Cornell University Library Digital Collections

What Germany Wants

Collection:
Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
Creator(s):
Stanford’s Geographical Establishment
Date:
1917
Subject:
World War I
Full Title:
What Germany Wants - Her Claims As Set Forth by Leaders of German Thought.
Other Creator(s):
Roberts & Leete, Ltd. Lith.
Extent:
(cm, H x W) 73 x 108
ID Number:
1199.01
Collector's Notes:
An extraordinary wall map of the world, with blood red used to mark the areas that "Germany Wants." Date estimated|could be 1918.
Germany's "Claims" are detailed in 36 statements from 23 "Leaders of German Thought." These range from former generals and well-known Pangermanists (particularly Otto Richard Tannenberg, author of "Grosse Deutschland", 1911) to the "son of a former Governor of Southwest Africa," someone "of German colonial Office," and several identified only by name. In December 1917, the official U.S. "Committee on Public Information" released a 157 page report along the same lines, "Conquest and Kultur: Aims of the Germans in Their Own Words." (Notestein 1917). (For more on the Committee, see Notes for ID #1192, "The Prussian Blot")
A version of this map was reproduced in a school atlas published by Stanford's, ID #1198.01. The caption, "What Germany Wants" was used on other English maps of the time|see Bryars 2014, 55.
References:
For full details on references, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/references.
Rights:
For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.
Identifier:
PJM_1199_01.jpg
Date posted:
2015-08-25

About the collection

This is a collection of “persuasive” cartography: maps intended primarily to influence the opinion of the viewer -- to send a message -- rather than to communicate geographic information. The collection reflects a variety of persuasive tools: allegorical, satirical and pictorial mapping; selective inclusion or exclusion; unusual projections, graphics and text; and intentional deception. Maps in the collection address a wide range of messages: religious, political, military, commercial, moral and social.

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