West's Germany
- Title:
- West's Germany
- Alternate Title:
- West’s Germany
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Chapin, Robert M.
- Date:
- 1949
- Posted Date:
- 2015-08-25
- ID Number:
- 2010.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2010_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1940 - 1959
- Materials/Techniques:
- color printing
- Subject:
- Deception/Distortion
Communism & Cold War
Pictorial
Unusual Graphics/Text - Measurement:
- 30 x 21 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This map by R.M. Chapin appeared in Time Magazine in 1949, on the occasion of the formal post-war division of Germany; it contrasts "West's Germany" with "Russia's Germany" in a particularly heavy handed way. West Germany is filled with cities, images of historic sites and industrial activities (mining, shipbuilding, steelmaking), agriculture (cattle, grain, grapes), universities (Gottingen, Heidleberg), references to culture (Holbein, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner) and even a happy skier. Russia's Germany has virtually nothing except a tiny generic communist flag flying over East Berlin - a fraction the size of the German flag in the West.
The map "displayed almost all the cartographic anticommunism techniques prevalent by the late 1940s." indeed, it "was unusually rich in cartographic icons, text labeling and political rhetoric even for Time magazine... Virtually every aspect of this detailed, hand painted map makes it a case study of cartographic anticommunism in action." Stone 2007, 19-20.
The publisher of Time Magazine, along with Life and Fortune, was Henry Luce, the most powerful American media figure of his era and a fierce anti-communist. Baughman 2001, 1-5. Robert M. Chapin was an artist and long-time “Chief Cartographer” for Time. The collection includes a number of Chapin’s cold war maps reflecting Luce’s views: ID #2303, The Czar’s Will on 1944 Europe (1944); ID #1333, Communist Contagion (1946); ID #2010, West’s Germany (1949); ID #2012, Two Worlds (1950); ID ##1348.01-.02 & 1349, Europe From Moscow/Asia From Irkutsk (1952); ID #1359, Alaska (1958).
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact - Source:
- Time Magazine, December 5, 1949
- Repository:
- Private Collection of PJ Mode
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.