Introduction

Visual Index (Entire Poster Collection)

Catalogue

Chronology of the War

Acknowledgements

Lists of References

Afterword: Herbert R. Southworth Collection

Mañana el mundo, hoy España

[Tomorrow the world, today Spain]. . Tierra y Libertad Lithograph, 3 colors; 32 x 25 cm.

In this poster, Hitler and a squadron of Nazi plans serve as the icons of fascism and its threat to Europe. The message seeks to place the conflict in Spain on a larger scale in which a fascist victory in Spain becomes a gateway to the spread of fascism across Europe and the "world." Note that the outline of France, with Paris marked, represents the "world" that Hitler hopes to conquer next. In addition to motivating Spaniards in Republican Spain to unify their efforts against fascism, this poster may have also hoped to rouse France and its government, which like Britain and the United States had assumed a policy of non-intervention even after Germany and Italy committed their resources in support of General Franco and his Nationalist army. Also, photographs of dead Spanish children surround a German document. These are juxtaposed with the picture of a smiling child in the center of the outline of France - the next target of the fascists.

The letter in the lower left corner recounts the interactions between its author and a Colonel Souza, possibly a nationalist, who has been in contact with Germans regarding their commitment to help the insurgency in Spain. The letter seems to have been written before the Nationalist uprising of July 1936. It reads:

Offices of the Front of German Work
Madrid
Confidential

Yesterday I casually met with Colonel Souza who told me that it had been a few days since he had been in communication with Berlin (aviation) or was with the delegate in question, who was introduced to him by Steffin.

Souza thinks that the situation here is getting worse every day and that he has heard from Germany of help for the national[ist] circles in the event of an uprising, but however, he is quite angry about the delay in Berlin. Perhaps it is advisable to report the matter to the A[uslands] O[rganization] Berlin, since, it is close by and would be able to accelerate the resolution of the affair through its intervention in aviation.

We have all interest in helping Sr. Souza. The situation here is that we cannot wait any longer [due] to the progressively increasing power of the Marxists.

I request that you respond to me straightaway.

With German regards,

The commander of the local group

Such texts and posters proved a powerful weapon in the Republican arsenal of propaganda. At the outbreak of the civil war, Republican Spain was composed of several factions, which disagreed about how to govern Spanish society. Some groups like the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) became more conciliatory and moderate during the course of the war; while other groups, like the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI) pushed for more radical reforms of Spanish society as they viewed the civil war as an opportunity for a proletariat revolution. In the effort to unify such groups against Franco and the Nationalist, much propaganda of the Republican government focused on creating a unified front of anti-fascism. In fact, the slogan "first win the war, and then we can talk about revolution" became a popular rallying cry, which introduced the notion of prioritizing the stopping fascism over the revolutionizing Spanish society.

The artist of the poster is unknown and little is known about the Grupo DAS, which produced the poster.