Background: This is an unusual book that could have been published only early in the Nazi period. It has a wide variety of unflattering cartoons about Adolf Hitler, with commentaries explaining how false they were in light of Hitler’s success. The Nazis were in high spirits, and took pleasure in looking back on the insults they had suffered (and triumphed over). Once Hitler was established as the all-powerful dictator, such a book would have been an encouragement to critical views. A later edition of the book, with fresh cartoons, appeared later in 1933. And a final edition, with no new cartoons, appeared in 1938. Interestingly, Ernst Hanfstaengl, the editor, had since fled the country, and his name was removed. He was an early, Harvard-educated supporter of Hitler. Books of cartoons after 1933 made little mention of Hitler. For example, Ernst Herbert Lehmann’s Mit Stift und Gift. Zeitgeschehen in der Karikatur (Berlin: Carl Stephenson Verlag, 1939) contained many cartoons caricaturing foreign leaders, but had no pictures at all of Hitler. A pamphlet titled Unser aller Hitler, published by the Propaganda Ministry in 1940, did include several Hitler caricatures, though this was aimed at residents of parts of France incorporated into Germany. The book was popular. The copy I am working from brought the total in print to 40,000. There are a total of about 75 cartoons in the book. I provide here the ones I find most interesting. Immediately after the war, a pamphlet titled Hitler, wie ihn die Welt sah was published in the Soviet occupied zone. It printed about a dozen cartoons, some this book, but with a different purpose. It stated: “Germans! When you look at these cartoons, you will know why the Hitler state was destroyed!” The source: Ernst Hanfstaengl, Hitler in der Karikatur der Welt. Tat gegen Tinte (Berlin: Verlag Braune Bücher Carl Rentsch, 1933). Hitler in Caricature |
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