Hitler in Cartoons

Lampooning the Evil Madness of a Dictator

Tony Husband

• Publisher: Arcturus
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781788880398
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World War II
• Index: History

Few humans in history have been satirized as remorselessly as Adolf Hitler. It was easy to do. You could "Hitlerize" almost anything by adding a cow's lick hairstyle and a toothbrush mustache.While his own side, the Nazis, portrayed him as a demigod, the perfect leader, and father of the nation, his enemies took it in the other direction, drawing him as a knock-kneed simpleton, a butcher with bloodied hands, an evil ghoul spewed up by the Abyss, and even an egg that had cracked. Hitler in Cartoons is the illustrated biography of a megalomaniac and control freak. Starting with his rise in the 1920s and ending with his fall in 1945, this book gives you Hitler in the raw as seen through the eyes of some of the world's greatest cartoonists, including Herb Block, D. R. Fitzpatrick, Ding Darling, E. H. Shepard, Bernard Partridge, Leslie Illingworth, and many others. The brilliant images they produced will haunt you as well as make you laugh.

Chapter 1: On the way up

The central idea behind much German propaganda of the 1930s and 1940s was that Hitler was a godlike genius, who would lead the Master Race to a German Reich which would last a thousand years. Shaped by grievance at the Treaty of Versailles and tempered by Nazi terror, it was a collective national fantasy that came to grief against overwhelming odds in 1945 as Germany was invaded from all sides. In the early years, however, Hitler enjoyed a remarkable winning streak which carried him ever upward in the Nazi Party, and then to the summit of the German state. But who would finally win the battle for minds? The Nazis were masters of propaganda, but they were powerless against a well-timed joke.

Hitler’s first major speech in the Reichstag, the German parliament, in 1933 was a plea for peace, equal rights and mutual understanding between nations. Some gullible people actually believed he meant what he said, but not Georges in The Nation, New York, 1933, who produced the powerful image above.

“Hitler the Saviour” by George Grosz (1923): This drawing mocks a popular postcard of the time by photographer Heinrich Hoffmann, which featured Hitler in a trenchcoat. Alluding to the Grimms’ fairytale about a man in a bearskin who made a pact with the devil as well as Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Grosz concludes that Hitler is a throwback to another age. This portrait was included in the Nazis’ Degenerate Art Exhibition, 1937.

“Consolation” by Thomas Theodor Heine (1924): Hitler left Landsberg Prison in 1924, having written Mein Kampf while serving a prison sentence for his part in the Munich Putsch. Here, he is being handed his uniform by fellow fascist Hermann Kriebel who is saying: “Don’t worry about it, Adolf. In Germany making a fool of yourself isn’t fatal. If it didn’t work out for you as a sergeant, let’s try again as Reichspräsident.”

“Inconclusive Search at Hitler’s Place” by Thomas Theodor Heine (1930): As the economic crisis grew in Germany, the number of police searches of people’s homes increased. At the same time, the Nazis were seeking to become electable and even had Hitler kissing babies. Here, the police aren’t finding much. One says: “Remarkable how so much disaster has sprung from so small a seed.” Cartoonist Thomas Theodor Heine fled to Prague in 1933 when the Nazis came to power.

An image probably from the 1920s which is sarcastically dedicated to the Geman fans of Mussolini and Hitler: Hitler remains obedient to the overbearing Italian: “You’ve robbed me, insulted me, beaten me up and spat on me. Despite all the bullying, I worship you.” At this stage, Mussolini was still the model for Hitler, who tried to emulate his March on Rome with the Munich Putsch, but Hitler’s admiration was later to turn to scorn.

“Responsibility” (1931): This appeared in Social Democratic satire magazine Der Wahre Jacob in 1931. It says: “Responsibility is getting nearer and the closer it gets, the longer Adolf’s face becomes,” suggesting Hitler wasn’t up to the job of running Germany. The magazine was closed down by the Nazis in 1933.

“Only the stupidest cows vote for their own butcher” by Rudolf Herrmann (1932): This image was chosen for the front cover of Roter Pfeffer (Red Pepper) magazine with the aim of averting the calamity of Hitler being elected. In 1932 there were 6 million unemployed in Germany and the NSDAP (the Nazis) won 37.4 percent of the vote in the July elections; the Nazis were inching closer to power on a diet of discontent.

“The Führer’s Lament – ‘How can I become a dictator if no one helps me?’” (1932): This appeared in Der Wahre Jaccob in 1932 as well as Ernst Hanfstaengl’s book of cartoons in 1933—see page 11. The book sought to take the sting out of anti–Hitler cartoons, in this case by claiming that Hitler’s triumphs since taking power already answered the question. “Either Hitler’s successes belong to him alone, or he had help. If the first is true, he needs no help; and if the second is true, he had help.” But Hanfstaengl was wasting his time trying to outdo this image!

In this stylish cartoon by British artist Thomas Derrick from The Bookman magazine in 1933, Hitler abandons the ark carrying League of Nations diplomats during a deluge and makes off on his own in a canoe. Hitler had ordered his delegates to quit disarmament talks in Geneva and pulled Germany out of the League of Nations, forerunner of the U.N. Hitler claimed Germany had disarmed, but that other nations weren’t following suit.

“Some Dictators Don’t Know Where to Stop” by Jay “Ding” Darling (1933): The racist policies of Nazi Germany sought to stimulate the “Aryan” birthrate through generous government loans, while limiting others. Jay Norwood Darling, better known as Ding Darling, worked for the New York Herald from 1917 to 1949 and won two Pulitzer Prizes.

“Hitler and Krupp—His Master’s Voice” (1933): This fine drawing appeared in Brussels paper Le Soir. It features Adolf Hitler as a dog with swastika mar...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: On the way up
• Chapter 2: Jackboots on the march
• Chapter 3: Decline and fall
• Picture Credits
• Copyright