Zeichnet die Neunte! (Subscribe to the Ninth War Loan!)

This poster was produced in Germany to convey the government's concern about the falling birth-rate. The most prominant figure is a mother holding her baby. She dominates the foreground. In the background is her husband in uniform, looking back across to their township, as he goes off to war to defend it. The image equates men's wartime service with women's childbearing contribution, expressing the government's pro-natalist stance. The poster presents an idyllic German way of life in a traditional woodblock technique- style image. The Ninth War Loan raised as much money as the first four war loans put together. While it could be said that this poster was successful in this regard, it was not successful in raising Germany's birth-rate. This did not begin to increase until after the Second World War. The 'Franktur' typescript is used in this poster. German First World War posters often extolled an overt nationalism, strong expressions of the ancient Germanic spirit or symbolic imagery to address propoganda objectives. Lucian Bernhard (1883-1972) was a German graphic designer, type designer, professor, interior designer, and artist during the first half of the twentieth century. He was renowned for helping to create the design style known as 'Plakatstil' (Poster Style), which used reductive imagery and flat-color as well as Sachplakat ('object poster') which restricted the image to simply the object being advertised and the brand name. In 1920 he became a professor at the Akademie der Künste and emigrated to New York City in 1923. During the late 1920s in the USA he worked as a graphic artist and interior designer. After 1930 he worked primarily as a painter and sculptor until his death in 1972.