# Behold the Reichsblotch! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 19, 2010, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/behold-the-reichsblotch/561261 "2010-11-19T20:27:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/behold-the-reichsblotch/561261/1 "2010-11-19T20:27:37Z")
Look at this picture of [a cheap pencil sharpener in the form of a globe](http://inlinethumb53.webshots.com/19956/2839740290026680751S600x600Q85.jpg) that my 9-year-old daughter bought this past weekend. I noticed that there was plenty of detail in the globe when it came to Africa - most countries are delineated with a different color - but for some reason, Europe boiled down to just three big blotches: Spain/Portugal, Italy, and a big yellow blotch that spanned Germany, Austria, Poland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Czechoslovakia… Hm! I pointed this out to my wife, jokingly calling it “The Reichsblotch”. Then I noticed that that vertical line east of Berlin is 20 degrees East in longitude. I cross-checked against an [actual map of modern Europe](http://www.europemapofeurope.net/Europe_map_of_Europe_2008.htm) and Der Reichsblotch extends to roughly 21 degrees East - [right up to Warsaw](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact). It also juts further east in a more southern part of the globe - under the Ukraine, which is to say, Hungary and Romania. (With the Ukraine in the same color as Russia and the rest of the former USSR.) Now, I felt a little bit chilled. The chill went all the way to incredulity mixed with a sense of inevitability when I looked for the mark of provenance on the thing and found that unlike 99% of such throwaway tchotchkes in today’s world, this was not Made In China. It was _Made In Germany_. (I will eventually prove this with another picture…) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/behold-the-reichsblotch/561261/2 "2010-11-19T20:39:22Z")
Interesting. However, Syria has also conquered Iraq, the Central African Republic has occupied Uganda, and Saudi Arabia has annexed the entire Arabian peninsula. How much of Asia does Japan control? ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/behold-the-reichsblotch/561261/3 "2010-11-19T20:45:55Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Interesting. However, Syria has also conquered Iraq, the Central African Republic has occupied Uganda, and Saudi Arabia has annexed the entire Arabian peninsula. Yeah, if it was just a matter of using minimizing color usage and highlighting “major” countries, I could get with it. But Africa is in a much higher level of detail - seriously, how hard would it have been to make Europe at least composed of Germany, _France,_ Italy and Spain? - and the drawing the yellow/pink boundary between “Germany” and “Russia” right at Warsaw is what really raised my eyebrows. And look further north to where Gdansk would be, at around 19 degrees East longitude. _Danzig ist Deutsch_! ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/behold-the-reichsblotch/561261/4 "2010-11-19T20:58:50Z")
I would be curious to see the rest of the globe. I wonder if it has Indochina? Maybe it is based on a map circa 1940. My grandfather’s German textbook from 1938 has an interesting map of Germany that includes Austria, Czechoslovakia, etc. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/behold-the-reichsblotch/561261/5 "2010-11-19T21:04:21Z")
> [@awldune](#): > > I would be curious to see the rest of the globe. I wonder if it has Indochina? Maybe it is based on a map circa 1940. Hmm, but the “Central African Republic” was only independent of France as of the late 1950s (its colonial name being “French Congo” or “French Equitorial Africa”). ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/behold-the-reichsblotch/561261/6 "2010-11-20T03:36:23Z")
FWIW, here is my LJ page updated with more pics of the globe. > **[Behold The Reichsblotch!](https://robardin.livejournal.com/21648.html)** > > Dont Turn Around - Der Kommissars In Town Below are some pictures I took of a cheap pencil sharpener in the form of a globe that my 9-year-old daughter bought this past weekend. I noticed that there was plenty of detail in the globe when it came to... ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/behold-the-reichsblotch/561261/7 "2010-11-20T03:44:04Z")
Hmm. From your second picture, it looks like they’ve also reconstituted the [Federal Republic of Central America](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Republic_of_Central_America). Does Harry Turtledove have a side business? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/behold-the-reichsblotch/561261/8 "2010-11-20T03:59:41Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Hmm. From your second picture, it looks like they’ve also reconstituted the [Federal Republic of Central America](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Republic_of_Central_America). On the map it includes Panama, which was never a part of the Central American Republic, but a province of Colombia. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/behold-the-reichsblotch/561261/9 "2010-11-20T03:59:50Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Hmm. From your second picture, it looks like they’ve also reconstituted the [Federal Republic of Central America](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Republic_of_Central_America). > > Does Harry Turtledove have a side business? Mr. Turtledove did cross my mind. In fact I asked my daughter if I could mail it to him. She said no, she liked it. Maybe I’ll try to email him a link to my LJ page though 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/behold-the-reichsblotch/561261/10 "2010-11-20T04:13:16Z")
Interesting: [http://www.pencilthings.com/globe-pencil-sharpener-plastic-1-hole-2-13-tall.html](http://www.pencilthings.com/globe-pencil-sharpener-plastic-1-hole-2-13-tall.html) [http://www.thepencilgrip.com/dyn\_prodlist.php?k=28111](http://www.thepencilgrip.com/dyn_prodlist.php?k=28111) > [@](#): > > KUM Sharpeners have been made in Germany since 1920 and have been sold successfully in the United States for over fifty years! Could it be that KUM has forgotten to upgrade their printing masters for that item? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/behold-the-reichsblotch/561261/11 "2010-11-20T07:21:52Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Interesting: > > [http://www.pencilthings.com/globe-pencil-sharpener-plastic-1-hole-2-13-tall.html](http://www.pencilthings.com/globe-pencil-sharpener-plastic-1-hole-2-13-tall.html) > > [http://www.thepencilgrip.com/dyn\_prodlist.php?k=28111](http://www.thepencilgrip.com/dyn_prodlist.php?k=28111) > Could it be that KUM has forgotten to upgrade their printing masters for that item? :dubious: Maybe they just figured none of the American students would notice the mistake. 😃