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Definition – General aspectsPage 3 of 3
Development of the caricature in Germany The example of the pear shown below depicts how authoritarian states tried to suppress the medium of caricature. In Germany, a rigid censorship after 1819 prohibited the development of a broader, political public in which the caricature would have found its place. In some states in which censorship was less rigorous, the first satirical periodicals such as the Fliegende Blätter were founded in Munich in 1844. The production of satirical depictions grew rapidly in 1848 in commentary on the happenings of the revolution. The meaning of these prints was often of great importance, as could be seen in some of them being quoted during the St. Paul’s Church trials. A new wave of censorship followed the failed revolution, with many publishers and journals closing down. One paper that was founded during this time was Kladderadatsch (see section 5b), followed by Simplicissimus in 1896. Both publications critically accompanied the political happenings of the time without fundamentally questioning the current political structures. Kladderadatsch was very sympathetic towards Bismarck’s policies. Caricatures were increasingly found in the daily press at the start of the 20th century in the form of “illustrated articles.” Satirical forms of expression became more and more radical during the Weimar Republic as a result of societal conflict and aggressive political fronts during this time. The Kladderadatsch developed into a right-leaning enemy of the Republic that was unabashedly sympathetic to Hitler as early as the 1920s. The National Socialists established the Brennessel in 1931 as their own platform for satirical productions. The Simplicissimus, seamlessly switching in 1914 to a nationalistic course, returned back to a liberal, Republic-friendly direction, sharply attacking Hitler in particular. Within only a short time of its existence, the Nazi dictatorship ended the opportunity for critical pictorial satire by means of a rigid control of the media. Critical artists such as Th. Heine emigrated (see database 2 of the University of Oldenburg), while the Simplicissimus and other satirical periodicals were forced to publish newspapers encouraging Nazi ideology. The emotional effect of caricatures was used by the Nazis for their own propaganda. This occurred in the war against the allies, as well as in anti-Semitic periodicals whose most horrible examples can be found in the editions of the Stürmer.
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