Simplicissimus, No 50, 11th December 1940

Simplicissimus No. 50, 11th December 1940, 45 Jahrgang. (Years of publication) (The name is a Latin term meaning simplest and is the name given to the protagonist of a 17th-century novel, Der Abenteuerliche Simplicissimuss, in which a naive and innocent boy with the name Siplicissimus, navigates a corrupt 17th-century Europe). Simplicissimus was a long-running political satire magazine published continuously from 1896 through to September 1944, when, as for the majority of print publications in the Third Reich, paper shortages forced it to cease. The magazine was popular and known for its biting satire, attacking bourgeois morality, the church, civil servants, lawyers and the military. During the Weimar period it attacked the politics of the left and the right equally, including numerous Adolf Hitler caricatures, and these continued into 1933 even after the Nazis regime assumed power. However, later in 1933, Simplicissimus underwent Gleichschalting - the process of coordination and Nazification, which forced publications to align with National Socialist ideology and state control. This involved replacing journalists who didn't conform, sacking Jewish or those of non-Aryan descent and ensuring that all content served approved Nazi objectives. Following this Simplicissimus published increasing anti-Semitic, anti-British and anti-American material which hardened once Germany was at war. Simplicissimus was published from 4th April 1896 to No 37 to the 13th September 1944. The cover picture shows a well-dressed man and woman looking at an object in a china shop. The title and text reads: In the china shop - As a reject with minor defects, we also have this Cupid, Madam! - That's not going well - it's supposed to be a wedding present!'. The cartoon can be read on two levels, firstly as simple social satire. A bourgeois couple is presented with a reject Cupid figure, which is meant as a wedding gift. The humour is based on the idea that a defective symbol of love is a bad omen for a newly married couple, representing a flawed relationship from the start. However, its darker meaning is that Cupid, a symbol of classical and romantic love, is presented as a reject with minor defects. This is a veiled reference to the Nazi regime's ideology of racial purity. The defective or imperfect figure can be interpreted as a metaphor for individuals, particularly Jews, deemed unfit or flawed by the Nazi state and by using a seemingly benign joke, the cartoon normalises and spreads the anti-Semitic message under the guise of light-hearted satire which was a common tactic in Nazi propaganda

Anti-semitic Antisemitism Benign Bourgeois Cupid Darker Deemed Defective Defects Firstly Flawed Guise However Idea Imperfect Individuals Interpreted Joke Levels Light-hearted Long-running Madam Meaning Meant Message Metaphor Omen Particularly Purity Reference Regimes Reject Representing Seemingly Simplicissimus Spreads Supposed Tactic Thats Unfit Veiled Well-dressed

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