The catalog of the first documenta was so popular when it was published that a second edition had to be reprinted within a very short time. The final tally shows 15,000 copies sold. While the exhibition was still running, the daily press reported rising catalog prices on the "black market".
In addition to the programmatic introduction by Werner Haftmann, which places the exhibition project in the context of the (post-war) present and explains the historical retrospective, the contributions by Heinz Lemke (foreword) and Stephan Hirzel ("On the architecture of 1905-1955") form the textual "framework" of the exhibition catalog. The key themes of Haftmann's introduction are the continuous - albeit interrupted - development of modern art since the turn of the century and the "encounter of recent German art with artists from other European countries" (Haftmann: Introduction, p. 25).
The majority of the book is made up of full-page black-and-white plates of works of painting and sculpture. In keeping with the canonical appreciation, selected examples are highlighted by color reproductions: This concerns the works of Paul Klee, Oskar Kokoschka, Max Beckmann, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Juan Gris, Joan Miró, Wassily Kandinsky and Umberto Boccioni. In addition, there are lists of the participating artists and their exhibited works, brief biographical information and lists of lenders, committees and donors.