--- title: Spanish Civil War propaganda posters url: https://propagandaarchive.org/spanish-civil-war-propaganda-posters/ description: Spanish Civil War propaganda posters and front pages from the Republican, Nationalist and Francoist sides, with sources and rights shown. One standard. section: FRAME --- ![Illustration: a dossier collage of an evidence wall of pinned propaganda posters, leaflets and printed matter from many eras, with contact sheets and catalog labels.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/hero-collection.jpg) Collection # Spanish Civil War propaganda posters Spanish Civil War propaganda posters and front pages from the Republican, Nationalist and Francoist sides, with sources and rights shown. One standard. 1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/) 2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) 3. Spanish Civil War propaganda [![La Vanguardia, Sunday edition, front page (Barcelona, 16 August 1936): "En el frente de Tardienta"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/la-vanguardia-tardienta-1936-640.jpg)La Vanguardia, Sunday edition, front page (Barcelona, 16 August 1936): "En el frente de Tardienta"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-vanguardia-tardienta-1936/) [![El Pensamiento Navarro, front page (Pamplona, 18 September 1936): "Por Dios y por España"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/el-pensamiento-navarro-pamplona-1936-640.jpg)El Pensamiento Navarro, front page (Pamplona, 18 September 1936): "Por Dios y por España"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/el-pensamiento-navarro-pamplona-1936/) [![La Vanguardia, front page (Barcelona, 6 March 1937): "Ayudemos a Madrid"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/la-vanguardia-ayudemos-a-madrid-1937-640.jpg)La Vanguardia, front page (Barcelona, 6 March 1937): "Ayudemos a Madrid"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-vanguardia-ayudemos-a-madrid-1937/) [![La Vanguardia, front page (Barcelona, 11 July 1937): "Nuestro avance en los frentes del Centro"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/la-vanguardia-brunete-avance-1937-640.jpg)La Vanguardia, front page (Barcelona, 11 July 1937): "Nuestro avance en los frentes del Centro"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-vanguardia-brunete-avance-1937/) [![Ayudad a la obra social de la Sección Femenina poniendo un sello de José Antonio en vuestras cartas (cinema slide)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/seccion-femenina-sello-jose-antonio-slide-1942-640.jpg)Ayudad a la obra social de la Sección Femenina poniendo un sello de José Antonio en vuestras cartas (cinema slide)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/seccion-femenina-sello-jose-antonio-slide-1942/) [![Franco's tomb before the high altar, Valley of the Fallen (photograph, 2005)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/franco-tomb-valle-de-los-caidos-1975-640.jpg)Franco's tomb before the high altar, Valley of the Fallen (photograph, 2005)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/franco-tomb-valle-de-los-caidos-1975/) > **Content note.** The pages below use the labels each side applied to the other, among them "hordes of red bandits and murderers" and "fascist forces", and one shows photographs of a bombed town. Crowds raise their arms in the Falange salute. They are shown as issued, as evidence of what each side told its own public. Showing an object is not endorsing it. [What did Spanish Civil War propaganda posters look like?](https://propagandaarchive.org/spanish-civil-war-propaganda-posters/#what-did-spanish-civil-war-propaganda-posters-look-like) [What the collection holds, and what it does not](https://propagandaarchive.org/spanish-civil-war-propaganda-posters/#what-the-collection-holds-and-what-it-does-not) [Nationalist side](https://propagandaarchive.org/spanish-civil-war-propaganda-posters/#nationalist-side-the-falange-poster-drawing) [Nationalist side](https://propagandaarchive.org/spanish-civil-war-propaganda-posters/#nationalist-side-front-pages-from-september-1936) [Nationalist side](https://propagandaarchive.org/spanish-civil-war-propaganda-posters/#nationalist-side-the-parade) [Republican side](https://propagandaarchive.org/spanish-civil-war-propaganda-posters/#republican-side-la-vanguardia-1936-to-1937) ## What did Spanish Civil War propaganda posters look like? Both sides used posters, front pages, photo spreads and parades, and the same few devices: virtue words for themselves, a collective label for the enemy, and momentum claims in place of facts. The archive holds ten objects from the war, one of them a poster design, and five later Francoist ones. All fifteen are shown below, with the gaps stated. ## What the collection holds, and what it does not Counts on this page were made by script from the entry files in `examples/entries/`. Ten entries carry the event tag "Spanish Civil War" (1936 to 1939). Five more are tagged with the regime "Francoist Spain" but not with the war: a cinema slide of 1940, another of 1942, a referendum poster of 1966, a municipal notice of 1971 and a photograph of Franco's tomb. The grid at the foot of this page lists those fifteen (ten war entries, plus the five later Francoist ones). Explain moreShow less By regime tag the fifteen split into six from the Second Republic, three from the Nationalist junta and six