Zum Fall Hamsun-Ossietzky Knut Hamsuns Kandidaten für den Friedens-Nobelpreis

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A vocal opponent of the Nazis, journalist Carl von Ossietzky (1889-1938) refused to leave Germany, saying that a man speaks with a hollow voice from across the border. The morning after the Reichstag fire he was sent first to prison, then to several concentration camps. When he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1935, Norwegian novelist and former Nobelist Knut Hamsun (1859-1952) tried to discredit Ossietzky using documents supplied by the Gestapo. Ossietzky was awarded the prize anyway in 1936. The Nazis demanded he decline it and when he refused, made it impossible for him to leave Germany to accept it. In 1937 Hitler forbade any German from accepting a Nobel Prize. In his artist’s credit, Heartfield notes that he made no alterations to the photographs of Hitler and Göring.

Keywords

Photogravure
Propaganda
Germany
Photomontage
World War II
Commercial Art
Politics