Bookvica

[ARMENIAN WWII COUNTER-PROPAGANDA] Gebelsi histerik koch’ery [i.e. Goebbels' hysterical appeals]

Item #2201

[Armenia, 1940s]. Gouache, pencil. 44x31 cm.

Very good condition, mild foxing at the bottom.
The poster design by the unmentioned Armenian designer.

The poster, which is titled ‘Stone fountain’ at the left upper corner of the sheet, shows the caricature of the minister of public education and propaganda of Germany (1933-1945). The streams in the fountain are the claims and calls, made by Goebbels like ‘Be patient’, ‘The War is Hard’, ‘Don’t Ask When the Victory Will Happen’, ‘Be silent and get over it’. At the top right corner in the editor's hand in pencil – advice to the artist (in Russian): ‘Make the captions more laconic’.

This phrase gives us a clue of the origin of the design – likely it was created at the end of WWII and was submitted for approval. It is interesting that the poster is done entirely in Armenian, also on such a narrow topic as Goebbels' appeals to Germans – often the regional poster publishers would take the already approved prototypes in Russian and translate them to the national language. We could not find in collections the proof that the poster was eventually produced – there’s a possibility that it wasn’t, especially if this was commissioned closer to the very end of the war and Goebbels' death.

Price: $650.00