--- title: Wolkiger Beobachter, Luftpost-Ausgabe, 1. Jahrgang Nr. 7 (Cloudy Observer, air-mail edition, front page) url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/wolkiger-beobachter-luftpost-1940/ description: The front page of a German-language leaflet newspaper whose title plays on the Nazi party daily Völkischer Beobachter. section: Collection --- [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) [![Wolkiger Beobachter, Luftpost-Ausgabe, 1. Jahrgang Nr. 7 (Cloudy Observer, air-mail edition, front page)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/wolkiger-beobachter-luftpost-1940.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/wolkiger-beobachter-luftpost-1940.jpg) # Wolkiger Beobachter, Luftpost-Ausgabe, 1. Jahrgang Nr. 7 (Cloudy Observer, air-mail edition, front page) The front page of a German-language leaflet newspaper whose title plays on the Nazi party daily Völkischer Beobachter. A three-panel cartoon captioned prison, factory and kitchen shows a helmeted guard, coffins on a production line and a cook stirring swastikas in a pot, above a headline 'Freedom will win!' quoting a British premier and a column of short news items. The tells: a virtue word carries the headline, and a single unsourced statistic on convoy losses is offered as the war news. - **Date:** 1940 - **Period:** [Second World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwii) - **Made by:** British air-dropped leaflet newspaper (issuer not printed; catalogued on Commons as produced on the UK Government's order and dropped by the Royal Air Force over Germany) - **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe) - **Country:** [United Kingdom](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-kingdom) - **Medium:** [Leaflet](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=leaflet) - **Issuer type:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state) - **Regime:** [Chamberlain Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=chamberlain-government) - **Leader:** [Neville Chamberlain](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=neville-chamberlain) - **Audience:** [Enemy civilians](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=enemy-civilians) - **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support) - **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Media and information](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=media-information) - **Event:** [World War II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-ii) - **Techniques:** [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/) [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) - **Source:** Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure - **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons (scan from the Rainer Hoffschildt collection; British air-dropped leaflet)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wolkiger_Beobachter_1._Jahrgang_Nr._7_(1940),_S._1.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026 - **Rights:** Public domain (UK Crown copyright expired; PD-UKGov per Wikimedia Commons) Anonymous authors on the order of the United Kingdom Government; scan by Rainer Hoffschildt, via Wikimedia Commons. ## Text on the object Original (German) · read from the image, not independently checked ``` 1. Jahrgang Nr. 7 Luftpost-Ausgabe WOLKIGER BEOBACHTER Im Dritten Reich [cartoon panel labels:] WARSCHAU / PRAG / WIEN Das Gefängnis Die Fabrik Die Küche Die Freiheit wird siegen! „England ist entschlossen: Die Freiheit muß siegen. England ist in den Krieg gezogen, weil Tyrannei und Gewaltandrohungen die Freiheit zu knechten versuchten.“ „England wird weiterkämpfen mit seiner ganzen Kraft und mit der seines gesamten Weltreiches, bis die Freiheit gesichert ist.“ Mit diesen Worten schloß Mr. Chamberlain, der englische Premierminister, seine Rede in Birmingham am 24. Februar. „England,“ so sagte er, „begehrt nicht die Länder anderer.... England kämpft, um den militaristischen Geist zu zerstören und die Anhäufung von Rüstung zu beseitigen, die ganz Europa und nicht zuletzt Deutschland verarmen. Nur so kann Europa die Sicherheit wiedergegeben werden; nur so können die Nationen Europas vor Bankrott und Ruin bewahrt werden.“ Das andere Deutschland „Unter der gegenwärtigen deutschen Regierung kann es für die Zukunft keine Sicherheit geben.“ „Die Schichten Deutschlands, die bereit sind, am Neubau Europas mitzuarbeiten, sind in Acht und Bann getan. Das Volk ist selbst von neutralen Stimmen abgeschnitten, und seine Machthaber haben wiederholt gezeigt, daß auf das Wort, das sie anderen Regierungen oder dem eigenen Volk gegeben haben, kein Verlaß ist.“ „Es ist an Deutschland, den nächsten Schritt zu tun und zu zeigen, daß es die Idee „Macht geht vor Recht!“ ein für allemal aufgibt.“ „Sobald Deutschland bereit ist, zuverlässige Beweise für seinen guten Willen zu geben, wird es in anderen die Hilfsbereitschaft finden, die wirtschaftlichen Schwierigkeiten nach dem Kriege zu überwinden.“ „England,“ so sagte Mr. Chamberlain, „hat keine Ursache den Ausgang des Kampfes zu fürchten, wie lange er auch dauern mag.