Zeichnet Kriegsanleihe [Subscribe to the war loan]

German First World War poster depicting an eagle's head (representing Imperial Germany) and a dove (symbolising peace) carrying an olive branch . The poster appeals for subscribers to the eighth war loan in black gothic typeface. Karl Sigrist (1885-1986) was a German artist, born in Stuttgart. War loans provided over 60% of Germany's war costs. Posters promoting war loans aimed to empower and mobilise the civilian public, and became more aesthetically creative as the war went on. Working within an established cultural context, German poster designers could rely on high levels of literacy in the public, and so posters usually incorporated a great deal of written information. Imperial emblems, chivalric imagery and gothic script were also used to allude to medieval German woodcuts and Teutonic paganism. Such images of German romanticism called to mind a culturally and ethnically superior Germany, stressing the historic mission of the German culture.