Vintage German Illustration

March 10, 2010 7:54 PM

Vintage German illustrations, poster art, and advertisments.
posted by Fiasco da Gama (12 comments total)

Fantastic stuff.
posted by ryaninoakland at 9:24 PM on March 10, 2010

Something a little off about this one's boobs...
posted by robotot at 9:25 PM on March 10, 2010

A very carefully selected set of illustrations, nicht wahr?
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:40 PM on March 10, 2010

Looking at some of these makes me wonder when the whole "nipples = obscene" thing was invented - compare, for example this Josephine Baker poster to this Eva Mendes billboard. The former has nipples, so it would be a no-go for American public display, but the latter is actually much more sexual.
posted by idiopath at 9:57 PM on March 10, 2010

The difference is that one poster is German and one poster is American.

And Americans are a bunch of prudish old biddies who can't stop thinking about the children.
posted by dunkadunc at 12:08 AM on March 11, 2010

"A very carefully selected set of illustrations, nicht wahr?
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:40 AM on 3/11"

in focusing on advertising from before the 1930s? And not political posters or propaganda from the Nazis?
Don't be ridiculous.
posted by ts;dr at 2:05 AM on March 11, 2010 [2 favorites]

I found these so incredibly powerful that I spent hours paging through them. Particularly those having to do with travel. For example, the first. Here were two cognoscenti of architecture, perhaps a university professor specializing in cathedrals and his lovely assistant, getting their first view of a unique example. Or it was--
ALICIA: There's a castle for you, Freddie!
FREDDIE: Eh? By Jove! So it is! Wot!
Or both.
posted by RichardS at 4:12 AM on March 11, 2010

For those interested in such things, John Coulthart has recently been posting some fabulous examples of German Art Nouveau illustration on his blog, Feuilleton. So far: Jugend Magazine Revisited, Jugend 1896, Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, Jugend 1897, and it sounds as though there is more to come.
posted by verstegan at 5:15 AM on March 11, 2010 [2 favorites]

The first one I looked at was from '38. Obviously these can stand on their own, but its hard (for me) to look at some of these images and not think of what was going on/right around the corner.

Life during wartime...
posted by rosswald at 7:14 AM on March 11, 2010

but its hard (for me) to look at some of these images and not think of what was going on/right around the corner.

To me, the historical/social context is one of the things that makes them beautiful.
posted by coolguymichael at 8:41 AM on March 11, 2010

Awesome, thanks so much.

Verstegan, thanks for those links as well; terrific stuff.
posted by faineant at 12:18 PM on March 11, 2010

wow this is a great resource for inspiration and fun, thanks for posting!

along the same lines, check out this guy's photostream.
posted by wundermint at 5:00 PM on March 11, 2010 [1 favorite]