Posters Artwork Documents

Autobahn.

Government of the Federal Republic of Germany.

1936 tourism/propaganda poster, encouraging English-speaking foreigners to enjoy the thrill of speeding along Germany's already celebrated motorways, Nazi symbolism discreetly included. When the National Socialists came to power in 1936, they had a serious need for an early success impacting positively on the lives of ordinary Germans to help consolidate their rule. Addressing unemployment was an obvious target, and public works the obvious means. There were, of course, a number of options, of which a mass housing improvement programme must at least have been considered. However, somewhat fortuitously, one of the mixed bag of technocrats attached to the régime was Dr. Eng. Fritz Todt, an engineer whose doctoral thesis had been based on problems involved in motorway building - came the hour, came the man. Motorway building had particular advantages from a Nazi viewpoint; it was very visible, it served both economic and (in the longer term) military purposes, and (at least at the time) it was very labour-intensive. With the full backing of the high leadership, Todt and his collaborators swung into action, organizing a veritable paramilitary army in the form of the Reich Labour Services within months, and initiating a planned programme of autobahn-building. As a result, by the time of the 1934 Nurnberg Party Rally, the régime was already in a position to trumpet considerable success, both in reducing unemployment and in laying down kilometres of motorway. This explains much of the content and structure of Leni Riefenstahl's "documentary" of the Rally, "Triumph of the Will" (indeed, of the Rally itself), which gives a degree of prominence to the labour services and their leaders which might otherwise appear somewhat strange. Best regards, JR.