"Gott strafe England" slogan

[Jamo]

Some of you know I have an interest in posters and postcards from around the WWI era and in one of my many google searches I came across this attractive zeppelin stamp with the words "Gott strafe England" across it.



Not knowing exactly what this meant I looked on Wikipedia and found out it was a slogan which means "May God punish England". The slogan was created by the German-Jewish poet Ernst Lissauer, who also wrote the poem Hassgesang gegen England (lit. "Hate song against England", better known as "Hymn of Hate"). In the hysterical atmosphere brought on by World War I, Lissauer's Hassgesang became an instant success. Rupprecht of Bavaria, commander of the Sixth Army, ordered that copies be distributed among his troops. The Kaiser was pleased enough to confer upon the author the Order of the Red Eagle.

If you do an image search on google you come up with all manner of items with the slogan appearing, here is one





According to another source, 'Gott strafe England' became the daily greeting in Germany. When a company paraded the captain cried: "Gott strafe England!" and the response came from 250 throats: "Er strafe es" (May He punish her). The greeting spread from the army to the whole nation. When people drank, they did not say "Prosit!" (May it go well with you). They said "Gott strafe England", and replied "Er strafe, es!"

Around 1916 the German expression strafe entered English slang. First it meant only to punish someone severely, later also to attack with heavy machine-gun fire from a low-flying aircraft. Nowadays strafe stands for any attack with heavy fire from a moving position. The nickname "Strafer" was given to the British General William Gott in World War II 

In 1918 the frequency of the strafe slogan and similar oaths by British soldiers made John Collings Squire write the following poem:

God heard the embattled nations sing and shout
'Gott strafe England!' and 'God save the King!'
God this, God that, and God the other thing —
'Good God!' said God, 'I've got my work cut out!'

[drdave]

Well never mind. Two world wars and one World Cup later, no ones going to argue about it. We did hang the washing on the Seigfried line, but it wasn't there., etc etc

[IanB]

No wonder Germany lost - the last poster shows an iron-clad fist hitting Scotland!
 Just in case anyone takes this too seriously, my family emigrated to England from Germany in the 1890's....

Ian

[Jamo]

Just to clarify, no political views were intended with my post. I am merely interested in the history.

I particularly thought 'Strafer Gott' was a hilarious nickname

[uncletony]

I knew this from II/JG51 -- they had the odd bird with umbrella insignia with this inscribed on their BoB era 109s

[Vickers]

Funny thing, Bo.  This emblem was used by I/ZG-71 (precursor to II/JG-51) on their 109D's in the summer of 1939, over a year before they were at war with Britain. I don't know whether the unit marking signifies that they were looking back to the Great War or ahead to the next one. Perhaps both.

[drdave]

There's a funny propaganda poster with the slogan " know your enemy" used in Britain during WW1 with a hilarious characature of a Prussian officer in a monocle. I'll see if I can find it.

[Nigel Jackson]

Hi Bo

I did wonder if the emblem with the crying bird predated the war, while the Gott strafe... caption that'd been used in the earlier conflict was added after war was declared.

Best wishes
Nigel

[IFF1418]

Hello,

I wonder if Ernst Lissauer still lived at the end of WW2?

Kind regards
Patrcik

[Jamo]

He died in Vienna on December 1937 at the age of 55. A native of Berlin, he emigrated to Austria after the war and was deprived of his German citizenship by the Nazis. He later repented having written the song, which he had dashed off in a Hamburg cafe under emotion stirred by a report that England had held up American hospital supplies destined for Germany. A convert to Christianity, Lissauer returned to Judaism in his later years.

http://www.jta.org/1937/12/13/archive/ernst-lissauer-author-of-hate-hymn-dead-in-vienna

[IFF1418]

Hello James,

Thank you for your research and the link!

Kind regards
Patrick