---
title: Spartakus bei der Arbeit (Spartacus at Work)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/spartakus-bei-der-arbeit-1919/
description: A gaunt man strangles another man while a woman and an infant lie in a pool of blood beneath them, under the title 'Spartacus at work' and the address of…
section: Collection
---

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

**Content note:** Graphic violence: a strangling above a woman and infant lying in blood. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Spartakus bei der Arbeit (Spartacus at Work)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/spartakus-bei-der-arbeit-1919.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/spartakus-bei-der-arbeit-1919.jpg)

# Spartakus bei der Arbeit (Spartacus at Work)

A gaunt man strangles another man while a woman and an infant lie in a pool of blood beneath them, under the title 'Spartacus at work' and the address of the Association to Combat Bolshevism. No incident, place or date is named: one political faction is made the author of a generic family murder, and the sponsoring league is the only remedy on offer.

- **Date:** 1919
- **Period:** [Interwar](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=interwar)
- **Made by:** Vereinigung zur Bekämpfung des Bolschewismus, Berlin; artist unknown
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [Weimar Germany](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=weimar-germany)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [Movement](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=movement)
- **Regime:** [Weimar Republic](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=weimar-republic)
- **Leader:** [Friedrich Ebert](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=friedrich-ebert)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Demonize](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=demonize)
- **Themes:** [Elections and party politics](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=elections-party-politics), [Labor](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=labor)
- **Event:** [German Revolution, 1918-1919](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=german-revolution-1918-1919)
- **Techniques:** [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2004665806/), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain in the U.S. (published before 1931) 1919. Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsca-38902.

## Text on the object

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

```
Spartakus bei der Arbeit

Vereinigung zur Bekämpfung des Bolschewismus.
Berlin W9  Schellingstr. 2
```

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

```
Spartacus at Work

Association to Combat Bolshevism.
Berlin W9  Schelling Street 2
```

[← РСФСР расчётный знак, 500 рублей, reverse with the multilingual slogan (Soviet Russia, 1919)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/rsfsr-500-rubles-reverse-slogan-1919/) [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/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [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)
- [豬叫取胎圖 (Picture of the Pig Sect Extracting a Foetus), from Reverently Obeying the Sacred Edict: A Complete Picture Gallery to Repel Heterodoxy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pig-cry-taking-foetus-hunan-1891/) (1891 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Colour woodblock caricature depicting foreign Christians as members of a 'pig' sect and showing them cutting a foetus from a woman; violence against a woman and derision of Christianity.
- [The Radical Programme, No. 4: Dismemberment of the Empire (Gladstone & Co. auction India), St Stephen's Review Presentation Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/radical-programme-selling-india-st-stephens-review-1891/) (Oct 31, 1891 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating)
- [En posesión de su presa (In Possession of Its Prey)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/en-posesion-de-su-presa-el-diablo-1894/) (Jun 2, 1894 · Fear appeal)
- [劉永福懸賞抓拿日本奸細告示 (Liu Yongfu's notice offering rewards for capturing Japanese spies), Taiwan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/liu-yongfu-reward-notice-japanese-spies-1895/) (1895 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Sífilis: Curación absoluta y radical en el Sanatorio para sifilíticos (Syphilis: Absolute and Radical Cure at the Sanatorium for Syphilitics)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sifilis-sanatorio-abreu-1900/) (1900 · Fear appeal)
- [時局圖 (The Situation in the Far East / Map of the Present Situation), newer version with English labels](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/situation-in-far-east-tse-tsan-tai-1900/) (1900 · Fear appeal)