Wer Kriegsanleihe Zeichnet Wunscht Mir die Höchste Geburtstagsgabe - von Hindenburg [Anyone Who Subscribes to the War Loan is Giving Me the Supreme Birthday Present - von Hindenburg]

German First World War poster promoting subscription to a War Loan. The image positioned in the upper two thirds is the head of Field Marshal Paul Ludwig Hans Anton (Paul) von Hindenburg (1847-1934). The text printed in black hand-written script is positioned in the lower third. It translates from the German as ' Anyone who subscribes to the war loan is giving me the supreme birthday present - von Hindenburg' . Both the image and text are set within a brown border. By 1917 Field Marshall Von Hindeberg was one of the most popular figures in Germany. His image was used to create a cult of personality which embodied honour, rectitude, decency and strength. During the First World War, wooden statues of Hindenberg were erected all over Germany so that people could nail money and cheques for war bonds to them. Hindenburg was a Prussian-German field marshal, statesman, and politician, who served as the second President of Germany from 1925 to 1934. The poster artist Louis Oppenheim (1879-1936) was also a German painter and lithographer (especially of advertising posters) and typographer. He went to London at the age of 20 to study and worked there as a caricaturist and advertising artist from 1899 until his return to Germany in 1906. He developed poster designs incorporating flat areas of colour in massive designs. This poster was part of a propoganda campaign to build up Hindenburg as a far greater figure than he was in reality. It was for the Seventh War Loan and is one of Oppenheim's most impressive designs.