German Christians will save Austria Election poster of a Jewish snake crushing the Austrian eagle
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 49.500 inches (125.73 cm) | Width: 37.000 inches (93.98 cm)
Creator(s)
- Bernd Steiner (Artist)
- Peter Ehrenthal (Compiler)
Biographical History
The Katz Ehrenthal Collection is a collection of more than 900 objects depicting Jews and antisemitic and anti-Jewish propaganda from the medieval to the modern era, in Europe, Russia, and the United States. The collection was amassed by Peter Ehrenthal, a Romanian Holocaust survivor, to document the pervasive history of anti-Jewish hatred in Western art, politics and popular culture. It includes crude folk art as well as pieces created by Europe's finest craftsmen, prints and periodical illustrations, posters, paintings, decorative art, and toys and everyday household items decorated with depictions of stereotypical Jewish figures.
Archival History
The poster was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by the Katz Family.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Katz Family
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
Antisemitic propaganda poster produced by the Christian Socialist Party of Austria for the 1920 national election. It shows a vicious looking hybrid head of a Jewish man and a vulture on the body of a snake squeezing the lifeblood from a crowned Austrian eagle, with a sickle in its claw and dropped hammer, symbols of Austrian farmers and artisans. Antisemitism was central to the Party's ideology and Jews were blamed for the corrupting, destructive effects of capitalism and liberalism. The German Catholic oriented party wanted to stop the entry of more Jews into Austria and segregate and exclude them from portions of society. The Party won the election and led the country until 1928. This poster is one of more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic visual materials
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Offset color lithograph poster on light brown paper with a red/orange snake with a head merging the features of a vulture and a caricatured Jewish man. The long tubular body is coiled around a large crowned eagle, symbol of Austria, with outstretched, bedraggled black wings. The snake wears a red kippah and has a dotted, hatchmarked upper body. The head is in right profile, with a long, bent beak, a glaring, red rimmed eye, stringy, curly peyot, and open fleshy red lips unfurling a slithering forked tongue. His wrapped coils squeeze the eagle from the neck to the talons. A striped shield is visible on the eagle's breast. The eagle’s head hangs limply to the left, and red blood drips from the beak. It is perched on a rock with a small sickle in the right claw, and a fallen hammer nearby on the ground. The artist’s name and the title are printed at the bottom. The poster is adhered to slightly larger linen backing.
Subjects
- Jews--Austria--Politics and government--Posters.
- Antisemitism--Austria--History--Pictorial works.
- Anti-Jewish propaganda--Austria--Posters.
- Antisemitism in art--Austria--20th century.
- Jews--Caricatures and cartoons.
- Elections--Austria--20th century--Posters.
- Jews--Austria--Caricatures and cartoons.
Genre
- Object
- Posters