A much misunderstood monster: the German ogre and Australia’s final and forgotten recruiting campaign of the Great War

Abstract

In the final weeks of the First World War, the Australian government released a poster of a monstrous German threatening the globe with his bloody hands. Misdated and misunderstood by many historians, the poster became emblematic of Australian war enthusiasm and anti-Germanism. However, what the poster in actuality represents is desperation. In the last year of the war, recruiting had declined drastically, the labour movement had become increasingly hostile, and conscription had been rejected in two referenda. The government introduced the Voluntary Ballot Enlistment Scheme, and the poster was part of the final recruiting campaign which would promote it. Through a combination of lengthy essays, lurid imagery and modern advertising techniques, the government sought to neutralise what they regarded as the greatest threat to recruiting – the labour movement and the concept of 'peace by negotiation'.This article has been peer reviewed.