--- title: Beat Back the Hun with Liberty Bonds url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/beat-back-the-hun-1918/ description: A bloody, ape-like caricature of a German soldier looms over a burning village, his handprint stamped in blood across the scene, under the single loaded… section: Collection --- [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) **Content note:** Dehumanizing caricature of Germans as an ape-like figure, and bloody imagery. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) [![Beat Back the Hun with Liberty Bonds](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/beat-back-the-hun-1918.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/beat-back-the-hun-1918.jpg) # Beat Back the Hun with Liberty Bonds A bloody, ape-like caricature of a German soldier looms over a burning village, his handprint stamped in blood across the scene, under the single loaded label 'THE HUN.' The poster substitutes the epithet itself for any specific claim, urging Americans to buy Liberty Bonds to beat back what the label alone has already condemned. - **Date:** 1918 - **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi) - **Made by:** U.S. Treasury Department (Liberty Loan campaign) - **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america) - **Country:** [United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-states) - **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster) - **Issuer type:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state) - **Regime:** [Wilson Administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=wilson-administration) - **Leader:** [Woodrow Wilson](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=woodrow-wilson) - **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public) - **Purpose:** [Fundraise](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=fundraise) - **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Economy and finance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=economy-finance) - **Event:** [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-i) - **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) - **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are - **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beat_back_the_hun_with_liberty_bonds_-_F._Strothmann._LCCN94505100.jpg), retrieved September 26, 2026 - **Rights:** Public domain (per Wikimedia Commons) Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division (LCCN 94505100); artist Frederick Strothmann ## Text on the object Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked ``` Beat back the HUN with LIBERTY BONDS 3 B F. Strothmann. ``` '3 B' (bottom left) is a print/edition code and 'F. Strothmann.' (bottom right) is the artist's signature; both are small printed marks on the poster itself, not the main slogan. The grayscale and colour calibration card visible at the left edge of the photograph is an archival reference card added by the digitizing institution, not part of the poster, and is not transcribed. [← Emprunt de la Libération: on souscrit à la Banque d'Alsace et de Lorraine (Hansi, 1918)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/banque-alsace-lorraine-emprunt-liberation-hansi-1918/) [Die erste Million (The First Million), British balloon leaflet A.P. 74 →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/british-balloon-leaflet-die-erste-million-1918/) ## Using the same techniques - [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking) - [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling) - [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer) - [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking) - [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer) - [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling) - [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling) - [Van Moscouw tot Elba moest ik wyken (From Moscow to Elba I had to give way), Napoleon caricature by Wijnand Esser](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/van-moscouw-tot-elba-napoleon-esser-1814/) (1814 · Name-calling)