---
title: '? (The German Ogre), Norman Lindsay recruiting poster'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/question-mark-german-ogre-lindsay-1918/
description: A spiked-helmet ape-like ogre grips a globe in blood-red hands while blood runs from Europe across the map, beside a large question mark and no other…
section: Collection
---

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

[![? (The German Ogre), Norman Lindsay recruiting poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/question-mark-german-ogre-lindsay-1918.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/question-mark-german-ogre-lindsay-1918.jpg)

# ? (The German Ogre), Norman Lindsay recruiting poster

A spiked-helmet ape-like ogre grips a globe in blood-red hands while blood runs from Europe across the map, beside a large question mark and no other words except the printer's line. The bestial figure labels the enemy as a monster, and the spreading blood stages the threat.

- **Date:** 1918
- **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi)
- **Made by:** Commonwealth Government of Australia (recruiting campaign); artist Norman Lindsay
- **Region:** [Oceania](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=oceania)
- **Country:** [Australia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=australia)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state)
- **Regime:** [Hughes Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=hughes-government)
- **Leader:** [William Morris Hughes](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=william-morris-hughes)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Recruit](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=recruit)
- **Theme:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military)
- **Event:** [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-i)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Australian War Memorial (via Wikimedia Commons)](https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/ARTV00078), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (AWM: 'Copyright expired - public domain'; published c. 1918, before 1931) Lindsay, Norman; Commonwealth Government of Australia. Australian War Memorial, ARTV00078.

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
?

[printed line at lower left] Issued by the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia
[printed line at lower right] Chas. Steele and Co., Melbourne
```

The only text in the design is the question mark; the two small lines run along the foot of the sheet.

[← Julistus (Proclamation): Red Guard committee denies rumours and orders rumour-spreaders arrested](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/punakaarti-julistus-huhut-1918/) [Remember Belgium. Buy Bonds. Fourth Liberty Loan →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/remember-belgium-buy-bonds-1918/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [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)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)