“Bolshevism Without a Mask"

Title

“Bolshevism Without a Mask"

Description

An anti-bolshevik propaganda poster showing a monstrous figure whipping those lying at his feet while a city burns in the distance.

Creator

Agricola, Herbert

Source

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

https://www.bytwerk.com/gpa/posters2.htm

Publisher

Berlin : Druck H. Weidemann

Date

1937

Contributor

Jackie George

Rights

No known restrictions on publication in the U.S. Use elsewhere may be restricted by other countries' laws.

Format

1 print (poster) : lithograph, color ; 86 x 59 cm.

Language

German

Type

Propaganda

Analysis

Nazi strategy for political influence hinged largely on its ability to produce compelling propaganda. The propaganda was skillfully aimed at numerous groups on the fringe of society, and was broad enough in content and message to appeal to most average german citizens. Therefore, through such alarmist intimidation tactics, “the NSDAP succeeded in being all things to all men'' (Allen, 136).

During the time period between 1936 and 1938 the Nazi propaganda department, Reichspropagandaleitung, headed by Joseph Goebbels, initiated campaigns centralized around the idea of anti-Bolshevism. Facets of these campaigns included newspaper articles, books, and speeches. However, in 1937 the department established an anti-Bolshevist exhibition that would travel through the country. The accompanying pamphlet included sections bashing Marxism, Soviet Russia, and Bolshevik violence. The pamphlet even somehow managed to tie antisemetic claims into its argument around anti-Bolshevism. A subsection of the pamphlet was titled “Jewry is the Core of Bolshevism” and posited that Jews must be blamed for the Bolshevist rise to power because the Jews practiced “usury, fraud, deceit, and cowardly wretchedness” (Bytwerk). The poster advertises this exhibit, with the bottom text reading "Bolschewismus ohne Maske - vom 6. November 1937 bis 19. Dezember 1937 im Reichstagsgebäude” or in english, “Bolshevism without a mask - from November 6, 1937 to December 19, 1937 in the Reichstag building”.

At first glance, anyone would be able to grasp the grisly message portrayed in the poster, whether he can read german or not. In it, a figure cloaked in Bolshevik style, hat clear with the soviet star, stands menacingly over the mangled bodies of the ‘common man’. His ghastly, inhuman face smirks triumphantly while his whip drips the blood of his victims. Behind the towering man a city burns, adding the final detail to the chaotic, apocalyptic, and unsettling scene. The message is painfully clear and along the lines of, ‘this is what will happen to innocent germans if we let communist ideas run wild’. The communist party had been suppressed since 1933, due to Hitler outlawing meetings or speech against the Nazi government and the arrests of communist leadership (Lecture 7). However, this poster highlights the common nazi practice of fear mongering and exclusion that lead to their iron hold on power.

The target audience, moderate german citizens yet to convert to Nazi ideas, might find this poster compelling for several reasons. Humans are frequently selfish, usually harboring beliefs that work toward their own self interests, as such the duality between propaganda and paranoia is paramount. Propaganda is most effective in a society where fear and uncertainty germinate, but in the same way, the propaganda itself creates that atmosphere of paranoia. Should an average citizen see this poster, with its ghoulish colors and gruesome depictions, a feeling of fear or uncertainty may be evoked within him. He might think to himself that he must protect his family from the perceived threat. And what is promising to protect him from suffering the same fate as the victims in the poster? The Nazis, and Germans perceive them as “a young, energetic group pledged to rectify the situation” (Allen, 80). Fueled by the threat of other ideologies, the propaganda was usually aimed at destroying the merit of other political and societal groups. Therefore, otherwise kind people develop close minded beliefs in an act of self preservation.

The color scheme is noteworthy in the way it twists the messaging. The victims are both dressed in simple white tunics, which represent the ‘innocence’ of the corpses. Red and yellow, along with the yellow satchel tied to the attacker’s waist and the previously mentioned star hat, allude to the Soviet Union’s flag. As a result, the propaganda does not target individual bolsheviks, but an entire country. The depictions in the actual scene are offensive. The figure’s teeth are bared in a grin because of the slaughter before him, and his face is purposefully designed to resemble an ape. In this way, the poster disparages Soviet Bolsheviks, as they are being represented as less than human, beasts, and uncivilized barbarians eager to cause the destruction of civilization. The dehumanization of this group parallels the Nazi ideology of aryans, or the master race, verses nonaryans, all those inferior. Minorities and ‘undesirables’ were classified as non aryans and continually attacked in propaganda, the artist commonly employing techniques to exaggerate negative stereotypes and further alienate the target group. Such strategies were frequent in the nazi regime, and the resulting ostracization made targets feel even more separated from german society than before. The culmination of the Nazis obsession with propaganda, and the ceaseless nature at which it was produced, ultimately polarized communities and slowly radicalized citizens.

Nazi propaganda against the Soviet Union was interrupted for a period of a few years in August 1939, due to the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (or formally the Treaty of Non-Aggression) between Germany and the Soviet Union. In order to prevent a two front war, Hitler signed the treaty a few days before the invasion of Poland in the beginning of September 1939. However, the treaty was terminated less than two years after its ratification when Germany launched an attack on the Soviet Union in 1941 (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). Afterwards, the Nazis once again started their vendetta against the bolsheviks, with another anti-Bolshevist exhibit opening in 1942.

Allen, Willaim Sheridan. The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town 1930 - 1935. Chicago, Chicago Quadrangle Books, 1965.

Bytwerk, Randall. “The Great Anti-Bolshevist Exhibition (1937).” German Propaganda Archive, Calvin University, 2006, research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/anti-bolshevism.htm.

Lecture 7, History 1049, Head Instructor Brandon Bloch

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “German-Soviet Pact.” Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/german-soviet-pact.

Written by Jackie George

Collection

Citation

Agricola, Herbert, ““Bolshevism Without a Mask",” HIST 1049, accessed March 28, 2024, https://hist1049-20.omeka.fas.harvard.edu/items/show/16.

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