John Heartfield

John Heartfield

Heartfield's bold life and works played a great part in the jesting of Nazi Germany, their laws, ideals, views and cultures, his works, always at the peril of his own life portrayed Hitler somewhat as a 'clown', satirising Hitler, often portraying him as not just the Nazi leader, fighting for what he believes in and his morals, but also as a heartless, greedy, power hungry person, just trying to feed his sadistic needs. Heartfield sparked the uprising of a bold new form of conceptual art, setting a new boundary in which art can be more than just to look at and enjoy, but also to revolt, to torment and to protest, Heartfield's images, represent a thousand words, telling a hundred tales, depicting made up events, compiled from numerous images, without the aid of photoshop and supremely surpassing that of any other propaganda artists. Heartfield's keen eye to create an image with 'set images' (without being able to physically manipulate or alter state or position, other than cutting out)  overlaid and altering to fit in with a separate, irrelevant image to create a masterful piece of propaganda, to humiliate the opposing and boosting morale of allies.

 

This image can be interpreted in many ways, like the bindings of nazi society to all things, the fact that nazi Germany was fast invading Europe and was not planning at stopping their, starting a new race of people and changing the history books, turning people against whatever was the whim of Hitler, like religions involving a Jewish christ.

This image can also be interpreted in the form of a Nazi desire of reshaping religion, where as Christ is nailed to a swastika, receiving (in nazi views) a deserved punishment, that the same as any other jew would receive and the worshipping of a jewish christ as a sin 

Or as a contradiction to the religious beliefs of christian Nazis in the form that they are going against everything they believe in, blinded by the views of a hatred fuelled usurper.