WWI National War Loan Campaign
1917, The Last Push
To finance the war effort during WWI, France balanced money printing and war bonds. The war bonds were not a novelty, and had been used since the French revolution in every national emergency situation. No “whatever the cost” then, but “mobilise your savings for victory!”. Different times. Different politicians. Different public, I guess.
My grandmother religiously kept all of the certificates, posters and flyers of the War Loan campaigns she contributed to as a teenager. All these originals were in her own souvenir box, neatly folded.
These artefacts, they were France.
There would be 4 National War Loans issued during WWI, the last one aimed at the reconstruction of the country. The first round, in 1915, raised 9 billion French Francs (1.37 billion Euro). The last National Loan, in 1918, raised 30 billion Francs (4.57 billion Euro).
A success then, and a formula that would be used with success in the US as well, during WWII particularly.
To get the necessary exposure and awareness, all artists, styles and content were mobilised. The scattergun approach is fascinating.
Poster by Hansi
A wall poster by Hansi, a mythical Alsatian cartoonist, famous for his anti-German drawings.
His instantly recognisable style was synonymous in the French psyche with the Lost provinces of Alsace-Lorraine. His personal history was well known, himself an Alsatian refugee from Colmar.
“Subscribe all to the 3rd National Defence Loan. You are helping our heroic soldiers.”
A comic book sheet format
The format itself is the ancestor of the storytelling style we are familiar with today. The captions are not yet included into the image, and remain very literally expositions (this is what goes on in the picture). Dynamism purely comes from the illustration. Not the display nor use of caption positioning.
Herge (RG-Tintin) would start, just a few years later, to create movement by moving the drawings, melding captions and creating more modern layout of the pages than equilateral squares.
This is, as much as the poster, a multi-target medium. The fact that my grandmother carried these around Congo shows their success and impact on the national psyche.
She was 14 then.
Popular sketches
As an outreach to the popular public, artists were mobilised beyond the expected patriotic cartoonists, such as Hansi.
Poulbot is famous to this day for drawing poor Parisian kids. With the wide commercial success of his sketches, he used some of them as a philanthropic out-reach for several fund raisings, most notably for the reconstruction of France. Such was the devastation that the French government tried to raise money through patriotic individual contributions. This is doubly interesting as my grandmother donated personally well after the war ended, although only 17 by then. She would forever be proud of it.
The word “Poulbot” became a byword, a generic term, for poor Parisian kids, street urchins and guttersnipes. The author even opened a dispensary rue Lepic, Les P’tits Poulbots, partly funded by his drawings. He was put under house arrest during WWII.
(*) Translation of Original 3rd National loan comic 1917
“Wilhelm the 2nd, in his pride, had conceived a plan to dismantle France, fragment its territory, take our goods and share them among his subjects.“
“France, it is you, it is me, it is all of us; it is our land, our factories, our churches, our farms, our castles, our houses, our cottages.; everything we own.“
“This odious coup, prepared since a long time, finally failed. Germany, in desperate straits, pursued from every part, will soon have to give in.“
“Under the threats of our guns, fearing to lose his throne, Wilhelm II tries to fool us, declaring he is ready to sign peace…. “
“A peace without reparations nor annexations, that is, pardoning his crimes; for us French people, [that is] the continuous threat of a new war.“
“Such a peace is impossible; our interests, our future ask for a total victory, and that is why France once again calls upon its children. “
“[France] does not ask for a gift nor sacrifice; she asks only from each of us a loan of trust to finish off faster the aggressor.“
“Subscribing to the loan is fulfilling a good deed: it is to ease the task of our soldiers, of our allies, free our territory and shorten the war. “
“It is, at the same time, we can say it, a first rate investment as the money lent, instead of staying idle, will generate 5 Francs 83 0/0.“
“Victory at short notice, and, on top of it, a good bargain while fulfilling one’s duty: there is no better way for a patriot to use his money.“
“Free people around the entire world came to fight at our side. Their faith in our cause and our soldiers’ heroism ask from us this supreme effort.“
“Frenchman, lend your funds to the Fatherland, advance the time for peace. France triumphing will rise from her ruins and will not forget your service.“
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