from the Francoist state. By medium they are eight newspaper pages, three posters (the 1937 design, the 1966 poster, the 1971 notice), two photographs and two cinema slides. Thirteen carry Spanish text and two carry none. The gaps matter more than the totals. The collection does not hold, as of this writing: - a printed poster of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE), of the CNT-FAI, of the POUM or of the UGT, or one issued by the Generalitat of Catalonia or the Republican government; - an International Brigades recruiting or morale sheet; - Carlist, Falange or Nationalist wartime posters other than the single drawing below; - Soviet, German or Italian material about the war, or any Soviet, German or Italian printed matter sent to Spain. Every Republican object here is a newspaper page, and every Nationalist one is a newspaper page, a drawing or a photograph. The balance of media is therefore not the balance of what either side produced, and no inference about how many posters either side printed should be drawn from this page. For the foreign backers, the [Francoist Spain regime page](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/franco-spain/) records that Germany and Italy sent aircraft, troops and supplies to the Nationalists, that the Soviet Union and international volunteers supplied the Republic, and that Britain and France adopted non-intervention. The [Soviet Union](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/soviet-union/), [Nazi Germany](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/nazi-germany/) and [Fascist Italy](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/fascist-italy/) regime pages cover those states. For posters in general, start at [propaganda posters](https://propagandaarchive.org/propaganda-posters/). ![Watercolour and ink design for a poster: a man in a blue shirt with a raised right arm leads a column of workers, farmers and a woman carrying a child beneath the slogan ¡Arriba España! and the Falange yoke-and-arrows emblem](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/arriba-espana-falange-drawing-1937.jpg) ## Nationalist side: the Falange poster drawing The only poster-type object from the war is this design, held by the Biblioteca Virtual de la Comunidad de Madrid and dated "ca. 1937" from a bookseller's information. The catalogue does not say whether it was printed, and it names no artist. The Falange had been merged with the Carlists into FET y de las JONS by the decree of 19 April 1937, and the Falange flag and raised-arm salute are both shown. The tell, as the entry records it, is that ordinary labourers and families march as one behind a single party sign, so joining looks like what "the people" already do. Techniques tagged: [plain folks](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/plain-folks/) and [bandwagon](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/bandwagon/). ## Nationalist side: front pages from September 1936 The two Nationalist newspaper pages come from the war's first autumn, when the Nationalist junta held the north of the country. ![El Diario Vasco, San Sebastián, 14 September 1936: front page under the banner ¡Arriba España! - ¡Viva España!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/el-diario-vasco-san-sebastian-1936.jpg) ![El Pensamiento Navarro, Pamplona, 18 September 1936: front page under the banner Por Dios y por España](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/el-pensamiento-navarro-pamplona-1936.jpg) Explain moreShow less San Sebastián was taken by Nationalist forces on 13 September 1936 after the Republican authorities had withdrawn. The front page of the next day says the army, the Navarrese requetés and the fascist militias "free" the city from the "horrendous tyranny" of two months under "hordes of red bandits and murderers", and claims "delirious enthusiasm". The entry tags [name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) and [glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/): a collective label and a crowd-mood claim stand in for an account of events. The entry records what the page prints and does not adjudicate its figures or charges. El Pensamiento Navarro was the Carlist daily of Pamplona (motto "Dios - Patria - Rey"), and this page carries notices of the Junta Central Carlista de Guerra. Under "For God and for Spain" it reports a lieutenant, son of General Miaja, taken prisoner near Talavera, and calls Colonel Asensio Torrado "chief of the Marxist forces" who "fled like a 'brave man'". The military claims are the paper's own and were not checked. Same tags as the San Sebastián page. ## Nationalist side: the parade ![Photograph of a parade in the Plaza Mayor of Salamanca: uniformed marchers carry five identical portraits of Franco on poles, flanked by banners, while crowds raise their arms in salute](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/francoist-parade-franco-portraits-salamanca-1937.jpg) Held by the Biblioteca Virtual de Defensa (Spanish Ministry of Defence) as MUE-120692, this photograph is catalogued as a parade in Salamanca celebrating the taking of Gijón, which fell to Nationalist forces in October 1937. Salamanca was the Nationalist headquarters. The entry tags [identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/), [bandwagon](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/bandwagon/) and [cult of