Simplicissimus: German Satire from the 1920s and 30s

 

Stanley Appelbaum. Simplicissimus. 180 Satirical Drawings... (1975). The satirical weekly Simplicissimus was published from 1896 to 1944, but its years as Nazi propaganda rag were a sad comedown from its heyday as one of the most thoroughly moral weeklies. It attacked everything and anything that its editors found objectionable. The hypocrite, the poseur, the indifferent capitalist, the militarist, the fashionable people and ideas of the day, all these and more were mocked in it pages. Some drawings were gentle joke, other savage attacks. The quality of the art ranges from pretty good illustration to astonishingly evocative art. Some, like those by Käthe Kollwitz, merely represent reality. Others use conventional imagery to signal the social types and classes on display. Most artists have mastered the expressive line that shows us anything from rage to languor.
     Dover Publications commissioned this selection of drawings. Appelbaum wrote a potted history of the magazine for it, as well as brief bios of the artists. The cover illustration’s caption reads, “Why do we [men] need suits when the women wear almost nothing?” Out of print, but worth a search. ****