La France / L'Allemagne: même dans le timbre-poste (France / Germany: even in the postage stamp)
Two postage stamps side by side, the French 10-centime Semeuse (a woman sowing seed) and the German Empire 10-pfennig Germania (a crowned woman in mail with a sword hilt), each with a paragraph beneath. The French figure is read as sowing civilisation; the German one as 'la menace' and 'ferronnerie'. The tells are the named academician vouching for the reading and the loaded labels applied to one stamp only.
- Date
- 1915
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- Édition Lorraine, Paris (publisher); text attributed to Paul Hervieu of the Académie française
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- France
- Medium
- Postcard
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Viviani Government
- Leader
- Rene Viviani
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- War and the military, Media and information
- Event
- World War I
- Techniques
- TestimonialName-calling
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Europeana 1914-1918 (user contribution 13217), retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- CC BY-SA 3.0 (contributor licence, Europeana 1914-1918); wartime print, U.S. public domain (pre-1931)
Postcard 'La France / L'Allemagne', Édition Lorraine, Paris, undated. Europeana 1914-1918, contribution 13217, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Text on the object
LA FRANCE L'ALLEMAGNE Même dans le timbre-poste chacune des deux nations se représente telle qu'elle se voit, telle qu'elle se sent. [Left stamp:] RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE POSTES 10c (below: C. ROTY / E. MOUCHON) [Right stamp:] DEUTSCHES REICH 10 10 La France semeuse, vêtue d'aimable lin, dans le grand geste ouvert des semailles, sème à tous les vents les grains de la civilisation. Exemple de merveilleux labeur, elle sème ses épargnes fécondes, ses promptes inventions, les découvertes patientes du génie français ; elle sème avec espoir afin que vous aussi, peuples de la terre, vous récoltiez tous et qu'un jour sans doute, nous fassions ensemble l'universelle moisson. L'Allemagne, à la face dure, est casquée d'une couronne massive ; une main ramenée dans le sens égoïste qui est vers soi-même ; gantelée de mailles, cette main serre une poignée de glaive ; c'est la menace. La poitrine est cuirassée et ces deux rondelles de métal bombé indiquent quel serait l'allaitement maternel pour l'humanité à naître quand celle-ci aurait à le chercher dans cette ferronnerie. (Extrait d'une allocution prononcée par M. PAUL HERVIEU, de l'Académie Française).
FRANCE GERMANY Even in the postage stamp each of the two nations represents itself as it sees itself, as it feels itself. [Left stamp:] FRENCH REPUBLIC POSTS 10c (below: C. ROTY / E. MOUCHON) [Right stamp:] GERMAN EMPIRE 10 10 Sowing France, dressed in pleasant linen, in the broad open gesture of sowing, sows to all the winds the grains of civilisation. An example of marvellous toil, she sows her fruitful savings, her quick inventions, the patient discoveries of the French genius; she sows with hope so that you too, peoples of the earth, may all reap, and that one day, no doubt, we may make the universal harvest together. Germany, with the hard face, is helmeted with a massive crown; one hand drawn back in the selfish sense, that is towards itself; gauntleted in mail, this hand grips a sword hilt; that is the threat. The breast is cuirassed, and these two rounds of domed metal show what maternal nursing would be for the humanity yet to be born, when it had to seek it in this ironmongery. (Extract from an address delivered by M. PAUL HERVIEU, of the Académie Française).
The small credit under the French stamp reads as printed 'C. ROTY' (presumably O. Roty) and 'E. MOUCHON'. Translation is a literal machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.