personality](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/cult-of-personality/): identical portraits and massed arm-raising turn a military victory into a ritual of personal allegiance, with the size of the crowd displayed as part of the message. The photographer is unknown. ## Republican side: La Vanguardia, 1936 to 1937 All six Republican objects are pages of La Vanguardia, the Barcelona daily, printed in the Republican zone. The pages name no owner or editor, and the entries make no claim about who set the paper's line beyond the dateline and the pages' own wording. Barcelona is also where the Generalitat sat, but none of these entries records an issuing authority other than the newspaper, so this page attributes nothing to the Generalitat or to any party. ![La Vanguardia, Barcelona, 16 August 1936: photo-only front page, three men at a parapet, one with binoculars and two at a machine gun, under En el frente de Tardienta](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/la-vanguardia-tardienta-1936.jpg) ![La Vanguardia, Barcelona, 6 March 1937: front page, two militiamen in a trench, under the headline Ayudemos a Madrid](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/la-vanguardia-ayudemos-a-madrid-1937.jpg) ![La Vanguardia, Barcelona, 12 March 1937: front page, three helmeted soldiers file up a timbered trench under La lucha en los frentes del Centro](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/la-vanguardia-frentes-del-centro-1937.jpg) ![La Vanguardia, Barcelona, 26 May 1937: picture spread, six photographs of ruined streets in Guernica under La bárbara destrucción de Guernica](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/la-vanguardia-guernica-destruccion-1937.jpg) ![La Vanguardia, Barcelona, 11 July 1937: front page on the Brunete offensive, officers watching the field above tanks and infantry, under Nuestro avance en los frentes del Centro](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/la-vanguardia-brunete-avance-1937.jpg) ![La Vanguardia, Barcelona, 13 December 1937: picture page of Madrid's University City, with the Clinical Hospital and its two round operating theatres](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/la-vanguardia-ciudad-universitaria-1937.jpg) Explain moreShow less A month into the war, the picture caption says the "rebeldes" tried to retake Tardienta and "las fuerzas fascistas" were repulsed by heavy rifle fire. The entry tags [name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/): one loaded label pair and a single success report stand in for any account of the front. It notes that Nationalist-zone pages use mirror-image labels, "reds" and "marxists", under the same definition. Four months into the siege of Madrid, the page asks for the "material aid of the whole antifascist people" for the "heroic Madrid fighters" and names no amount, fund or address. Tagged [glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/). The entry compares comparable home-front appeals from other sides and eras under the same definition. Printed while the Battle of Guadalajara was under way, the page does not mention it. It shows soldiers relieved from the line leaving by a "magnífica trinchera". The [card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) tag rests on what the page leaves out, not on any false statement, and the entry says other warring sides ran ordered front-line picture pages too. The aerial bombing of Guernica on 26 April 1937 by the German Condor Legion with Italian participation is documented; this page ran a month later. Its caption says German squadrons destroyed "the city symbol of the Basque liberties" with incendiary bombs and that only five houses stood. The entry records that Nationalist-side sources of the time denied it or blamed Republican arson, and does not verify the five-house figure. The photographs are authentic pictures of the damage; the tag is on the caption's symbol language ([glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)). The page of 11 July claims the Republic's forces advance "unstoppable" in all sectors. The Battle of Brunete began on 6 July; the offensive stalled within about two weeks and the Nationalists retook the ground by late July. The entry reads the 11 July claim as a snapshot of the opening days. Tagged [bandwagon](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/bandwagon/): momentum words stand in for any map, casualty or objective. This is the mirror of the Nationalist pages above, which use "free" and "fled". The caption credits "our artillery" with destroying fascist machine-gun nests in the Clinical Hospital. Both sides' artillery damaged the University City, and the entry notes that a Nationalist-side counterpart framed the same buildings as damaged by "the reds"; it does not adjudicate who damaged what. This is an inside page with no masthead, and the date is Commons's. ## Same test, both sides Applying one set of definitions to the fifteen objects gives these tag counts, computed from the entries: glittering generalities six, bandwagon four, name-calling four, transfer two, and one each of plain folks, identity fusion, cult of personality, card stacking and manufactured consensus. Name-calling appears on both sides: "red bandits" and "Marxist forces" on the Nationalist pages, "rebels" and "fascists" on the Republican ones. Bandwagon appears on both: a marching column and a parade