Kraft Durch Freude...[Strength through joy...]

Places
Accession Number ART96183.003
Collection type Art
Measurement Sheet: 32.4 x 24.2 cm
Object type Print
Physical description offset lithograph printed in colour adhered to card
Maker Toegel, Stanislaw
Markiewicz, Antoni
F W Dobereiner
Place made Germany: Luneburg, Celle
Date made 1946
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

Depiction of a brutal beating of a civilian by two gestapo soldiers welding batons. An officious looking and seemingly indifferent officer is watching on from behind a desk. A portrait of Adolf Hitler is on the wall behind his desk. In the bottom left corner inscribed in black ink is the German text 'KRAFT DURCH FREUDE' [Strength Through Joy]. The print has been mounted on dark grey card. The title in Polish with English and French translation is printed bottom centre, beneath the image, in gold ink.

The image is a macabre satirical comment on the Nazi movement "Kraft Durch Freude" or KdF which was established by the Party between the wars to control the leisure time of workers lives. Membership was effectively compulsory by the beginning of the Second World War and the KdF acted to both control recreational activities of workers and to engender support for the Party through provision of holidays and luxury goods, such as cars, that were usually unaffordable by the working class. In this image the artist directly references this movement to covey the idea that the recreational activity or hobby most sponsored by the Nazi Regime was torture and interrogation.

The original drawing reproduced in this offset lithograph was created by Polish artist Stanislaw Toegel (1905-1953) while held in a German labour camp at Gotteningen.