Thursday, August 23, 2018

Germany's Comic Magazine Lustige Blätter


By Tony Langley


Lustige Blätter ("comic pages") was a satirical weekly published in Berlin that featured artwork by some of accomplished commercial artists of the day. The content of these satirical pages could be pro-military, anti-Allied, just plain social commentary, or something charming and saccharine. 


In the images on this page, there are sniveling Allied generals and politicians,  a commentary about the the Central Powers at long last turning John Bull into a mummy; a sentimental cartoon of German guards on the Belgian-Dutch border flirting with some improbable Dutch maidens anachronistically dressed as in the cheapest postcard;  and a rather vicious caricature of President Wilson speaking with a serpent's "forked tongue."


It was a quality publication, featuring many full color pages. Lustige Blätter was similar to the cultural magazine Jugend published in Munich, though Jugend was more artistically inclined in its content.


4 comments:

  1. Is there a print or digital edition of this? preferably with some English language commentary?

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    Replies
    1. The only archive online features all the issues but no English language. Try and read with a dictionary, which is how i have managed myself.

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  2. Thank you, Jonathan. That's a rich archive.

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