crowd, an "unstoppable" advance. Both sides' front pages report their own successes without sources. Explain moreShow less The differences are stated, not ranked. The Nationalist objects here include a leader-portrait parade and a party founder's cult, which the Republican newspaper pages do not; the Republican objects here are all a single daily's pages, which a different sample might change. The scale, intent and institutions behind the two sides differed, and an equal count of tags says nothing about equivalence. See [types of propaganda](https://propagandaarchive.org/types-of-propaganda/) for the definitions. ## After the war: Franco's state, 1940 to 1975 Six Francoist objects fall outside 1936 to 1939. The regime page records that the single party FET y de las JONS ran the state after the victory of 1 April 1939. ![Hand-coloured cinema slide for Auxilio Social: a nurse-uniformed woman lifting a smiling child beside the words Para que en España no haya un niño sin alegría, suscribe una ficha azul](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/auxilio-social-ficha-azul-slide-1940.jpg) ![Hand-coloured cinema slide: a photographed envelope postmarked Madrid, 22 July 1942, with a José Antonio stamp and the words ¡Arriba España!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/seccion-femenina-sello-jose-antonio-slide-1942.jpg) ![Poster for Spain's national referendum of 14 December 1966: a smiling, seated Franco beneath Referendum Nacional, with the red slogan Garantía de la paz, garantía del futuro](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/franco-referendum-garantia-de-la-paz-1966.jpg) ![Text-only municipal notice of Cobeja, Toledo, 17 July 1971, inviting residents to Olías del Rey to pay homage to Franco](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bando-cobeja-paso-de-franco-1971.jpg) ![Photograph of the slab marking Franco's grave in the Basilica of the Valley of the Fallen, fenced by a red cord with a posy of red and white carnations](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/franco-tomb-valle-de-los-caidos-1975.jpg) Explain moreShow less A cinema advertising slide from Auxilio Social, the relief organisation of the single party. The catalogue note, the library's and not verified here, adds that the subscription was at first voluntary and that when someone refused, the names of those who declined were published in the local press. Tagged glittering generalities: a virtue phrase about childhood joy stands in for any figure on what the subscription pays for. The Sección Femenina's slide asks women to put a stamp bearing the founder's portrait on their letters. José Antonio Primo de Rivera was shot in Alicante on 20 November 1936; the Nationalist side made him a cult figure under the title "el Ausente". Tagged [transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/). The poster never mentions the Organic Law of the State on the ballot. The referendum was held under a regime where the Movimiento Nacional was the only legal political organisation, so this is state-side campaign material. Attendance is requested as a demonstration of "adhesion to the Head of State". The notice does not say attendance was compulsory. Tagged [manufactured consensus](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/manufactured-consensus/) and bandwagon. A 2005 photograph of the grave as it stood from 23 November 1975 until the exhumation of 24 October 2019, when the remains were reburied at Mingorrubio. The site was decreed in 1940 and inaugurated in 1959, and parts of it were built by prisoners under a sentence-reduction scheme. Public opinion in Spain remains divided on how the period should be remembered; this page does not take a side on that. Tagged transfer. The [regime page](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/franco-spain/) covers the monument. ## Rights: what each entry rests on Each entry records its licence basis, and the bases differ. Explain moreShow less - **Newspaper pages (eight).** The six La Vanguardia pages carry Wikimedia Commons anonymous-author tags ({{PD-anon-70-EU}} or {{PD-anon-80}}). El Diario Vasco carries {{PD-old-80}} with "Collective work (Spain)". El Pensamiento Navarro carries {{PD-old-70-1923}}, a tag whose text refers to works before 1923 and does not match a 1936 issue on its face; the entry records that its basis is weaker than the others. For all eight the entries note that US copyright may have been restored by the URAA (Uruguay Round Agreements Act) for works first published after 1930, and that this US status has not been cleared. They are hosted on the project owner's decision to trust a stated-basis Commons tag. The entries give the Commons file-page URL for each. - **Falange drawing and the two cinema slides.** Public Domain Mark 1.0 stated by the Biblioteca Virtual de la Comunidad de Madrid. The drawing's entry notes that, with no artist named, it rests on the library's statement and not on age. - **Salamanca parade photograph and 1966 poster.** CC0 1.0 stated by the Biblioteca Virtual de Defensa; a Commons reviewer confirmed the 1966 poster's statement on 4 November 2016. - **1971 notice.** CC BY 4.0 from the Patrimonio Digital de Castilla-La Mancha. - **Tomb photograph.