Picture Postcards from the Great War

 

The purpose of a picture postcard is to send a lighthearted greeting to friends and family. "We've arrived. Having a wonderful/awful time. Wish you were here. Wish we were back home. See you soon!" The picture is usually unimportant other than a depiction of a novel place. Sometimes it's a colorized photo of a hotel/motel/resort where the sender is staying. Sometimes it's a small painting of a scenic/exotic/impressive location they have visited. The postcard's illustration usually carries the delighted response of a tourist to a stress-free life. Foreign places are supposed to be fun. The thrill of adventure is in the traveling itself. A comprehensive account is not necessary. A brief and simple message is best. Let the picture do the talking.

In this postcard's bucolic picture, two soldiers plant and plow a farm field while another soldier rests. He cuts a large loaf of bread and shares it with few small children. It's a sunny day and seagulls flit over the freshly turned earth.

 

But these soldiers are dressed in uniforms of the Imperial German Army, wearing distinctive brimless German field caps. In the background a tall building, perhaps a church, is missing a roof. Not because it's under construction but because of violent destruction. This is actually a picture of war—the Great War that began in August 1914. The postcard has a printed caption:

„Wir Barbaren“ ~ We barbarians

Feldbestellung in Feindesland
~
Field preparation in enemy territory

It's a picture that could easily be mistaken for an illustration in a children's storybook. But this imagined scene of vigorous soldiers doing useful farm labor and kindly sharing their food with children was deliberately produced as propaganda for the German war effort. This postcard was number 1 in a series created by Arthur Thiele (1860-1936), a prolific German artist that I have featured several times on my blog. In 1909 he created a series of cards illustrating the public excitement for Graf Zeppelin's giant airships which I wrote about in Zeppelin Kommt!. In early 1910 he followed up with a similar postcard series on Halley's Comet which I featured in December 2021 in Der Komet Kommt!. 

The success of his earlier postcard series made Thiele a very popular and recognized artist. Though I don't know exactly when this particular series was produced, over the course of the war his publisher, Gebrüder Dietrich of Leipzig, printed thousands of cards for several postcard series by Thiele. Most seem to have been distributed or sold to German soldiers serving on both the Eastern and Western Fronts. 

 

 

The next postcard, number 151/2 in the series, shows a German soldier repairing soldiers' boots. He pauses to consider a small girl's request to mend her shoe as little brother tugs at his sister's smock. Curiously, a German navy sailor looks on. Behind them are two other soldiers planting trees and preparing a garden. In the background are demolished houses. Thiele's caption title reads:

 

 Der Kompagnieschuster
~
The Company Shoemaker

This postcard, like the previous one, has a message from a German soldier but both are missing a postmark. The soldier who sent this card likely included it in a letter. It is dated 3 May 1918.

The sentimental and pastoral nature of the two pictures mimicked Thiele's prewar themes. His wartime output followed his style of caricature with gentle exaggeration and light mockery. I featured another of Thiele's series in a story from September 2020 Auf Urlaub — On Leave. He typically made 8 illustrations for each series and sometimes included a poem that fit each picture.

 

 

But unlike the titles of Arthur Thiele's other series, his choice of „Wir Barbaren“ – “We barbarians” is clearly a deliberate attempt to re-frame the German public's perception of Germany's military actions since its premeditated invasion of France in August 1914. At the time France was already established as Germany's principal adversary. But in order to achieve their goal to defeat France and occupy Paris in 40 days, the German forces had to break through Belgium, a small nation situated in between northern France and western Germany.

 

 

c. 1917 WWI Poster for War Bonds, U. S. A.
Source: Wikimedia

In late July 1914 the Belgium government declared its position to remain a neutral country in the event of war. But on 2 August, just as German forces invaded nearby Luxembourg, Kaiser Wilhelm's government issued an ultimatum to Belgium, demanding unrestricted passage through the country in order to invade France. When it refused Germany declared war on Belgium and two days later, on 4 August, German troops crossed the border and began the Battle of Liège.

The invasion of Belgium lasted just 2 months, 3 weeks and 6 days, ending with the defeat of Belgian forces on 31 October 1914 and the German occupation of Belgium. Despite being vastly outnumbered the Belgian army put up a fierce and courageous defense that delayed the German advance long enough for Britain and France to mount a stronger response to the German attack. By mid September the allied forces stopped the Germans at the First Battle of the Marne. After a few more terrible battles the belligerent armies reached a stalemate along a long line of trenches that became known as the Western Front.  

