---
title: Die Fahnen flattern hoch im Wind! (The Flags Flutter High in the Wind!)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/die-fahnen-flattern-1917/
description: German soldiers charge under a mass of banners, among them a flag bearing a crescent that the Library of Congress catalogue reads as probably Ottoman.
section: Collection
---

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

[![Die Fahnen flattern hoch im Wind! (The Flags Flutter High in the Wind!)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/die-fahnen-flattern-1917.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/die-fahnen-flattern-1917.jpg)

# Die Fahnen flattern hoch im Wind! (The Flags Flutter High in the Wind!)

German soldiers charge under a mass of banners, among them a flag bearing a crescent that the Library of Congress catalogue reads as probably Ottoman. The flags carry the message: the text promises that manly strength and contempt for death at the front, and labour and self-sacrifice at home, will lead Germany's banners to victory, virtue words standing in for any claim about how.

- **Date:** 1917
- **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi)
- **Made by:** Imperial German home-front campaign (sponsor not named on the poster); Anton Hoffmann, Munich
- **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:** [Mobilize or secure compliance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=mobilize-comply)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Home front](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=home-front)
- **Event:** [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-i)
- **Techniques:** [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2004665974/), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain in the U.S. (published before 1931) Hoffmann, Anton, artist. 1917. Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-11635.

## Text on the object

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

```
Die Fahnen flattern hoch im Wind!

Manneskraft und Todesmut im Felde —
Arbeitskraft und Opfermut in der Heimat
werden Deutschlands Banner zum Siege führen.
```

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

```
The flags flutter high in the wind!

Manly strength and contempt for death in the field —
working strength and readiness for sacrifice at home
will lead Germany's banners to victory.
```

A small artist's signature is worked into the illustration itself (bottom right of the image panel) but is too small to read reliably in this scan; not transcribed.

[← Destroy This Mad Brute — Enlist](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/destroy-this-mad-brute-1917/) [שפייז וועט געווינען דיא קריעג! (Food Will Win the War!), Yiddish edition →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/food-will-win-the-war-yiddish-1917/)

## 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)