** CC BY-SA 3.0, the photographer's own grant. Images are shown at the reduced sizes recorded in the entries, and every transcription is verbatim from the object; the translations are the entries' own. ## Footage The archive hosts no Spanish Civil War footage and no click-to-load player for it: no film from the war is listed in the site's footage file, and this page makes no claim about any film. For film and radio as propaganda in general, see [propaganda films](https://propagandaarchive.org/propaganda-films/). ## Where to go next No case study in the archive covers the Spanish Civil War, so there is nothing to link here beyond the regime page. For comparison, see [Soviet propaganda posters](https://propagandaarchive.org/soviet-propaganda-posters/) and [recruiting posters](https://propagandaarchive.org/recruiting-posters/), and the [propaganda posters](https://propagandaarchive.org/propaganda-posters/) hub. The missing material, above all the Republican parties' posters, the Generalitat's and International Brigades' sheets and the foreign backers' material, is not hosted, so the sample is lopsided and this page says so. ## Spanish Civil War and Francoist objects in the collection Showing 15 of 15 objects. [Filter the whole collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/). - [La Vanguardia, Sunday edition, front page (Barcelona, 16 August 1936): "En el frente de Tardienta"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-vanguardia-tardienta-1936/) (Spain · Aug 16, 1936 · Name-calling) - [El Diario Vasco, front page (San Sebastián, 14 September 1936): "El glorioso Ejército español ... libertan San Sebastián"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/el-diario-vasco-san-sebastian-1936/) (Spain · Sep 14, 1936 · Name-calling, Glittering generalities). Content note: Nationalist-zone front page from the first day after the capture of San Sebastián, calling its opponents 'hordes of red bandits and murderers' and celebrating the arrival of the columns; shown as printed. - [El Pensamiento Navarro, front page (Pamplona, 18 September 1936): "Por Dios y por España"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/el-pensamiento-navarro-pamplona-1936/) (Spain · Sep 18, 1936 · Glittering generalities, Name-calling). Content note: Carlist front page from the Spanish Civil War calling the opposing command 'Marxist forces' and mocking a named colonel; shown as printed. - [¡Arriba España! (Falange poster drawing, about 1937)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/arriba-espana-falange-drawing-1937/) (Spain · 1937 · Plain folks, Bandwagon). Content note: Falange emblem and raised-arm salute, with a rifle and tools carried by the marchers, in a poster design of the Spanish Civil War. - [Franco portraits carried through Salamanca's Plaza Mayor to celebrate the fall of Gijón, 1937](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/francoist-parade-franco-portraits-salamanca-1937/) (Spain · 1937 · Identity fusion, Bandwagon, Cult of personality). Content note: Photograph of a 1937 Nationalist parade with mass arm-raised salutes and portraits of Franco. - [La Vanguardia, front page (Barcelona, 6 March 1937): "Ayudemos a Madrid"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-vanguardia-ayudemos-a-madrid-1937/) (Spain · Mar 6, 1937 · Glittering generalities) - [La Vanguardia, front page (Barcelona, 12 March 1937): "La lucha en los frentes del Centro"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-vanguardia-frentes-del-centro-1937/) (Spain · Mar 12, 1937 · Card stacking) - [La Vanguardia, picture page (Barcelona, 26 May 1937): "La bárbara destrucción de Guernica"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-vanguardia-guernica-destruccion-1937/) (Spain · May 26, 1937 · Glittering generalities) - [La Vanguardia, front page (Barcelona, 11 July 1937): "Nuestro avance en los frentes del Centro"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-vanguardia-brunete-avance-1937/) (Spain · Jul 11, 1937 · Bandwagon) - [La Vanguardia, picture page (Barcelona, 13 December 1937): "La Ciudad Universitaria"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-vanguardia-ciudad-universitaria-1937/) (Spain · Dec 13, 1937 · Name-calling) - [Auxilio Social: Para que en España no haya un niño sin alegría, suscribe una ficha azul (cinema slide)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/auxilio-social-ficha-azul-slide-1940/) (Spain · 1940 · Glittering generalities) - [Ayudad a la obra social de la Sección Femenina poniendo un sello de José Antonio en vuestras cartas (cinema slide)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/seccion-femenina-sello-jose-antonio-slide-1942/) (Spain · 1942 · Transfer) - ["Garantía de la paz, garantía del futuro": Spain's national referendum poster, 1966](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/franco-referendum-garantia-de-la-paz-1966/) (Spain · 1966 · Glittering generalities) - [Bando del Ayuntamiento de Cobeja: S.E. el Jefe del Estado, Generalísimo Franco, pasará por Olías del Rey (1971)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bando-cobeja-paso-de-franco-1971/) (Spain · Jul 17, 1971 · Manufactured consensus, Bandwagon) - [Franco's tomb before the high altar, Valley of the Fallen (photograph, 2005)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/franco-tomb-valle-de-los-caidos-1975/) (Spain · 1975 · Transfer). Content note: Photograph of Franco's tomb in the basilica of the Valley of the Fallen, a monument built in part by prisoners' labour; its place in Spanish memory is disputed.