Content note: Photograph of a child in a Wehrmacht uniform being decorated in the last weeks of the war. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Pourquoi mourir pour l'Angleterre? (German propaganda banners, western front)
A soldier in shirtsleeves paints a French-language banner on a wooden frame in a garden while a second banner beside it asks 'Pourquoi mourir pour l'Angleterre ?'. The larger banner reads 'Angleterre ne pense qu'à elle-même'. The pair puts a question about dying and an answer blaming an ally for the danger, aimed at French readers.
- Date
- 1940
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- German forces' propaganda units in the West (issuer not printed on the banners)
- Country
- Nazi Germany
- Medium
- Signs and banners
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Nazi Germany
- Leader
- Adolf Hitler
- Audience
- Mixed
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Theme
- War and the military
- Event
- World War II
- Techniques
- ScapegoatingFear appeal
- Regime
- Nazi Germany
- Leader
- Adolf Hitler
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons (Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-L15658), retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- CC BY-SA 3.0 DE (German Federal Archives), as stated on the Commons file page
Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-L15658 / photographer not recorded (print credit: 'o.Ang.') / CC-BY-SA 3.0
Text on the object
POURQUOI MOURIR POUR L'ANGLETERRE ? [L']ANGLETERRE NE PENSE QU'À ELLE-MÊ[ME]
WHY DIE FOR ENGLAND? [THE] ENGLAND THINKS ONLY OF ITSELF
The left banner is fully legible. On the right banner the opening article is hidden or missing and the final letters are covered by the painter's arm; bracketed letters are inferred from the visible stem.
