---
title: '"Propheten einer neuen Welt" (Nebelspalter cartoon, 1918)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nebelspalter-prophets-of-a-new-world-1918/
description: Two towering robed figures, one with an ape-like face and one bespectacled, stand before glaring rays holding twin tablets numbered in Roman numerals…
section: Collection
---

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

[!["Propheten einer neuen Welt" (Nebelspalter cartoon, 1918)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/nebelspalter-prophets-of-a-new-world-1918.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/nebelspalter-prophets-of-a-new-world-1918.jpg)

# "Propheten einer neuen Welt" (Nebelspalter cartoon, 1918)

Two towering robed figures, one with an ape-like face and one bespectacled, stand before glaring rays holding twin tablets numbered in Roman numerals from I to XIV, above a crowd of anguished faces. The tell is the Moses-and-Aaron staging: the Ten Commandments' prestige is laid over Wilson's Fourteen Points.

- **Date:** 1918
- **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi)
- **Made by:** Nebelspalter (Zürich satirical weekly)
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [Switzerland](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=switzerland)
- **Medium:** [Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=cartoon)
- **Issuer type:** [Media](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=media)
- **Regime:** [Swiss Confederation](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=swiss-confederation)
- **Leader:** [Felix Calonder](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=felix-calonder)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Religion](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=religion)
- **Event:** [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-i)
- **Techniques:** [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division](https://www.loc.gov/item/2009631633/), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain in U.S. (published 1918; LOC: no known restrictions in U.S.) Nebelspalter (Zürich), cartoon clipped from a German newspaper, [1918]. Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-23542, LOT 3564.

## Text on the object

Checked for printed text

No printed words on the cartoon itself. The two tablets carry Roman numerals I to VII (left) and VIII to XIV (right), and a monogram with a two-digit year is in the lower right corner.

The title and caption come from the Library of Congress record (title "Propheten einer neuen Welt"; caption note in German about the "Brüder Mose"), not from print on the image. The committed JPEG is a 1280-pixel greyscale conversion of the LOC master TIFF.

[← La paix de l'ennemi (Peace on the Enemy's Terms)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-paix-de-lennemi-prouve-1918/) [اودھ کے برہمنوں اور راجپوتوں سے ایک اپیل (An Appeal to the Brahmins and Rajputs of Oudh) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/oudh-appeal-to-brahmins-and-rajputs-1918/)

## 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)