PROPAGANDA POSTCARDS
(1934)

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16-Sep-2026 06:11

WINTERHILFSWERK #1
WINTER RELIEF FUND
(Oct 1934)

As in later years there were a number of postcards published to raise money for the Winter Relief Fund. Below are a few examples of those postcards.

The Winterhilfswerk was one of the regime's most visible annual institutions, launched in autumn 1933 and repeated every winter through the war years, run through the NSV (Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt, the Nazi Party's welfare organization). Nominally it collected money, food, clothing, and coal for the poor during winter, and it did provide real material relief, but it also functioned as mass propaganda and social pressure: street-corner tin-rattling collectors, workplace payroll deductions, door-to-door collectors, badge/pin sales (people wore the day's collection badge to show they'd "already given"), and the famous "Eintopfsonntag" ("one-pot Sunday"), where families were expected to eat a simple stew and donate the money saved. Non-participation could draw social suspicion or informal reprisal, so while charitable in form, the WHW was also a tool of regime legitimation and civic conformity

No.1

This postcard (or more correctly fundraising/donation card ("Opferkarte")), was designed by Ludwig Hohlwein and has the inscription "HILF WHW KAMRPFEN | GEGEN HUNGER UND KÄLTE"- 'WHW COMBAT | AGAINST HUNGER AND COLD'.

Front: A stark black, white, and red design in a woodcut/stencil style, depicting a stylized Saint George–and-the-dragon motif: an armored, haloed rider on horseback thrusts a spear downward into a coiled dragon/beast beneath the horse. The halo contains a monogram reading "WHW" (Winterhilfswerk). Text is arranged as a slogan: "Hilf Kämpfen" (Help fight) / "Gegen Hunger und Kälte" (Against hunger and cold) / "Opfere" (Sacrifice/Donate), with "Winterhilfswerk des Deutschen Volkes", ("Winter Relief Work of the German People") along the bottom, and the campaign year "1934/35" top right. Printed by "Chromolithogr. Kunstanstalt München 13."

Back: Labeled "Opferkarte zum Winterhilfswerk des Deutschen Volkes 1934/35" ("Donation Card for the Winter Relief Work of the German People, 1934/35"), with a price of "RM -.15" (15 Reichspfennig) printed at bottom left, meaning the card itself was sold as a small act of donation, not mailed for free.

No.2
PP122-C-5/01

This postcard was issued in Munich in Dec 1934 by the Winterhilfswerk Organisation to raise funds for charity. There are two versions of this card: PP122-C-5-01 has the word "München" at the end of the vertical text "Druck: Deukula, Deutsche Kunst- und Verlagsdruckerei Grassinger & Co, Munchen. Klischee Brend'amour, Simhart & Co Munchen". PP122-C-5-02 does not have the word "München" at the end of the inscription "Druck: Deukula, Deutsche Kunst- und Verlagsdruckerei Grassinger & Co, Munchen. Klischee Brend'amour, Simhart & Co".