Content note: WWI German poster depicting an African soldier in French uniform as a threat, with a racial caricature style and the word 'Sklave' This object is shown as it was published. Why
Zum Kampf auf's Letzte sind wir herausgefordert! (German poster, 1917, Anton Hoffmann)
Yellow German poster: a German labourer with a pickaxe is held at rifle point by an African soldier in French uniform while a French officer watches; other labourers dig behind. Black-letter text says Germans would lose property and personal freedom in a French-English victory and would work 'only as slaves'. The tell: a staged, imminent loss of freedom, attributed to unnamed 'French senators', is offered to move the reader to fight on (fear-appeal).
- Date
- 1917
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- Not named on the sheet (LOC: [S.l.: s.n.], 1917); drawn by Anton Hoffmann, Munich
- Country
- German Empire
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- German Empire
- Leader
- Wilhelm II
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Theme
- War and the military
- Techniques
- Fear appeal
- Leader
- Wilhelm II
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain: published 1917 (pre-1931, US); LOC: no known restrictions
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Rehse Archiv, LCCN 2004665973.
Text on the object
Zum Kampf auf's Letzte sind wir herausgefordert! Nicht nur Hab und Gut auch die persönliche Freiheit müßte der Deutsche im Falle eines französisch-englischen Sieges verlieren. Französische Senatoren machten in vielen Parlamentssitzungen zur Bedingung, daß der Deutsche in Zukunft nur als Sklave in englisch-französischer Frohn zu arbeiten habe. Es geht um alles: Um die nationale Selbständigkeit, um die persönliche Freiheit, um das Recht auf Arbeit, Wohlstand und Glück, um unsere und unserer Kinder Zukunft. [signature in the drawing:] Anton Hofmann München
We are challenged to fight to the last! Not only goods and property but also personal freedom would the German lose in the event of a French-English victory. French senators made it a condition in many parliamentary sittings that the German in future should work only as a slave in English-French forced labour. It is about everything: For national independence, for personal freedom, for the right to work, prosperity and happiness, for our and our children's future. [signature in the drawing:] Anton Hofmann, Munich
Read from the 960 px image; the signature is spelled with one n in the drawing, LOC catalogues it Hoffmann. Translation is FRAME's literal machine rendering, not verified by a fluent reader.
