Zeichnet kriegsanleithe [Subscribe to the war loan]

Public subscription to a series of nine war loans provided over 60% of Germany's war costs. This German First World War poster presents a blue silhouette of a surfacing U-Boat containing three crew members and flying the German Imperial flag. The stance of the crew members and the stylized waves give the poster a feeling of action. A simple colour palette, imperial emblems and gothic typography are used to encourage German unity. U-boat propaganda was widely publicised and aimed to raise morale as well as funds, with authorities claiming that unrestricted submarine warfare would defeat England. The submarine's advanced technology was a glamorous and chivalric antidote to dreary trench warfare, and parallels British use of war technology in posters as an emblem of modernity. Text reads: Subscribe to the War Loan at banks, savings banks, post offices! This is one of 13 First World War posters purchased by the Memorial at the auction of the Dr Hans Sachs poster collection in 2013. Karl Josef Gollrad (1866-1940) was a German painter and print maker. Born in the Black Forest, he studied art in Germany and Italy between 1894 and 1896 and continued to produce art during the Second World War.