 

 

c.1914 British Enlistment Poster
Source: Flicker

But the Belgian people were not forgotten. In fact their horrible predicament as an occupied country became a recurring motif depicted in posters and editorial cartoons. In these two posters for American war bonds and British army recruitment we can see how the German invasion was used to inflame hearts and minds. Such was the power of art to say more than words, either spoken or read.

 

 

 

In the third postcard of Thiele's "Wir Barbaren" series, a German soldier, one arm bandaged in a sling, helps a pretty young woman carry her basket of laundry with his good hand. Two more soldiers buy produce at a village market. In the background are demolished buildings. The caption reads:

Ein Liebesdienst
~
A labor of love

This card has a postmark from the German military postal service with a date of 22 June 1916. It is addressed to a Fräulein Elsa Garvisch of Berlin, presumably the soldier's sweetheart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fall of Belgium was only a start to the horrors brought on by the Great War. The prevailing prewar opinion was that the conflict would last only a few months at most. This was dreadfully wrong. The German occupation led to a blockade of food imports to  Belgium as well as to Germany. Soon the privation and possible starvation of Belgian and French civilians became a grave concern around the world.

 

 

1916 Advert for a watercolor exhibition
by Laure Brouardel
Source: Wikimedia

Other artists took up the challenge to illustrate the war. Though photography and motion pictures were advanced enough to capture genuine realism, traditional art remained the easiest and quickest way to convey strong emotions and incite a sense of outrage. Pictures of the destruction and distress brought on by the German attack were often used to request aid assistance for civilians caught up in these areas. Many pictures, like this poster from a 1916 French art exhibition, used images of women and children facing a shattered landscape.  

The German occupation of Belgium did not stop Belgian resistance, which not surprisingly, took the form of guerrilla fighters attacking German soldiers. This set off reprisals by German troops against Belgian civilians that included mass murder and deportation during the invasion and later occupation. Here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry on what became known as the Rape of Belgium.

 

Throughout the war, the German army systematically engaged in numerous atrocities against the civilian population of Belgium, including the intentional destruction of civilian property. German soldiers murdered over 6,000 Belgian civilians, and 17,700 died during expulsions, deportations, imprisonment, or death sentences by court. The Wire of Death [a lethal electric fence created by the German military along the Dutch–Belgian border] maintained by the German Army (to kill any) civilians trying to flee the occupation, was used to murder over 3,000 Belgian civilians, and 120,000 were forced to work and deported to Germany.  German forces destroyed 25,000 homes and other buildings in 837 communities in 1914 alone, and 1.5 million Belgians (20% of the entire population) fled from the invading German army.  

 

 

This organized retaliation against Belgian civilians used brutal force with appalling violence. It earned German troops the notorious reputation as "Barbarians." These savage acts of vengeance were what Thiele's picture postcards tried to refute by using imagery that contradicted the "barbaric" characterization of the ordinary German soldier.

 

 

Number 4 in the series has a soldier giving a young lad a ride on a horse. Just beyond are army farriers putting a shoe on another horse. The forge is inside a ruined barn. Though all the armies in WWI had cavalry regiments, mounted soldiers proved to have little use in combat. The majority of horses were used as draft animals to pull wagons and artillery. The caption reads:

Gute Kameraden
~
Good comrades

The card was sent by fieldpost from a Bayern/Bavarian infantry regiment on 10 October 1916. The German military post transported millions of postcards, letters, and parcels every week. In my collection I've never found any postcards showing overt signs of censorship, with the exception of those sent by prisoners of war. However all soldiers had their outgoing mail inspected, here marked with a purple rubber stamp of S.B.

 

 

 

 

 

 

c. 1915 Irish Recruitment Poster
Source: Flicker

 

The Germany navy was responsible for many outrages on the seas, notably in its use of submarine fleets to attack merchant ships and passenger liners. The most infamous was the sinking of the RMS Lusitania on 7 May 1915 by a German U-boat 11 miles (18 km) off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland. At least 1,197 passengers, crew and stowaways, including 128 American citizens, perished in the attack. This tragic offense, exacerbated by the German sub commander refusing to allow passengers to escape on life boats as required by international law, significantly turned American public support against Germany. Two years later unrestricted submarine warfare was sited as one reason for the United States to declare war on Germany.

