AntiGermanPropaganda


 * Thesis:** The reason the US went to war was because of all the Anti-German Propaganda. The American Government depicted the Germans to get people enlisted into the army. Americans hated the Germans and wanted to to enlist just to kill Germans. The three main reasons that caused the United States to join World War 1 were: the hatred towards Germans, the power to enlist soldiers, and the vengeance of killed Americans.

media type="youtube" key="4iFnce-4e74" height="167" width="206" In order to get support of Americans to go to war, the government held campaigns depicting the Germans as savage and dangerous people. They made posters and pictures showing the German people to be terrible. Such as the "Destroy this Mad Brute, Enlist U.S.Army. This poster is a picture of an angry ape carrying a woman. The ape is wearing a German helmet and carrying a large stick. The ape obviously represents Germany and the woman represents the innocent. This is just one of the many different posters pushing the war against Germany. United States newspapers portrayed the Germans as baby killers. They used many drawings of German soldiers shooting babies and small children. This angered many Americans and made them hate the German people. Newspapers would use the word Hun, instead of German. They successfully made the Germans seem like monsters instead of people. By doing this, Americans ceased to look at the Germans as human beings and saw them as murderers, rapists, baby killers. Many of the posters would take away the Germans face to make them look like they have no humanity or goodness. This is propaganda at its worst. People lost all decency because of a couple posters. The government did this all just so they could go to war. They did not care about the damage they did. The images that they would create were so strong and moving. They would use color printing to show red and blood and fire, this had such a profound impact on the people. Germans soldiers would have child blood on their hands and equipment. This would say that the Germans were killing children and women. Most of the statements and posters and images that were seen, were not true. The US government would exaggerate (or completely make up) events that happened. They would say that German soldiers would eat babies and bite their heads off. They would also claim that the Germans would poison water supplies to kill many people at one time. The US Army took the sinking of the Lusitania and used it for their recruitment posters. They would directly blame the Germans for her destruction. They would use words like avenge to gain support and more soldiers. The Government would even get children to hate the Germans. Children are the most innocent and yet they even showed their hatred of the Germans. Another form of propaganda was the use of music and films. Famous songwriters would write Anti-German songs, such as Arthur Fields. Fields wrote "Lets Bury the Hatchet (In the Kaisers head)" this was yankee doodle, rewritten into Anti-German form. As the film business and cartoons were first starting out, the films would be about war or making fun of Germans and other countries. German and other Triple Alliance countries would be portrayed in very stereotypical ways in the films

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While Yankee Doodle sails away to fight the German foe The pacifists are shouting "PEACE!" and say they shouldn't go They claim the hatchet must be buried by the Allies now Perhaps they're right, we must have peace,...and so I'll tell them how Let's bury the hatchet, let's bury the hatchet, Let's bury the hatchet in the Kaiser's head We'll crown him on the noodle, make him whistle Yankee Doodle Down came the battle cry of Wilson We'll chain his BROODLE down the floor and then we'll get his goat We'll chop them into frankfurters and stuff them down his throat We'll chase him out of Russia Then we'll try another stunt We'll punch him in the Belg-i-um And we'll smash his western Front Let's bury the hatchet, Let's bury the hatchet, Let's bury the hatchet in the Kaiser's head When Berlin is in ashes, we'll burn up his big mustaches Let's bury the hatchet in the Kaiser's head Down came the battle cry of Wilson

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