With all the modern communications we enjoy, posters have been mostly relegated to an afterthought, a yard sign with a catchy typeface and a photo of the candidate. Not so in an earlier era without radio or television. In a fractured country, posters were the most widespread and effective means of visual propaganda and crowd persuasion.
The advent of widespread off set lithography printing in the late 19th century not only led to the development of the Arte Nouveau style, but favored a heavy, bold line, mostly devoid of shading. In peace time, a local printer would be turning out posters for local products; in troubled times or war time, the printer would have a lot of business from the politicians and the private militias.
Below, are a few examples culled from web sites on German history.
Click on photos to see enlargements
This poster recruits for a Freikorp in Silesia to counter the new state of Poland's grab for German lands. Simular posters would have been seen west of the Rhine to counter French territorial aims. Once formed for home defence, the milita leaders could repurpose them for their own ambitions.
Ironically, below is an AMERICAN patriotic poster, but drawn in classic propaganda poster style. It is an appeal to Germanic American citizens (Like Otto Adler or his uncle Benjamin Schneider) to but US war bonds (the Third Liberty Loans Series, in this case)
Below, a Nazi poster urging people to vote for the coalition of conservative parties--if you couldn't bring yourself to vote Nazi, then at least vote for somebody they would form a coalition with.
And a Social Democrats poster--telling people to sweep out both the authoritarian and extremist parties, the Nazis and the Communists. This is the sort of poster I imagine Albert Trau drawing.
The caption reads "Away With Them! For that reason vote list #1 Social Democrats" The skull in a helmet represents the militarists/monarchists
Anti Semitic posters were a feature of German life both before and after the Nazi's rise to power.
The one below claims Jewishness is simple organized crime. It is a sterling example of the graphic use of a heavy, strong line and a BRIGHT contrasting color.
And another racist poster warning against race mixing. For what it's worth, racial bloodlines were actually stricter in the American South. Most Southern states followed a "one drop" rule. If you could be proved to have any heritage from anybody who was considered black, you were black. The Nazis seemed to set a limit at one sixteenth or one thirty second. Nothing like a liberal view.
This poster recruits for a Freikorp in Silesia to counter the new state of Poland's grab for German lands. Simular posters would have been seen west of the Rhine to counter French territorial aims. Once formed for home defence, the milita leaders could repurpose them for their own ambitions.
Ironically, below is an AMERICAN patriotic poster, but drawn in classic propaganda poster style. It is an appeal to Germanic American citizens (Like Otto Adler or his uncle Benjamin Schneider) to but US war bonds (the Third Liberty Loans Series, in this case)
Below, a Nazi poster urging people to vote for the coalition of conservative parties--if you couldn't bring yourself to vote Nazi, then at least vote for somebody they would form a coalition with.
And a Social Democrats poster--telling people to sweep out both the authoritarian and extremist parties, the Nazis and the Communists. This is the sort of poster I imagine Albert Trau drawing.The caption reads "Away With Them! For that reason vote list #1 Social Democrats" The skull in a helmet represents the militarists/monarchists
Anti Semitic posters were a feature of German life both before and after the Nazi's rise to power.The one below claims Jewishness is simple organized crime. It is a sterling example of the graphic use of a heavy, strong line and a BRIGHT contrasting color.
And another racist poster warning against race mixing. For what it's worth, racial bloodlines were actually stricter in the American South. Most Southern states followed a "one drop" rule. If you could be proved to have any heritage from anybody who was considered black, you were black. The Nazis seemed to set a limit at one sixteenth or one thirty second. Nothing like a liberal view.
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