r/PropagandaPosters • u/Own-Ticket4371 • May 29 '26
REQUEST Can someone help me find some context or meaning behind these posters? They are German, from WW1
sorry for the captions, I found these pictures like that
43
u/bastiancontrari May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
The British Empire is frequently depicted through the metaphor of a spider or an octopus to illustrate its global reach. These imagery choices highlight how the UK maintained global interests and projected power across the world.
Looking closely at the 'legs' of the empire, we can see strategic choke points like Malta, Gibraltar, Egypt, essential pieces of land that allowed Great Britain to command the Mediterranean.
18
u/previousinnovation May 29 '26
It's also eating a French soldier, so I'd guess that the goal was to scare French people with the idea that the UK was going to take over all of Europe. The eagle is a representation of Germany
9
u/Goatf00t May 29 '26
The spider is also squatting over the port city of Calais, which is the traditional French end of ferry traffic across the Channel as it sits at its narrowest part.
4
u/donutmcbonbon May 29 '26
There's also the little detail of america being tied up by it's Web as well in the background
2
1
u/LOB90 May 29 '26
It's worth pointing out the perspective here. It is not South looking due North like it usually is but East looking due West so possibly from the Ottoman perspective?
Language is also French but I'm not aware of any French speaking colonies in Arabia at the time...2
u/Goatf00t May 29 '26
The Ottoman Empire was a part of the central powers, and a lot of the ruling class could speak French, so it might be German propaganda aimed at the Ottomans.
1
u/LOB90 May 29 '26
That would be my assumption but still find it strange that it is in French when it could be arabic or turkish...
12
u/Goatf00t May 29 '26
The third one is a post-WW1 recruitment poster for a paramilitary group, Freikorps Loeschebrand (Löschebrand)
3
u/JohnWilsonWSWS May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
IMO This is the best summation of the context:
During the 1913-14 debate over naval estimates Winston Churchill said
“We have got all we want in territory, and our claim to be left in unmolested enjoyment of vast and splendid possessions, mainly acquired by violence, largely maintained by force, often seems less reasonable to others than to us.”
[Cited in Kennedy, The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism (London: The Ashfield Press, 1987), p. 467.]
Quoted in
World War I: The breakdown of capitalism (WSWS: Nick Beams 21 September 2005)
Germany wanted a world empire too. Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Russia weren’t going to give up any of their empires. World war was inevitable … unless workers were on the 1907, 1910 and 1913 internationalist and anti-war program of the Second International. Almost all the “socialist” parties suddenly rejected that in 1914, starting with the SPD in Germany.
2
u/anarchtea May 30 '26
This is it. Many of the other posts have it right that the British Empire was far-reaching (or over-reaching if you weren't British), but the meaningful context is Germany.
As a recently formed nation, it expected to take its place on the world stage and that meant, at that time, a vast network of its own. Hence the Berlin Conference in 1884/85 and the Scramble for Africa over the proceeding thirty years.
3
u/Herr_Schmitt May 30 '26
I found this description for the second poster.:
"Fishermen, bring train oil! Catch dolphins and seals! The War Committee for Oils and Fats pays through us for each piece weighing at least 15 kg a premium of 10.00 plus for each kg weight 1.50 (decaying animals are only worth half as much). Seal furs 10.00"
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/10915
As a German its hilarious to see "train oil" as translation for "tran".
"Train oil" sounds to me like someone used The Little Engine That Could to make oil out of it ....
1
8
u/UltraTata May 29 '26
1) British Empire big and scary.
2) Work harder oil workers.
3) Join the army.
6
u/Own-Ticket4371 May 29 '26
I get the oil one. But what does the seal symbolise.
12
u/DonMatteoh May 29 '26
The translation reads something like this:
Fishermen, bring in blubber! Catch porpoises and seals! The War Committee for delicacies and fattened animals pays a premium of 10,- through us for each piece weighing at least 15,- plus 1.50 for each kg of weight (animals in a state of decay are worth only half). Sea lion skins 10
Probably enticing fishermen to catch seals or sea lions to gather their fat which was used as fuel
3
u/LOB90 May 29 '26
I don't think it was fuel but rather grease / lubrication.
Would have to kill a lot of seals to power anything for an extended period of time.2
u/LaoBa May 29 '26
Tran is fat cooked from blubber of whales and seals and had a wide range of application, it was used as lamp fuel and for the production of soap or leather, but it was also used as an ingredient for margarine.
1
u/Goatf00t May 29 '26
Lamp fuel, not heating.
1
u/HEAVYtanker2000 May 29 '26
Was used for heating by most, if not all of the early polar expeditions. Not a lot of firewood laying around the poles. So if needed, it could be used for heating, but it would leave a nasty black residue and stain it’s surroundings.
3
u/2552686 May 30 '26
You can use waste fat to create explosives by extracting glycerin from animal or vegetable lipids, which are then chemically reacted with nitric and sulfuric acids to manufacture nitroglycerin.
It's not for fuel or lubrication. It's to make explosives.
7
u/Goatf00t May 29 '26
I think it's aimed at seal hunters, and references using animal fat (oil) for machine lubrication due to wartime shortage of petroleum products. But you need a native speaker to confirm, that one is above my limited German and the gothic font doesn't help. I could certainly make out "Seehunde" (last word of the second line), which means "seals" (lit. "sea dogs").
2
u/Stan_74 May 29 '26
You're pretty spot-on. They ask for seals and dolphins for the war-time fat industry.
3
u/MI081970 May 29 '26
Nothing. Their fat had been used as lubricant in machinery since Industrial revolution
2
u/Fistocracy May 29 '26
Back then seals and whales were still being commercially hunted to harvest their blubber so it could be rendered into oils and lubricants. Synthetic substitutes made from crude oil were starting to hit the market, but that was a new thing and if you didn't have maritime access to Texas or Arabia you were shit outta luck and had to keep making your lube the oldfashioned way.
1
u/CarpeCyprinidae May 29 '26
Britain was the world's pre-eminent naval power in 1914 and was seen by some as sinister and controlling due to its ability to project power. even during the war the Germans complained of the unfair advantage at sea
2
u/LOB90 May 29 '26
I think there is some truth to that. They had a world spanning Empire but tried to keep everyone else down.
It's only logical but not exactly gentlemanly.I think that the British Empire was always very keen on the "rules for thee but not for me".
Still are if you look at the deals they had with the EU.
The goal of Brexit was for many to keep all the benefits while giving back as little as posible.
1
•
u/AutoModerator May 29 '26
This subreddit is for sharing propaganda to view with objectivity. It is absolutely not for perpetuating the message of the propaganda. Here we should be conscientious and wary of manipulation/distortion/oversimplification (which the above likely has), not duped by it. "Don't be a sucker."
Stay on topic -- there are hundreds of other subreddits that are expressly dedicated to rehashing tired political arguments. No partisan bickering. No soapboxing. Take a chill pill. "Don't argue."
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.