Help with interpreting a caricature
Hello, I'm currently working on a caricature…
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11571/11571-h/images/048.png
The caption reads: THE HAUNTED SHIP
GHOST OF THE OLD PILOT: "I wonder if he would drop me now!"
The caricature is dated March 31, 1915
I think that the collapsed man on the ship is Kaiser Wilhelm the 2nd. The "Ghost of the old pilot" is Bismark (who was already dead in 1915, hence the "Ghost")
The ship symbolizes German unity.
In my opinion, Wilhelm the 2nd fears that German unity could break apart, as the First World War is stuck or stalled (31.03. 1915)
And now the pilot Bismark arrives and is supposed to practically steer the ship again. Bismark had already been dismissed by Wilhelm the 2nd, and there is a similar cartoon called "Dropping the pilot"
Is there anyone here with a good knowledge of history who can help me?
Best regards =)
(2 votes)
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The (dead) lotse comes on board again, so Spuk (haunted) on the ship. Wilhelm II. asks: “Will Bismarck get me out because I have proved unable.”
The reference is probably rather the fact that Germany is now leading the two-front war that B. wanted to avoid.
In the caricature of 1915 the Bismarck figure was reversed: Bismarck, Wilhelm II. In 1890, as Chancellor (figuratively: as Lotse) had dismissed, so go on board again. The ship simply means the German Empire; the unit has nothing to do with it.
For example, the caricature should say: Kaiser Wilhelm II wishes he never had begun or admitted World War. He wished Chancellor Bismarck would still be there, because he would have managed to avoid a war that Germany could not win, as he did in the past by negotiations and treaties. Or, for example, to lead the war only against France instead of against France, Russia and England at the same time, as Wilhelm II and Reich Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg had started it stupidly in 1914.
Look here
http://www.thomasgransow.de/FachMethoden/Politische_Grafik.html
Isn’t that something like a play on the much more well-known English caricature “The Lotse goes off board”?
Yes, it’s a play, or a continuation.
The original caricature showed Bismarck how he left. She appeared in the “Punch” on the occasion of the release of Bismarck. In German it was translated: “The Lotse goes off board”. So if you’re going to have “The pilot is leaving” or something.
I don’t know if this was originally designed as a passive in English (being dropped is a passive).
That’s the idea.
I dare to doubt whether the British were in the midst of the heat of war for the German EInity. I think it was a German politician. War is welding together!
In time, I would rather look for the cause in the war. possibly this here:
http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/wk1/warform/champagne/index.html
However, this does not fit 100% to the caricature, as a British defeat would hardly cause the German emperor to worry, who has to recover the old diplomacy genius.
You need a day event from 30 or 31 March find that Germany appears in a difficult situation reads.
Since Bismarck’s genius was seen primarily in his merits as Foreign Minister, I would suspect the best prospect.
I honestly said little desire to browse through the chronicle;-)
Or someone else knows the decisive.