Content note: Graphic violence: a strangling above a woman and infant lying in blood. This object is shown as it was published. Why

Spartakus bei der Arbeit, 1919 Weimar Germany poster: A gaunt man strangles another man while a woman and an infant lie

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.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Date
1919
Period
Interwar
Made by
Vereinigung zur Bekämpfung des Bolschewismus, Berlin; artist unknown

Full record

Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights
Region
Western and Central Europe
Medium
Poster
Issuer type
Movement
Regime
Weimar Republic
Leader
Friedrich Ebert
Audience
Domestic public
Purpose
Demonize
Themes
Elections and party politics, Labor
Event
German Revolution, 1918-1919
Source
Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source
Library of Congress, 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

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