Propaganda Leaflets
Following are examples of leaflets dropped over enemy lines from planes and
balloons:
I. Fliegerabwurf-Schriften
II. Leaflet Air Post No. 12
III. Secret Summary of Intelligence, A.E.F.
IV. Fliegerabwurf-Schriften.
I.
(French Propaganda Leaflet
-- said to have come from German soldiers in
French prison camps:
Pass this along!
German War Comrades!
Think about this:
1. Only greedy rulers want war. The people want peace, and work, and bread.
2. Only the German Kaiser with his militarists, Junkers, and arms
manufacturers wanted war, prepared for it and brought it on. No one wanted
to fight Germany, no one opposed her desires for a "place in the sun."
3. If a murderer shoots a revolver on the street, it is the duty of every
peace-loving, dutiful citizen to hurry to the aid of the fallen. For that
reason Italy, Rumania, and the United States went to war against Germany;
to free Belgium, Serbia, and France from the clutches of the murderer....
10. Stop fighting! Turn your cannons around! Come over to us. Shoot
anyone who wants to hinder you from coming.
YOUR DEMOCRATIC COMRADES
IN FRENCH PRISONS
II.
British leaflet dropped into German trenches by balloon:
FOR WHAT ARE YOU FIGHTING, MICHEL?
They tell you that you are fighting for the Fatherland. Have you ever
thought why you are fighting?
You are fighting to glorify Hindenburg, to enrich Krupp. You are struggling
for the Kaiser, the Junkers, and the militarists....
They promise you victory and peace. You poor fools! It was promised your
comrades for more than three years. They have indeed found peace, deep in
the grave, but victory did not come! . . .
It is for the Fatherland.... But what is your Fatherland? Is it the
Crown Prince who offered up 600,000 men at Verdun? Is it Hindenburg, who
with Ludendorff is many kilometers behind the front lines making more
plans to give the English more cannon fodder? Is it Krupp for whom each
year of war means millions of marks? Is it the Prussian Junkers who still
cry over your dead bodies for more annexations?
No, none of these is the Fatherland. You are the Fatherland.... The
whole power of the Western world stands behind England and France and
America! An army of ten million is being prepared; soon it will come
into the battle. Have you thought of that, Michel?
III.
Russian Proclamation to the German Soldiers:
The Provisional Government has fallen. The power is now in the hands of the
Russian people, and the new government considers the immediate conclusion
of peace as its foremost duty....
We charge you soldiers to stand by us in the fight for peace and socialism,
for socialism alone can give the proletariat a lasting peace....
Brothers, if you support us, the cause of freedom is assured success....
Our soldiers have laid down their arms. It is now for you to follow this
standard of peace.
May peace triumph! May the Socialistic and International Revolution live!
For the Council of People's Commissars.
Signed LENIN, TROTSKY
December 5, 1917
IV.
American Leaflet from the Friends of German Democracy:
BROTHERS!
The world is in great need. You and you alone can end this need rapidly. We
are American citizens of German descent. We know you and trust you. We beg
you to trust us.
The great German nation is the barbarian and the breaker of trust in the
eyes of the world. You can recover your good reputation only if you
overthrow this government, which has made German intelligence and German
industry a danger to the world. Take the determination of your destiny
into your own hands....
If you will do this the world war will end. In the name of America we give
you our word, that the new Germany will be taken up as an honorable member
of the society of nations. Your intelligence and industry will once again
be a blessing to humanity, instead of a curse.... Arise for a struggle for
a free Germany!
In the name of Americans of German descent.
UNION OF FRIENDS OF
GERMAN DEMOCRACY
New York, March, 1918