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Cartoons of the Moment – The Economy in Germany (c.1915)

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Economy in Germany education content clip 1

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

This clip begins with the title card Cartoons of the Moment followed by a scene of cartoonist Harry Julius sketching at an easel. A group of children run up to him and watch as he sketches. The three animated political sketches that follow comment on the economy in Germany during the First World War.

In the first sketch, German policeman PC Von Fritz arrests a fashionably dressed woman and replaces her clothes with newspaper. In the second, a schoolmaster encourages his student to eat slowly so he’ll think it is a lot of food. Finally, in the third sketch, PC Von Fritz is shown eating a shoe, a jam tin and ‘humble pie’ from John Bull.

Curator’s notes

by Poppy De Souza

This sketch is representative of the style and tone of cartoonist Harry Julius’s political satire. Julius uses caricature and word play to ridicule the German police and authority figures and to comment on the social impact of the war in German society. The German economy suffered greatly during the First World War, with billions of dollars poured into the war effort. What the sketch cleverly points out is that the effect of this is not just economic, but also social. 'Economy’ in this sketch highlights another common meaning of the word – to be frugal. Julius’s cartoon takes this to the extreme by sketching a woman dressed in newspaper clothes, and a boy who is told to eat slowly as a substitute for eating a lot. The punchline comes when Julius sketches PC Von Fritz literally eating a humble pie prepared by John Bull – a name that represents a typical Englishman.

Julius is often shown sitting at his desk reading a current newspaper before sketching down his ideas. Sometimes he is filmed in an exterior location standing at an easel before the action focuses on the hand of the artist and his resulting cartoon. Julius’s drawn animation uses two-dimensional cut-out character shapes photographed with a stop-motion technique. Today, animation is instead frequently rendered with computer technology.

Teacher’s notes

provided by The Le@rning FederationEducation Services Australia

This black-and-white sequence of three cartoons uses cut-out figures, simple animation and captions to comment on Germany’s struggling wartime economy. The clip is introduced by the title 'Cartoons of the Moment’ and a scene of Harry Julius drawing at an easel on the beach with children watching. The cartoons show first an overdressed woman whose clothes are replaced by paper clothing, then a teacher instructing a student in food mastication drill followed by Fritz eating a shoe, a jam tin and, finally, humble pie from John Bull.

Educational value points

  • Cartoonists employ various devices to represent and satirise politicians, political parties, countries and nationalities so an audience can immediately identify the subject of the cartoon. This may take the form of exaggerated features, the use of a symbol or the depiction of a national stereotype. The oafish, grossly fat PC von Fritz and John Bull are both caricatures to represent national types.
  • The cartoons present propaganda to wartime audiences by portraying the enemy in a way that humiliates and disempowers them. The cartoonist draws attention to the parlous state of the German economy and ridicules the efforts of the German state, through its police, to mitigate its effects. There are ludicrous examples such as the boy being instructed in mastication drill to avoid hunger pangs and Fritz eating a shoe and an empty can as economy measures.
  • The figure of Fritz, the policeman in the clip, shows how cartoonists can select a stereotype to poke fun at national characteristics or nation–states in order to counter the fear of an enemy and raise the morale of the audience. Fritz, fat and stupid, is a ludicrous figure representing the autocratic German state but so foolish in his attempts to exercise his authority that finally he is humiliated by England’s John Bull who has sent him 'humble pie’ to eat.
  • The clip demonstrates a distinctive style of cartooning employing film of the cartoonist at work and showing the artist’s hand creating animated cartoon images. This style was favoured by Harry Julius (1885–1938) and several of his animated cartoons show him reading newspapers as if he is gathering ideas prior to drawing. The leisurely introduction to this clip shows Julius in the pose of an artist attracting the attention of children as he sketches by the seashore.
  • This clip demonstrates the direct appeal of cut-out animation, which is one of the simplest ways of using drawings to create action – it involves moving cut-out shapes in small steps and taking a picture at each stage. The crude drawing and jerky movement suit satirical caricature, as in the case of the overdressed woman and Fritz the policeman in the clip. The white cut-out characters and writing on a black background focus the attention of the viewer.
  • The clip provides one of the earliest examples of Australian animated political cartoons seen widely by Australian audiences. The cartoonist Harry Julius was employed to produce a weekly segment shown as part of Australasian Gazette newsreels from about 1914 to 1918 in support of the First World War and conscription.