The Enemy is on the Right/Choose Social Democrats German Social Democratic Party anti-Nazi election poster
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 20.000 inches (50.8 cm) | Width: 29.500 inches (74.93 cm)
Creator(s)
- Offsetdruck Hermann Baswitz (Printer)
Archival History
The poster was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1990.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection
Scope and Content
German, anti-Nazi political propaganda poster promoting the Social Democratic Party for the elections of 1932. The figure on the poster wears the brown garb of a Sturmabteilung (SA or Storm Trooper), a paramilitary organization that had a reputation for violence and intimidation against Jews and Nazi opponents. By June 1932, Germany was deep in the throes of the Great Depression, with six million unemployed. This economic distress contributed to a rise in the popularity of the Nazi Party who along with the Communist Party and the Social Democrats, were the most popular political parties in Germany. The Social Democrats ran on a platform of maintaining freedom, democracy and the Republic, honoring Germany’s political and financial obligations, job creation, governmental expenditure cuts to lower taxes, and free speech. When Germany held parliamentary elections in July of that year, the Nazi party won almost 40 percent of the electorate in the Reichstag to become the largest party in German parliament. However, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party failed to defeat incumbent Social Democratic President Paul von Hindenburg in the presidential election. With the backing of his majority party, Hitler was appointed Chancellor on January 30, 1933.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Offset lithographic German political poster on brown paper with a white linen backing. On the right stands a uniformed Sturmabteilung (Stormtrooper) on a small, red, circular platform. In his right hand is a pole with a white, triangular pennant bearing a black swastika flying at the top, and in his left is a black truncheon. He wears dark red shoes, a brown uniform of gaiters, knee length pants and a long sleeved shirt, and a shiny black helmet. On his left arm is a white armband with black and red stripes and a central black swastika. The man’s face has a red hue and his mouth is open with a word emerging from it. To the left are four lines of script in large red Sütterlin font.
front, bottom right on linen, handwritten, pencil : pI176 front, bottom left on linen, handwritten, pencil : 16/k
Corporate Bodies
- Germany. Reichstag
Subjects
- Germany--History--1918-1933.
- Elections
- Voting--Germany--History--20th century.
- Political campaigns--Germany--History--20th century.
- Germany--Politics and government--1918-1933--Pictorial works.
- Germany--Politics and government--20th century--Posters.
Genre
- Object
- Posters