Die beste Sparkasse: Kriegsanleihe! (The Best Savings Bank: War Loan!)

Die beste Sparkasse: Kriegsanleihe! (The Best Savings Bank: War Loan!)

A hand holds out an upturned steel helmet into which banknotes are falling, over the line 'The best savings bank: war loan!' The superlative comes with no rate, term or comparison, and nothing says that repayment depended on the state's finances after the war.

Date
1917
Period
First World War
Made by
Imperial German war-loan campaign; artist Louis Oppenheim
Region
Western and Central Europe
Country
German Empire
Medium
Poster
Issuer type
State
Regime
German Empire
Leader
Wilhelm II
Audience
Domestic public
Purpose
Fundraise
Themes
Economy and finance, Home front
Event
World War I
Techniques
Card stacking
Source
Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source
Library of Congress, retrieved September 27, 2026
Rights
Public domain in the U.S. (published before 1931)
Oppenheim, Louis, 1879-1936, artist; Rehse Archiv für Zeitgeschichte und Publizistik, DLC, former owner. 1917. Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-11693.

Text on the object

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

Die beste Sparkasse:
Kriegsanleihe!

Entwurf: Louis Oppenheim

Druck: Fritz Schneller & Co. Nürnberg

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

The best savings bank:
War loan!

Design: Louis Oppenheim

Printed: Fritz Schneller & Co. Nuremberg

A small round stamp/seal on the helmet at lower left is too small and low-contrast in this scan to read and is not transcribed. The denominations on the falling banknotes (e.g. '1000', '100') are design elements of the illustrated currency, not the poster's own message, and are not transcribed as running text.