“ Kurze Nachrichten Truppenteile aus Australien und Neuseeland sind in Ägypten und Palästina eingetroffen und bilden einen Teil der unter General Weygand stehenden allierten Streitkräfte. England hat 150 Flugzeuge und grosse Mengen von Kriegsmaterial nach Finnland geliefert. Englische Flugzeuge führten in der Nacht vom 22./23. Februar Erkundungsflüge über Österreich und in der Nacht vom 23./24. Februar über Böhmen aus. Von 9 000 alliierten und neutralen Schiffen, die in Konvois gefahren sind, wurden nur 0,02 Prozent versenkt. Auf Verlangen der deutschen Regierung ist in Holland ein Prozeßverfahren gegen Baron Felix von Papen, den Vetter des deutschen Gesandten in Ankara, wegen seines Buches über deutsche Konzentrationslager eingeleitet worden. ``` English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader) ``` Volume 1, No. 7 Air-mail edition CLOUDY OBSERVER In the Third Reich [cartoon panel labels:] WARSAW / PRAGUE / VIENNA The Prison The Factory The Kitchen Freedom will win! "England is resolved: freedom must win. England went to war because tyranny and threats of force sought to enslave freedom." "England will go on fighting with all its strength and with that of its whole empire until freedom is secured." With these words Mr. Chamberlain, the English prime minister, closed his speech in Birmingham on 24 February. "England," he said, "does not covet the lands of others.... England is fighting to destroy the militaristic spirit and to remove the accumulation of armaments that impoverish all of Europe and not least Germany. Only so can security be restored to Europe; only so can the nations of Europe be saved from bankruptcy and ruin." The Other Germany "Under the present German government there can be no security for the future." "The sections of Germany that are ready to help in rebuilding Europe have been outlawed. The people are cut off even from neutral voices, and its rulers have repeatedly shown that the word they have given to other governments or to their own people cannot be relied on." "It is for Germany to take the next step and to show that it gives up the idea 'might goes before right' once and for all." "As soon as Germany is ready to give reliable proofs of its good will, it will find in others the readiness to help overcome the economic difficulties after the war." "England," Mr. Chamberlain said, "has no cause to fear the outcome of the struggle, however long it may last." Short News Units from Australia and New Zealand have arrived in Egypt and Palestine and form part of the allied forces under General Weygand. England has delivered 150 aircraft and large quantities of war material to Finland. English aircraft carried out reconnaissance flights over Austria in the night of 22/23 February and over Bohemia in the night of 23/24 February. Of 9,000 allied and neutral ships that sailed in convoy, only 0.02 percent were sunk. At the request of the German government, proceedings have been opened in Holland against Baron Felix von Papen, cousin of the German envoy in Ankara, because of his book on German concentration camps. ``` Set in Fraktur for the body text and headlines; spellings such as 'allierten' and 'grosse' are as printed. The cartoon panel labels WARSCHAU, PRAG and WIEN sit on the wall behind the guard in the first panel. Translation is FRAME's own literal rendering, machine-assisted and not verified by a fluent reader. [← 我愈戰愈强，敵愈戰愈弱 (The more we fight, the stronger we grow; the more the enemy fights, the weaker he grows)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-more-we-fight-the-stronger-china-1940/) ['Zeitaku wa teki da!' (Luxury Is the Enemy!) street sign, Tokyo →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/luxury-is-the-enemy-sign-1940/) ## Using the same techniques - [Gold solidus of Constantine I, reverse RESTITVTORI LIBERTATIS](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-constantine-i-restitutori-libertatis-0313/) (0313 · Glittering generalities) - [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) - [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) - [Trois Tetes sous l'meme bonnet (three heads under the same cap)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/trois-tetes-sous-le-meme-bonnet-1789/) (1789 · Plain folks, Glittering generalities) - [Proclamation by the Queen in Council, to the Princes, Chiefs, and People of India (printed sheet, Allahabad, 1 November 1858)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/queens-proclamation-to-the-people-of-india-1858/) (Nov 1, 1858 · Glittering generalities, Scapegoating) - [The Great Battle of Ansong Ford: The Valor of Captain Matsuzaki](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ansong-ford-toshikata-1894/) (1894 · Glittering generalities) - ['The Congress Cross or "Swastik"' (Pickings from the Hindi Punch, Bombay, February 1896)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hindi-punch-congress-swastik-1896/) (Feb 1896 · Transfer, Glittering generalities) - [Un combate en el río Zapote (A Fight on the Zapote River), Blanco y Negro](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/un-combate-en-el-rio-zapote-1898/) (Jul 9, 1898 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)