Catalog No.: 41
Kurt Poltiniak
Militarism in West Germany
Autumn 1950
colored pen-and-ink drawing
h 51, w 34.6.
Inv. no.: Gr 91/108
Under the sun of the US dollar, America,
the world power reclines as the new Caesar. Kneeling before her is her
slave, Adenauer, receiving alms with gratitude. Outside in the foreground
wait Kurt Schumacher (SPD), chained to a dog collar, and Ernst Reuter
(SPD: mayor of West Berlin), enthusiastically ringing the liberty bell
in support of Berlin. The internal German border is already strewn with
crosses marking graves. In the interior the Germans appear as shoe-cleaners
to the Americans, the members of the German forces as an extension of
the German Wehrmacht; parliamentarism is fit for little more than a self-service
store. Fascism dares to venture out of hiding. In a deep cellar Emperor
Barbarossa gets drunk an comics and Coca Cola. The good citizens tend
the swastikas in their gardens while the Nazi rats plan new attacks an
the USSR.
