Content note: Nazi swastika on a dagger-wielding figure, shown beside a Soviet-starred figure. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Das sind die Feinde der Demokratie! Hinweg damit! (These Are the Enemies of Democracy! Away with Them!)
Three dark figures loom over the slogan: a man in a cap with a red star, a hooded man in a swastika cap raising a dagger, and a skull-faced man in a steel helmet. One label, 'enemies of democracy', is applied to communists, National Socialists and the Stahlhelm together, and the only stated remedy is a vote for List 1, the Social Democrats.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1930
- Period
- Interwar
- Made by
- Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD), Reichstag election campaign; artist Karl Geiß
Full record
Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Theme, Event, Source, Rights
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- Weimar Germany
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Party
- Regime
- Weimar Republic
- Leader
- Heinrich Bruning
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Theme
- Elections and party politics
- Event
- Reichstag Election 1930
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons (poster from the Bundesarchiv series Plak 002-037-029, via the Baden 1918-1945 portal), retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published 1930, before 1931; Commons licence tag: Public domain, Copyrighted=false)
Karl Geiß for the SPD, 1930. Wikimedia Commons; source page: Baden 1918 bis 1945 (Lernort Kislau).
Text on the object
Original (German) · read from the image, not independently checked
DAS SIND DIE FEINDE DER DEMOKRATIE! HINWEG DAMIT! DESHALB WÄHLT LISTE 1 SOZIALDEMOKRATEN! [artist's signature at left edge, partly legible: K. Geiss]
THESE ARE THE ENEMIES OF DEMOCRACY! AWAY WITH THEM! THEREFORE VOTE LIST 1 SOCIAL DEMOCRATS!
