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This was one of the most famous propaganda pieces of the time. In it, Germany is depicted as ape-like, uncivilized "mad brutes" carrying a club with the word "kultur" (culture) and wearing a helmet with the word "militarism" on it. This creature is stepping out of the sea onto American soil carrying a woman, possibly Lady Liberty, in its hand. This poster encourages Americans to "Destroy this mad brute" by enlisting in the army, evoking a strong anti-German and conjuring up a spirit of nationalism for the civilized and endangered culture of America.
Another use of American propaganda was to encourage people to purchase Liberty Bonds, which would help fund the war effort. In this poster, the Germans are referred to as the Hun, a group of barbarians in ancient times. In order to encourage Americans to join the war effort, it was necessary to make them feel a sense of hatred and fear of the enemy, and what better way to do that than dehumanize the Germans? In propaganda like this, Germans were transformed into crazy, violent animals, making it easier to hate them rather than fellow humans from another land. In the picture above, the German face looms over the ocean, looking barbaric and crazed with his blood drenched fingertips grasping the dark land. I don't know about you, but this image definitely would have succeeded in making me fear the Germans and support the war effort by buying bonds to help stamp out the German threat.
Propaganda during the war was not just limited to the US and other Allied Powers. In the German illustration above, the British are depicted as cowards, hiding their weapons in churches so that the Germans won't fire on them. Like this one, some pieces of propaganda are more comical than fearful; for there are even ships disguised as floating churches and airplanes as churches flying in the sky! Yet the message was still clear and powerful to people of Germany, evoking a feeling of superiority and anger towards the cowardly enemy.
These are just a few examples of some of the propaganda shown during WWI. The feelings of anger, fear, and superiority that these pieces evoked were very effective in conjuring up a spirit of war among the fighting nations of the world, making it even more difficult to restore peace when the end of the war finally came about.
When thinking about propaganda I have always marveled at how well it really works. Now when we look at pictures and captions like the ones above, we laugh at them and sometimes think they are absurd. We can't understand why something such as a gorilla carrying Lady Liberty, representing the Germans stealing american liberty, would motivate people to join the war. You would think people could see through such a thing. This just shows how powerful images can be in the human mind.
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting view on the matter of propaganda is the way in which it can be used to coerce people into doing things, such as buying liberty bonds, as Chelsea pointed out above. By one way of looking at it, this could almost be considered cheating in business because propagandists are distorting public opinion on a certain matter. In the Liberty Bond piece above, the sellers are putting an undue motivation for people to purchase bonds. They are magnifying the necessity for to own bonds. George Orwell sums up the effect propaganda can have on people perfectly in his book 1984 when he says, “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” While all propaganda may not obliterate human understanding, it definitely manipulates and distorts people's views and minds.
When you think about it, when stores charge 99 cents or some amount of money that is just short of a big figure, they are using a sort of propaganda. They know that a person would likely shy away from paying $1000 for a television because $1000 seems like so much. However, if the television were to be sold for $999.99 it would cost "less than one thousand dollars, and thus be a good deal. IT doesn't make sense that people would fall for such a gag, and yet millions do every day.
It's interesting to note how negative the propaganda is, especially the US's towards Germany. And even when they were extremely exaggerated, they still did its job. Did most of the people really believe propaganda even when at times, it just completely lies about the enemies?
ReplyDeleteI found a site with examples of pro-German propaganda (link at end), which I think provides great insight of what the Germans fought for. Although Germany was not the only initiator of the war, the country definitely saw and attempted to utilize the war for its own gain. Numerous examples of German propaganda depict family life and prosperity. One of these is the first image illustrating a man protecting his wife and child. The text translates to "War loans help the guardians of your happiness." As the main aggressors in WWI, it was more difficult for Germany to portray itself as the victim of other countries. Instead, they promoted the idea that winning the war would bring a round of prosperity and happiness. http://www.ww1propaganda.com/world-war-1-posters/german-ww1-propaganda-posters
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting (and fitting) that the Germans used propaganda to show the Brits as sissies. Normally, we discuss how WWI propaganda instilled fear and animosity towards the enemy. However, the militaristic German society chose to portray their enemy as a bunch of cowards that simply had to be pulverized.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how effective the use of propaganda was during WW1. I believe that one reason for this amazing effectiveness was due to the fact that the only form of information people received was American newspapers and radio. Back in the early 1900s it was much easier to control information than it would be today, because nowadays people have many sources of information available to them due to the internet. Propaganda still, however, is possible, and is being used in countries such as China and North Korea
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