Cultural and Critical Studies : War Propaganda

        The second picture I have chosen is a piece called Adolf the Superman swallows gold and spouts rubbish (See Appendix 2) by the artist John Heartfield. This piece was made in 1932 as part of many anti-Hitler and Nazism that John Heartfield was involved with. In the illustration, the image of Hitler appears as an X-Ray. Strong contour lines make up the outline of his body. The eye is drawn to the outline of his head first, recognising him as Hitler. The outline of his body in stark contrast to the background then leads the eye to the clear lines of the swastika which is in replacement of a heart. Then the viewer’s gaze is guided to the coins that substitute Hitler’s spine. The colours of the image are neutral colours of black, white, brown and beige. This gives the piece a faded and rough appearance. Partly, the colours used are due to how the illustration has been made, using a technique called photomontage, which I will go into more detail later, but may also have been used to give a satirical image a sense of seriousness. There is no text on the poster but the title, Adolf the superman swallows gold and spouts rubbish, sums up the artist’s opinion and matches the message from the picture, that Hitler takes money for his campaign his manifesto is a lie. The perceived texture is rough. There are few clean lines and it appears as if it has many layers. There is a sharp contrast between the arms and outer body to his face and the swastika. The swastika, an ancient symbol adopted by the Nazi’s as a symbol of nationality became the most prominent and notorious symbol of what the Nazi’s stood for so it must have been important for John Heartfield to make this symbol prominent in the picture. The black of the outer body is to highlight the X-ray appearance of the inner body and the objects inside the ribcage. Hitler’s head appears larger than his body which could imply the belief that he is egotistical. The coins in replacement of the spine are not made to represent the size of the spine but are larger. The size of the coins could be to emphasise their importance in communicating John Heartfield’s message. The negative space, as in the previous piece Ein Volk…, is to highlight the main subject of the poster: Hitler. The image of Hitler fills the frame and similarly to the previous piece, the picture is focussed on his head and upper body. This also puts across the significance of the subject. The image is a photomontage, assembled photographs and images, which were sometimes photographed to create a seamless image. John Heartfield is rumoured to develop this technique with other members of the Dada movement he belonged to. The objects and images in the piece I am analysing have been layered on top of each other to replace the objects that would normally appear. The swastika replaces the heart and the coins replace the spine. There is also the Iron Cross which looks to be in the same position the kidney would be but I am not sure of the relevance of this, apart from the Iron Cross being a restored by Hitler in the Second World War as a military decoration. Compared to the realism of the previous piece this piece has a more abstract composition for example Hitler’s body is not anatomically correct. This helps to create unease in the observer and maybe sway their opinion that Hitler is a menace and not just for the overt reasons communicated in the image. The subject is centred and balanced by the objects within the body. This could be to focus the viewer on the objects so to convince them of their importance within the message.

        The term propaganda originated in the 16th century, but it wasn’t widely used until after the beginning of the 20th century. It is best described as the persuasion of anyone of any beliefs. For this reason, propaganda was a popular tool for political action and at times of conflict. Infact propaganda was a vital apparatus to the success of the war effort in both World War I and II. Propaganda had to work on many levels and for many different people. Propaganda from different countries may have had different agendas. Some propaganda was to encourage people to support the war effort, some was to create fear of the enemy (see Appendix 3) and some was anti-war. However nearly all propaganda was emotive and created to stir up a strong emotional response to sway people into engaging in whatever message was being conveyed. Propaganda conveyed a message that could be read by anyone and this is why posters were such a successful device. Posters could be put up anywhere and were effective, as images stayed in people’s minds longer than speeches or just the written word.

The two pictures I have chosen are not so typical of the style of War Propaganda. Much of the propaganda, especially in the Second World War were much more emotive than the two images I have selected (See Appendix 4 and 5). Typically, War Propaganda tried to emotionally involve people into the desired response or to insight fear (See Appendix 5) by mixing bold images and text. However, there are characteristics from the style that the two images I have chosen both contain. They have both been created with an opinion or ideology that an individual wants to get across to many. John Heartfield’s piece is quite satirical, with Hitler’s open shouting mouth, which makes him appear brutish rather than clever. Satire and humour was a trait of some war propaganda, especially British Propaganda (see Appendix 6). The Ein Volk piece has a clear message of solidarity that makes the people proud to be part of one nation and Hitler’s image is the symbol of the hopes of the people. Although I can’t find any reliable sources for the date of this image, I think it was around the start of the war. I am assuming this poster would have been to boost morale and keep the people of the opinion that Hitler’s regime was the best for the people. Morale boosting and keeping the war effort in the minds of people was a common trait in war propaganda.

War propaganda is still used today and past posters and designs have an influence on the images created for modern times (See Appendix 7). Although the term propaganda has connotations of people being mislead and lied to, the term simply means the spreading of ideas to help a cause and has been used, especially in anti-war messages, to communicate opinions and beliefs.

Bibliography

Books and Journals

Balchin W G V, The Swastika, in Folklore, Taylor & Francis Ltd, London

Dabrowski M, Photomontuer: John Heartfield, The Museum of Modern Art, No 13

Rainbird S, John Heartfield: Glasgow, The Burlington Magazine, Vol 131 No 1034

Richter H, Dada: Art and Anti-art, Thames and Hudson, UK

Ross S T, Understanding Propaganda, The Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol 36 N1

Taylor PM, British Propaganda of the 20th Century, Edinburgh

Websites

http://www.solarnavigator.net/history/iron_cross.htm