This poster is a British artist's rendering of the Lusitania as it begins to sink, flames bursting from it funnels. Desperate women, children, and men struggle to stay above the water. The slogan reads, "Irishmen Avenge the Lusitania. Join an Irish Regiment To-day."

 

 

 

 

 

c. 1915 WWI British army recruitment poster
Source: Wikimedia

Earlier in the war on 16 December 1914 the Imperial German Navy attacked the British ports of Scarborough, Hartlepool, West Hartlepool and Whitby. The bombardments killed 122 civilians and wounded 443 people. This attack provoked great public outrage at Germany, and quite a lot, too, was directed at the British navy for its failure to protect the British coastline. A poster artist painted a dramatic picture of a little girl standing with a baby next to their destroyed house. "Men of Britain! Will you stand this? Enlist Now."

 

 

 

 

The fifth postcard depicts German soldiers helping village women at their chores. One soldier scrubs laundry in a big wooden tub. Another minds a baby while his comrade sharpens a scythe. Another soldier picks apples from a tree as a woman holds her apron out to catch them. In the background are buildings with subtle signs of bomb damage. The caption reads:

Immer hilfsbereit
~
always helpful

This card has a postmark date of 29 June 1915 with an inspection stamp of a Königlich Preussisches / Royal Prussian battalion.

 

 

 

As the war progressed stories of German brutality and cruelties were widely reported in British, American, and French newspapers. However thorough investigation into the whole truth was rarely possible and government censorship often restricted full, or even any, disclosure. As Aeschylus, a Greek dramatist from around 550 BC, wrote, "In war, truth is the first casualty."

 

c. 1916 WWI Poster for War Bonds, U. S. A.
Source: Wikimedia

In this 1916 poster for U. S. War Bonds, a menacing German soldier plods through desolate ruins with his rifle and a bloody knife. The message is simple and direct, "Help Stop This."

 

 

 

Number six in Thiele's Barbaren series is a playful picture of a jolly stout soldier preparing a meal at a farmhouse stove. A group of women and girls watch excitedly as he stirs a pot. To one side another soldier admires a caged pet bird. Out the doorway in the distance is a ruined structure. The card's caption reads:

Der deutsche Koch
~
The German chef

This card is dated 3 June 1916 with another inspection stamp of the Königlich Preussisches.

 

 

 

The German Pickelhaube helmet was a perfect symbol to define all Germans from the Kaiser to the lowly infantryman in cartoons and posters. One German army regiment used a frightening emblem that was even more disturbing. 

Princess Victoria Louise in 1909,
as Honorary Colonel of the II. Prussian Life Hussars Regiment
Source: Wikimedia

Here is a postcard from 1909 showing Kaiser Wilhelm's daughter, Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia in the uniform of the "Empress Friedrich" 2nd Regiment of the Life Hussars. Her hat, a fur busby, has the regiment's traditional Totenkopf, a skull and crossed bones cap badge. The photograph was taken on the occasion of the transfer of command of the regiment to the princess.

 

WWI U.S. Navy recruitment poster
from a New York Herald cartoon by W.A. Rogers
Source: Wikimedia

 

A few years later in 1917 an imaginative American artist combined the pirate's skull badge with the Pickelhaube to create a terrifying German monster striding through the sea with blood dripping from his cutlass and dead bodies lying beneath the water. The slogan is, "Only The Navy Can Stop This."

 

 

The seventh postcard could be a scene from a movie. Two soldiers chopping kindling outside a house have just received their mail. One soldier has a large parcel and is offering a cake to the woman who lives there. Her little girl gleeful eats a sweet treat as their dog begs for a taste. The caption reads:

Geteilte Freude
~
Shared joy

What makes this a special card is that the soldier who sent it has written annotations all over the picture. On the left corner and along the bottom edge are an ironic record of an anniversary.

Französischer Feldzug ~ French campaign  1914–1915+1916

 

A lengthy message on the back is dated 23 January 1916. Unknown to the writer and recipient, of course, was that the war was not even close to ending. They would need to endure, and hopefully survive, 34 more months.

