World War I propaganda poster. The German Peace, circa 1918
World War I propaganda poster. The German Peace, circa 1918. During the final year of World War I, authorities in Italy and in other combatant countries were deeply alarmed by the Bolshevik Revolution and Russia's withdrawal from the war. They worried that defeatism would spread among their own war-weary populations, leading to a slackening of the war effort. The authorities responded both with repressive measures aimed at countering Red subversion and with propaganda urging their people to fight on to victory. Entitled La Pace Tedesca (The German peace), this poster shows a massive German soldier striding from the north, trampling men and women underfoot, and crushing them with what appears to be a wooden post wrenched from the ground. Blood drips over the title. The choice for the Italian people, the poster clearly suggests, is between continuing the fight and being crushed. The poster was produced in Bergamo for distribution in the war zone, the part of northern Italy bordering Austria-Hungary where most of the fighting in which Italy was involved took place and where the authorities were especially sensitive to the danger of antiwar sentiment inspired by the Russian Revolution
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1910-1919 Agitprop Bolshevik Bolshevism Canevari Clambering Demolish Destroy Eerie Hostage Irritation Silvio Spooky Stepping Stomping Terrified Threat
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