The German Political Propaganda Postcard

This thesis sets out to establish that from the 1800's the picture postcard was an important component of popular German culture and that between 1914 and 1945 it was used as an instrument of political propaganda. The picture postcard was pioneered in Germany in the 1880's and 1890's and by 1900 a craze had developed, not only in Germany but across Europe and North America, for the sending and collecting of picture postcards. This fashion lasted for several years and was revived by the First World War but declined rapidly after the war, with the exception of a few countries - notably Germany. In Germany interest in the picture postcard continued almost unabated, the number of subjects and aspects of German life covered on the picture postcard being as varied as hitherto. One important use of the picture postcard was for political propaganda. From the 1890's patriotic postcards were common in Germany and in 1898-99 an anti-French campaign was waged on postcards over the Dreyfus affair, soon followed by an anti-British campaign over the South African War. These campaigns were characterised by the use of vigorous cartoons and caricatures, and the same quality of vituperation and vehemence reappeared on German postcards during the First World War. Postcards were also used in the war loan campaigns and to help build up wartime personalities and heroes, as well as to raise money for the war charities. The raising of money by selling postcards was taken much further by the Nazis, who also greatly extended the range of propaganda conducted on the picture postcard so that now, in retrospect, the postcards produced under the Third Reich form an almost complete pictorial history of the years 1933-45