An interesting video about a German Dadist's fight against fascism. There are interesting parallels in the present state of the re-emergence of fascism in countries around the world. Hertfield's critique of bourgeoise media would seem to be also as apposite to the internet media of bloggers/vloggers, influencers, and 'citizen journalists' of today.
Fascism or Communism, not much of a choice in old Weimar Germany... I watched a bit of the video and found it interesting, but being the author is an artist and is obviously smitten with Herzfeld, I wanted something a bit more objective so did some reading on my own since I am a hopeless history nut and the video had given me an appetite. This guy was a hardline, card-carrying commie, one of the founding members of Germany's communist party (KPD), probably better known as the Red Front, but I must admit he certainly led an interesting and lucky life - damn lucky - since he was #5 on the Nazis most wanted list. He took the idea of political/editorial cartoons a step further in his art (photomontage) which shows his true brilliance. He was a devout anti-Nazi as much as he was a devout Communist. I did get a private chuckle when imagining Herzfeld trying to explain his anti-Hitler rhetoric with one side of his face while the other side explained the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 (23 August). He spent the war years in England with MI5 watching his every move, even got thrown in jail for 6-weeks as an 'enemy alien' in 1940 but was finally released due to the efforts of a British MP who appears was a communist sympathizer. Anyway, he pretty much got thrown out of England after the war, ended up in East Germany teaching art, he wasn't well accepted there for numerous reasons like staying too long in the West and some considered him a traitor. Obviously, his anti-Nazi art was no longer in vogue so his fame sort of died away. Many say it died in the West due to his hardline communist beliefs and I think that is fair assessment; however, we must remember that communism was an extreme dire threat after WW2. What I couldn't find was even a hint to my question of why he wasn't put to work with the Stasi or even the KGB against the West using his photomontage art. Seems like a no-brainer to me. I speculate it was due to lack of trust from the years he spent in the West (1939-1950). EDIT: Another question: Why didn't he go to Moscow instead of London? I obviously got more digging to do. Definitely an interesting guy...
A nice, thoughtful reply. I do not defend Hertsfeld's politics...In my view Communism (of whatever flavour or colour) is as baneful as fascism...totalitarianism of any kind is generally harmful to human flourishing, and ought be opposed. It's Hertsfeld's artistic counter propaganda that I found interesting...I think I may explore Dadism a little more than just recognising the word as describing an early 20th century art movement.
Yes, and what I found fascinating was he was the right man, with the right artistic talent and the genius to make it work at the exact right time and place. Coincidence? I wonder...
Dada art is where you take some trash out of the trash can and stick an enormous price tag on it and call it art, like a toilet or a broken bike. In as much as it was a political tool it was also an insult to many trained artists who had to work for a living. It is no surprise that a Communist was able to come up with a way to make money from other people's trash while despising those same people and promoting his political message. I find that the Antifa of WW2 was more productive and effective than the Antifa of today. The real issue is the gap between the haves and the have nots. As is the case with capitalism, greed corrupts it. It allows money to influence things that should not be influenced and thus preventing those who would make a name for themselves from rising up. Socialism does the same thing via the opposite, power. The problem of course is not the Capitalism or Socialism but rather the corrupt politicians who can easily be bought. An example of this in real life is the Hershey candy company. They have copyrighted many things, such as the name Cadbury, Mars, KitKat, etc. This prevents English Cadbury chocolates from coming into the country with out the payment of licensing to use their own name. The result is a much worse low grade chocolate and the people suffer. Buy an English Cadbury and Hershey Cadbury and you will see the difference immediately. Hershey is but one of many companies that prevent other people from doing exactly what they did exploiting copyright and pork barrelling. In the other case with German chocolate company Kinder Schokolade, Hershey was able to convince federal politicians to ban the most popular candy in the world over "safety concerns" (it had a toy surprise inside (just like Cracker Jack)). Of course the money going to a politicians didn't hurt their cause. It could be argued that socialism and capitalism are not the worst thing but having an all powerful ruling body to force their will on others is. The definition of evil is controlling another and that is what we need to get rid of. Too many people focus on the Socialism v Capitalism when in reality it is the assholes in charge who gather power and money only to control the rest of us. DADA is what Banksy would do if he had no talent.