 

 

 

Illustrating public opinion with art has always been a challenge, especially in wartime. During WWI every nation had special government departments to devise material and media that attempted to explain, excuse,  sway or control its own citizenry's sentiment to the war. As time went on the conflict showed little chance of ending, so art began to use more sensational imagery.

 

1918 Australian WWI Poster
by Norman Lindsay (1879–1969)
Source: Wikimedia

 

This Australian poster from 1918 shows a gigantic grotesque monster about to crush the earth in its bloody hands. On it fearsome head is a Pickelhaube. A huge question mark is the only caption.

 

 

The final postcard of Arthur Thiele's "Wir Barbaren / We Barbarians" series is a charming image of two soldiers playing with children and giving two little ones a ride in a wheelbarrow filled with fresh hay. The only hint of war is the derelict building beside them. The caption title reads:

heimkehr vom Felde
~
return from the field

The message on the back is dated 16.8.1917.

 

 

 

I admire Arthur Thiele's talent for creating clever caricatures of German life. His prolific output makes him a favorite with many postcard collectors, who, like me, try to find his complete series. What impressed me about his wartime work was the way he captured lighthearted moments of military life and made them attractive, even charming, pictures. The gentle humor he adds to them resemble his other postcards made in peacetime. They were perfect pictures to send to the folks back home. But they were an illusion and not entirely honest or realistic pictures of war.

 

World War I propaganda poster
for enlistment in the US Army
Source: Wikimedia

 

In this last poster from 1918 a hideous ape-like creature roars as it clutches a half-naked woman with one arm and holds a big cudgel labeled "Kultur" in the other. Atop its head is a German army Pickelhaube. The slogan reads, "Destroy This Mad Brute. Enlist."  It is a poster originally made in Britain and then reused in 1917 by an American publisher. The resemblance of the monster to King Kong is accidental since the first Kong movie was released in 1933.

 

 

 

Before the war the German army and its command was acknowledged as one of the best trained forces in the world. In the 19th century its armies had won several European wars, notably the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 when it acquired the French territory of Alsace–Lorraine. Yet during the Great War of 1914-18, there is no question that the Imperial German military ordered and authorized numerous actions that were contrary to established international conventions and treaties. Thousands of civilians were murdered or forced into extreme adversity leading to death. Countless terrible war crimes were committed by German troops on both civilian and military prisoners. No doubt there are many more violations that were never reported and remain unknown.

 

When I first began writing this story for my blog I originally planned to show only the eight postcards of Arthur Thiele's series. But as I translated his title captions I realized that his postcards were trying to cover up a lie with a gentle romantic deception. I do not know if he was actually hired by a German government information agency, but I'm convinced he was obviously painting pictures of amicable, generous soldiers for two kinds of patrons. The first patron group were the soldiers in the field, hardened by war, death and destruction. Thiele's images of kindly soldiers were for men who imagined what they used to be like before the war.

The second group of patron were for the folks back home, the recipients of the postcards. These were people too far from the battlefield to understand its horrors, but who needed reassurance that their sons and husbands had not turned into terrible beasts of war—barbarians. It was a gentle deception that must have worked since many of Thiele's postcards were used by soldiers and then preserved by their families. So I think Arthur Thiele accomplished his artistic commission by creating a little fantasy world where Germans could pretend the war and its gruesome consequences did not exist.

 

The reason I expanded this story to include images from the opposite extreme of wartime art was to demonstrate how perspective changes truth. The poster artists were marketing to a different patron, one attracted to  heroic and thrilling pictures. Clearly not all German soldiers were monsters, but they were still the enemy. These poster pictures are example of how art was used to arouse public opinion with hatred. Distorting truth with nightmarish fantasy images was only a means to an end. 

 

I find it profoundly sad that I make this comparison of art from the Great War at a time when there are people now enduring equally terrible wars in Ukraine and Palestine. The pictures from these conflicts are as horrific as those in any other war. But unlike the poster and postcard art, these modern pictures are very real. You can not look at film clips of incredible destruction and devastation or photographs of weeping parents and starving children and not be moved by their suffering. In 2024 we must not hide in a fantasy world that pretends war does not exist. Humanity and history demand that we must relentlessly strive to end it.

 

 

 

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where a picture postcard is worth a thousand words.