---
title: Kolonial-Ausstellung, Gruppe XXIII, Berliner Gewerbe-Ausstellung 1896
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/berlin-kolonialausstellung-plakat-1896/
description: 'Colour poster for the colonial section of the 1896 Berlin trade exhibition: a barefoot, turbaned African man in a wrap holds a spear in one hand and a…'
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Kolonial-Ausstellung, Gruppe XXIII, Berliner Gewerbe-Ausstellung 1896](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/berlin-kolonialausstellung-plakat-1896.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/berlin-kolonialausstellung-plakat-1896.jpg)

# Kolonial-Ausstellung, Gruppe XXIII, Berliner Gewerbe-Ausstellung 1896

Colour poster for the colonial section of the 1896 Berlin trade exhibition: a barefoot, turbaned African man in a wrap holds a spear in one hand and a black-white-red imperial flag over his shoulder in the other, before a gold disc and the words 'Kolonial-Ausstellung'. The tell: the empire's flag is carried by a colonial subject shown in ethnographic costume, so the national symbol and the exhibited people are fused in a single figure.

- **Date:** 1896
- **Period:** [Pre-1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=pre-1914)
- **Made by:** Berliner Gewerbe-Ausstellung 1896, colonial exhibition (Group XXIII), German Empire; printed by Walther Peck, Berlin (designer not named on the sheet)
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [German Empire](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=german-empire)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=mixed)
- **Regime:** [German Empire](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=german-empire)
- **Leader:** [Wilhelm II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=wilhelm-ii)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [Empire and colonialism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=empire-colonialism), [Race and ethnicity](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=race-ethnicity)
- **Event:** [Berlin Trade Exhibition 1896](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=berlin-trade-exhibition-1896)
- **Techniques:** [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)
- **Regime:** [German Empire under Wilhelm II](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/german-empire/)
- **Leader:** [Wilhelm II](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/german-empire/#wilhelm-ii)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons (reproducing a Deutsches Historisches Museum poster)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Berliner_Kolonialausstellung_Gruppe_XXIII_Berliner_Gewerbe-Ausstellung_Plakat_1896.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (published Berlin 1896, before 1931; Commons PD, CC Public Domain Mark) Walther Peck (printer), Berlin, 1896; Deutsches Historisches Museum copy, via Wikimedia Commons.

## Text on the object

Original (German) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
Kolonial=
Ausstellung
Gruppe XXIII
Berliner Gewerbe=Ausstellung 1896.

[distributor label, foot:] Vertrieben durch Paul Canstrom's Verlag, Hamburg [remainder illegible]

Druck v. Walther Peck Berlin S.
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
Colonial exhibition
Group XXIII
Berlin Trade Exhibition 1896.

[label:] Distributed by Paul Canstrom's publishing house, Hamburg

Printed by Walther Peck, Berlin S.
```

The distributor label at the foot is small and only partly legible in the 960 px image; the publisher's surname is read with medium confidence. Translation is a machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.

[← 日清戰爭笑樂画會 (Comics of the Sino-Japanese War): 黄海のきづ and 尻へ帆 (Wounds of the Yellow Sea; Sails on the Rear)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/shoraku-gakai-yellow-sea-kiyochika-1895/) [Cuba's Heroes and Their Flag: Souvenir Lithograph of the Grand Cuban-American Fair →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cubas-heroes-and-their-flag-1896/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Bronze sestertius of Gaius (Caligula), reverse S P Q R P P OB CIVES SERVATOS in an oak wreath](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-caligula-ob-cives-servatos-0037/) (0037 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [Gold coin of Kanishka: King of Kings legend, king at the altar, deity Oesho](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gold-dinar-kanishka-king-of-kings-0130/) (0130 · Transfer)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [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)