly smaller scale of 1:550,000 to be used.

			The nine images here cover all designs used from 1953 to 1960. The three on the top left date from 1953-4 and carry a price of 35pf and credit Thiemig-Wenschow with the cartography . The three designs to the right were used in 1955-7 and those on this row from 1958-60. Both sets are attributed to Kart Thiemig and General Drafting Co. Only the slogan on the bottom of the front cover changes with each year.
Three city maps, and a larger scale map of the Moselle Valley (Moseltal) with Trier, are known from 1958 (Frankfurt & München) or 1959 (Frankfurt, Hannover & Mosel). Plans also exist for Stuttgart, Berlin (using a design similar to the Ruhr map below) and possibly other cities such as Hamburg.
1955-7	1958	Each set also included a single sheet of Germany. For 1958 an additional sheet of the Ruhr industrial area was produced (near left), but at other times this backed on to the West sheet. The 1959 map (right) still showed pre-war boundaries on the rear, with red hatching used for areas under Soviet or Polish administration.		1958-60	1959 rear
	The Esso Touring Service also produced German language versions of key items such as the planning map of Western Europe. As with the English version (and indeed, the sectional maps of Germany) it included a pictorial guide to Happy Motoring in Europe on the reverse. Oddly, only a small proportion of the landmarks shown had their descriptions translated from English into German. This map was also available slotted into a pocket at the rear of a 1955-6 atlas of Germany produced by Karl Thiemig using the same cartography as the sheet maps of Germany, but spread over 24 double pages. Between each map section was a travel guide for the area covered; travel tips and an index took the page count to 164.

Esso maps from 1961

Germany was not immune from the trend to replace scenic maps with plainer covers. At the same time as the cartographic style was updated, moving away from the General Drafting design to a more European look, again drawn by Karl Thiemig KG. Shown below left are typical sectional maps in the new style dating from 1961 (West) and 1970 (South). West Germany was again covered by five sheets at a scale of 1:500,000. The two panorama maps below left are from 1967 and 1966, and the simple cover design has been allowed to become a bit more pictorial.

These cover the areas around Hamburg and the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) - other titles included the Frankfurt area and Ruhrgebiet. A large scale (typically 1:200,000) regular map was backed by a panorama map of the area - such as the extract (actual size) of the Freiburg area from the Schwarzwald map.

In recent years Esso appears to have cut back on sheet maps, but instead to have occasionally issued softback atlases, sold for less than the price of a single sheet map. The examples here (L-R) date from 1996, 2000 and 2002, although the latter is undated: the map extract of the Freiburg area comes from the 1996 edition. All are at the traditional Esso map scale of 1:550,000 and mark service stations with a full list at the back. The latter two maps use essentially identical cartography, but it is credited to Ravenstein in 2000 and Carto Travel in 2002. No cartographer was named in 1996, which uses a slightly different style, and numbers the Esso locations as it lacks a grid on the maps. This version lacks a place name index and does not mark Esso stations in neighbouring countries; the more recent ones do so. The three atlases are of slightly different dimensions: the 1996 is smallest, but the 2002 atlas is 5mm narrower than the 2000 edition.

Esso Germany also produced regular issues of a summer travel guide (Reisebrevier) and intermittently sold phrase books. Examples of these can be found on the Esso touring page. The next page looks at maps from Italy.