Kellie Strøm, a much-admired artist around these parts, discusses the work of cartoonist Fritz Behrendt which is currently on exhibition in the Netherlands in the Dutch Resistance Museum, which celebrates his anti-Nazi work (he was arrested by the SS in 1945, a terrifying prospect). Kellie also discusses Behrendt’s later career, not just work for various Dutch publications but stints for Tito in Yugoslavia and the then East Germany, none of which I knew anything about. (link via Dirk at Journalista)
(part of one of Fritz Behrendt’s wartime cartoons, borrowed from Kellie’s blog)
September 25th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
As I don’t know anything about Fritz Behrendt’s plight during the war, I’m not going to comment on that. Even leaving that aspect of his life and work aside, he is one of the most important political cartoonists the Netherlands have ever had, with Opland probably as his only equivalent on the more left-wing aspect of the spectrum.
However, the cartoon you show is one of his more prejudiced and, frankly, worse pieces of work. It is not a wartime cartoon, as the byline attests (“25 years after the end of the war” – meaning this cartoon was published in 1970). It is merely an example of an old grudge against the German people and their, at least perceived, reluctance to deal with their shared past.
I guess that in 1970 many germans with less than savory war pasts were still walking scott-free in Germany. The sentiment that every German is essentially suspect, however, is, and was at the time, utterly objectionable.
October 6th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Ah but Wim, if you read the complete cartoon you’ll see that his target is not suspect Germans:
http://www.sadiethepilot.com/a.....tram_l.jpg