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.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1917
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- Imperial German home-front campaign (sponsor not named on the poster); Anton Hoffmann, Munich
Full record
Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- German Empire
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- German Empire
- Leader
- Wilhelm II
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- War and the military, Home front
- Event
- World War I
- Leader
- Wilhelm II
- 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)
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.
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.
