Help us win
Help us win was an advertising poster for the sixth German war loan from the German Reich in the third year (spring 1917) of the First World War . It was created by Fritz Erler . The poster is considered the first official column poster of the war propaganda of the German Reich in the First World War.
description
The image is in a woodcut-like expressionistic style. It shows a soldier with a steel helmet and a gas mask around his neck and stick grenades as a symbol of modern industrial war. The soldier leans against a post with severed barbed wire - his gaze fixed on a distant target. His face is shaded by the steel helmet above, so that the eyes look almost glowing in their sockets. The expression on the face looks defiant. His posture with the tightly gripping hand on the wooden post should appear steadfast and firm.
history
In the third year of the war, German warfare was to be financed primarily through war bonds, which were issued every six months. But the total of nine war bonds only covered about half of the war costs. In that war year, the Supreme Army Command planned to overcome the war on the two fronts . The perseverance of the population was also weakened by the turnip winter . That is why a poster was used for the first time when the sixth war loan was issued. So far, a large number of posters - mostly by the issuing banks and institutes - had been used each time a war bond was issued; now a motif officially issued by the German Reich should be used. For this reason, a poster competition was organized in which a total of 12 artists took part. However, as their designs did not meet with the approval of the jury, the jury selected the painting by Munich artist Fritz Erler as the motif for the poster. The art historian Elisabeth von Hagenow considers it the most impressive of all the picture posters, which is unsurpassed even from today's perspective. This was followed by the poster. And you? in the autumn of 1917. The motif became so popular that, in a slightly modified form, it was not used again for the first English book edition in the West .
Individual evidence
- ^ Christian Koch: Image propaganda for the German war bonds in the First World War, pp. 15-16.
literature
- Toby Clark: Art and Propaganda. The political picture in the 20th century. Cologne 1997, p. 106 f.
- Christian Koch: Image propaganda for the German war bonds in the First World War. Munich 2013, ISBN 3-638-69320-1 .