Kurt Weill and Bertholt Brecht's Berlin

Wrath/Snake Poster


This poster contributes an explicit example of wrath from the Nazi party. It is an election poster, urging citizens to vote for the party, turning anger into action. The poster uses the snake to portray the enemies of the Nazis, such as Bolshevism and corruption, as wicked villains and ideologies, to represent the true cause of the people's’ suffering. As such, they are depicting the enemies of the Nazi party as entities of wrath themselves, while also using wrath as a form of retaliation. The violence of stabbing the snake with a knife underscores the third listed principle of the Nazi propaganda – the extreme, virulent hatred of their enemies. Most notably, the head of the snake symbolizes the true root of the problem; the Jew. This implies that all of the problems facing Nationalists can be solved by defeating the Jews.         

In the background, the bright Nazi sun shines in the background, further symbolizing that righteous nationalism will rise up to smite the evil bourgeoisie. This contributes to the poster’s wrathfulness, as the sun is a powerful, fiery, dangerous object. In this case, wrath serves a productive function--the anger of the Nazi sun will lead to a better world.

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