post-horn motif on an imperial German flag

[Dave Monroe]

Simmons, S.  "'Hand to the Friend, Fist to the Foe':
   The Struggle of Signs in the Weimar Republic."
   Journal of Design History, Vol. 13, No. 4 (2000):
   319-340.

This article focuses on the use of graphic signs in
the political struggle between the National Socialist
German Workers' Party and the German Communist Party
during the 1920s. It first examines the Nazi
swastika's relationships to a new 'abstract and
primitive' style of trademark design that emerged in
Germany during the First World War and to a discussion
during 1919-20 about the Weimar Republic's new emblem.
As the NSDAP's sign grew more prominent in public
discourse, John Heartfield, who was trained as a
graphic designer, sought to counter it through satire
and emblems that he designed for the KPD. The most
powerful of the latter were a series of images in 1928
based on photographs of workers' hands, which drew
both on past emblems of worker solidarity and recent
Surrealist photography. The clenched fist soon stood
opposite the swastika as signs of the violent
political struggle between left and right that marked
the last years of the Weimar Republic. The article
explores how practices of commercial graphic design
became instruments of mass politics during the 1920s.

http://www3.oup.co.uk/design/hdb/Volume_13/Issue_04/130319.sgm.abs.html

Aynsley, Jeremy.  Graphic Design in Germany 1890-1945.
   Berkeley: U of California P, 2001.

German graphic and typographic design in the first
half of the twentieth century represents an
extraordinarily rich and diverse aspect of the history
of visual culture. It marks the moment of recognition
that the world was becoming increasingly dependent on
a modern and commercialized system of communication in
which the designer was to play a major role. An
unprecedented scale of attention was devoted to
printed matter, whether as designs for graphic
ornament, typefaces and logos in books and
advertisements, or magazines, posters, signage, and
exhibitions. Jeremy Aynsley has written the first
account in English of the emergence of German graphic
design between 1890 and 1945. Based on many years of
research and original material, this handsome book is
lavishly illustrated with examples from across a
stylistically varied field. 

There were many good reasons for Germany to lead in
the field of print culture. Historically it was a
country that had been associated since the Middle Ages
with the arts of the book and printing, and many of
the new design developments in the twentieth century
grew from that base. The spectacular industrial and
commercial boom following the Franco-Prussian War,
when the Germans became world competitors, stimulated
interest in the field of advertising, whether in
newspapers, journals, or on sidewalk kiosks. Perhaps
borrowing in the beginning from the Arts and Crafts
movement in Britain, Art Nouveau in France, and the
advanced advertising designers in the U.S., the German
artists soon developed a style of their own that was
aggressive, aesthetically adventurous, and well
constructed to attract customers

http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9343.html

And see as well, e.g., ...

http://flagspot.net/flags/de1933.html

http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/ww2era.htm

--- Mark Wright AIA <mwaia at yahoo.com> wrote:
>  
> I've been musing about the influence of graphic
> design on politics. It may not be as loony as it
> sounds to propose that the Nazi's prevailed
> in large part through superior graphic design....


		
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