Postcards are fun, and you can have lots to enjoy for sometimes very little money. Your cards are supernice Dean!!!! I dont have many, and I dont have many general propaganda cards. I have a few awesome Victoria Luise cards but, I can play along with this card. First maybe a bit of background? Just skip if tl;dr ..
The use of postcards began some time in 1870. It was a cheap way to send short messages, instead of letters, that cost more postage back then. Before and during the great war\WWI, movies were only just invented, there was not tv or radio like we know it now. Postcards were used as the commercials we know today, and also for propaganda. I think, that, today we cant understand anymore what the effect of propaganda postcards was. The effect of postcards probably was great for soldiers and people at home, or homefront. And, yes, they were collected then too. Also, national socialist Germany used this way of propaganda as well. But that aint the timeperiod here. This is Imperial Germany.
I dont know if cardprinters could just make anything they want, or that maybe there was some censorship. When you look at all the cards, there are some 20 or so main themes, like departure, reunion, portraits, love, family, death, troop inspection, slogans, prisoners of war, wounded, front, the economic crisis and so on.
During the war, print media played a big role. It was important to make demons out of the enemy, to influence population. Also, it has a role in how gender roles were seen, and how the society was thinking about things, especially about the war, the destruction, death and the grief. They also show the icons, the import or popular people, and holy people of back then. A lot of cards, idolize the war, the victims, the battle and dying for the great war cause.
Sorry I dont have better pics, these are made with a phone. Click on them to watch it bigger ..
The card says "Helft uns siegen! Zeichnet Kriegsanleihe", or, "Help us win! Subscribe to warbonds". The text at the back has the name "Prof. Fritz Erler, München". The artist is Professor Fritz Erler, and we know, he also did some Third Reich nazi art. This card was made for the 6th Kriegsanleihe, in 1917. This card is a screenprint, and very nice if you see it closeby. Screenprinting is still done today, its different from etching or pressprinting. More info here, but, maybe William has more knowledge of it?
Long before WWI, warbonds were a way for governments to raise money for warfare. And after WWI, during WWII, Germany didnt but allieds used warbonds too. Banks mostly didn"t finance war back then, so, governments tricked civilians to loan money, by giving them a feeling they did something for their victory. Ofcourse the warbonds that people bought were hardly profiteable. But, lots of money was cut out of circulation, and this prevented devaluation of money.
In august 1914, the German banks started to make more money then the gold the German banks had could cover, to finance the war. Money got worth less and less. Kreigsanleihe slowed down the devaluation, but, didnt stop it, and it didnt raise enuff money to finance the war. In 1917, the Reichbank itself printed more money, and fully accepted devaluation of money, because Germany expected to win the war in 1918. We never know if Germany would win the war, because a strike by communist workers in ammunition factories prevented Germany to win anything at all anymore. This was another thing that nationalist Germans hated communists for after WWI. Hitler mentions this "betrayal" in Mein Kampf too.
The book in the background, actualy is the year 1917 subscription of Der Kompaß, of the "Organ der Knappschaftsberufsgenossenschaft für das Deutsche Reich", bound as a real book, with old 1917 library stamps and leather cover, very nice. Knappschaft, has something to do with mining, and miners. So its not a surprise, that this illustration turns up as advertisement in this too.
