The Butter is Gone

John Heartfield (Germany; 1891 – 1968)
The Butter Is Gone(c.1932)
Akademie der Kunste (Berlin, Germany)

Accompanying song: Die Gedanken Sind Frei (Our Thoughts Are Free)










Here, Heartfield bites back at the Nazi party and ridicules its inability to feed Germany. During a food shortage in '35 Herman Göring of the German Nazi party said, “Iron has always made a nation strong, butter and lard have only made the people fat”. In this picture Heartfield depicts Germans trying to eat weapons in lieu of the butter they're supposed to have. He criticizes the value of building up arms over providing food for a destitute Germany (Evans). Such photos were often depicted in the Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung, a weekly magazine, and reached a wide audience. Heartfield's radical images and thick coatings of satire served as a powerful tool in revealing to Germans the corruption and self-serving ways of the Nazi party.