---
title: '"Die Wiege des Völkerbundes" (Simplicissimus cartoon, 1919)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/simplicissimus-wiege-des-voelkerbundes-1919/
description: A gaunt, bespectacled man in black sits under a willow holding a small tablet, one hand resting on a black coffin marked with a cross that stands on a…
section: Collection
---

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

[!["Die Wiege des Völkerbundes" (Simplicissimus cartoon, 1919)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/simplicissimus-wiege-des-voelkerbundes-1919.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/simplicissimus-wiege-des-voelkerbundes-1919.jpg)

# "Die Wiege des Völkerbundes" (Simplicissimus cartoon, 1919)

A gaunt, bespectacled man in black sits under a willow holding a small tablet, one hand resting on a black coffin marked with a cross that stands on a cradle's rockers; two men bend over it at right. The tell is the caption's pun on the League of Nations: funeral and clerical imagery is laid over a christening, so the new body is shown as dead at birth.

- **Date:** March 11, 1919
- **Period:** [Interwar](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=interwar)
- **Made by:** Simplicissimus (Munich satirical weekly)
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [Weimar Germany](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=weimar-germany)
- **Medium:** [Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=cartoon)
- **Issuer type:** [Media](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=media)
- **Regime:** [Weimar Republic](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=weimar-republic)
- **Leader:** [Philipp Scheidemann](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=philipp-scheidemann)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Theme:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military)
- **Event:** [Paris Peace Conference](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=paris-peace-conference)
- **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/pictures/item/2007680406/), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain in U.S. (published 1919; LOC: no known restrictions on publication) Olaf Gulbransson, Simplicissimus (Munich), 11 March 1919. Library of Congress, LOT 4639-F, LC-USZ62-22634.

## Text on the object

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

```
Die Wiege des Völkerbundes
(Zeichnung von O. Gulbransson)
OLAF G. [monogram, upper right]
„Die Wiege ist gut gewählt für ein totgeborenes Kind.“
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
The cradle of the League of Nations
(Drawing by O. Gulbransson)
OLAF G. [monogram, upper right]
"The cradle is well chosen for a stillborn child."
```

Title and caption are in the magazine's blackletter type. A handwritten pencil note at lower right (apparently '4.19') is an archival marking, not part of the printed page. The committed JPEG is a 1280-pixel greyscale conversion of the LOC master TIFF.

[← 宣言書 (Declaration of Independence), 8 February 1919, first sheet of a handwritten copy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/feb-8-declaration-korean-students-1919/) [Republic of Korea, Certificate of Indebtedness ($10 bond, no. 462), signed by Syngman Rhee →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/republic-of-korea-indebtedness-certificate-1919/)

## 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)