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    Artist

  • Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, originator

    • Title

  • Stinnesdiktatur oder Diktatur des Proletariats?

  • Physical Description

    1 poster : color, facsimile ; 94 x 69 cm

  • Date

    1920

  • Place of Publication

    Berlin

  • Notes

    Poster is a reproduction from the book "Anschläge : deutsche Plakate als Dokumente der Zeit, 1900-1960 ; 122 Blatt in den Druck- und Papierfarben der Originale," cataloged in the LBI Library under call number r (f) DD 232.5 A7 1963.

  • Summary

    The poster depicts a tumultuous scene rendered in black and white, with some parts highlighted in red. The group on the left side of the image consists of a large figure dressed in a suit and two smaller figures in military uniforms who hold swords dripping with blood. They face off against a group of smaller civilians holding a red KPD flag with a hammer and sickle, on the right side of the scene. A group of tiny figures with SPD arm bands are depicted fleeing from the KPD group to the military group.

  • Subject

    Posters, Facsimiles

  • Genre

    Political posters; Posters

  • Medium

    Posters, German, 1910-1920

  • Part Of

    Anschläge: Deutsche Plakate als Dokumente der Zeit 1900-1960, r (f) DD 232.5 A7 1963

  • Accession Number

  • URL

Biographical/Historical Information

The poster symbolizes the central concerns of the rise of Communism in the first years of the German Republic. A small contingent from the SPD (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschland) flees from the the KPD (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands) side to the capitalist-controlled military side, which is bathed in blood. The blood is an allusion to the repeated joining of the majority Social Democrats with the army against proletarian uprisings ("workers' murderers"). One of the two military officers bears a resemblance to Hans von Seeckt, chief of staff for the the Reichswehr since March 1920.The word “Stinnesdiktatur” is a wordplay, combining the existing word “Sinnesdiktatur” (= Dictatorship of the mind) with “Stinnes-Diktatur” (= Dictatorship of [Hugo] Stinnes). Hugo Stinnes (1870-1924), who is depicted in the poster in the upper left corner in his black suit with his black beard, was an entrepreneur and industrialist, who benefited largely during Germany’s inflation after World War I. The poster's message is that there is a choice between the dictatorship of the mind through Hugo Stinnes or the dictatorship of the proletariat.

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Citation

Stinnesdiktatur oder Diktatur des Proletariats?, Leo Baeck Institute, r (f) DD 232.5 A7 1963 [II.18].