Der Magische Gürtel [The Enchanted Circle]

whole: the image occupies the whole, with the title integrated and positioned in the upper third, in black. The text is integrated and positioned in the lower quarter, in white, and in the upper third, in black. All held within a black border. image: in the foreground, the silhouette of a U-boat conning tower emerging from a grey-green sea. Further U-boats encircle a stylised depiction of the British Isles, which is depicted in the colours of the Union Flag. The depiction also includes white cliffs, the word 'ENGLAND' and a black dot marking London. text: DER MAGISCHE GÜRTEL. ENGLAND H R ERDT DEUTSCHE U-BOOTE WIDER ENGLAND Ver. Kunstinstitute A. G. [missing text - V]orm. Otto Tr[missing text - oitz]sch, Abt. Emil Saatz, Berlin-Schöneberg. [The enchanted circle. England. German U boats against England. United Art Institutes stock corporation, formerly Otto Troitzsch, Emil Saatz division, Berlin-Schöneberg.]

This poster advertises a German official film depicting the submarine U35, shot in April 1917. Ironically, the title is taken from a speech by Winston Churchill, then British Minister for Munitions, who talked of liberating ‘our splendid Navy from the enchanted circle the submarine has drawn around it’. The poster illustrates this ‘magic girdle’ of U-boats operating an unrestricted campaign against all shipping in designated war zones from February 1917. U35, under the command of Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, operated in the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic against British and Allied shipping. The film, issued by Bufa (Königliche Bild- und Film-Amt), showed footage shot from the deck of U35, with arresting images of the destruction and sinking of armed and unarmed merchant ships. Shown in neutral countries to demonstrate the success of Germany’s U-boats, the film received a mixed reception, eliciting sympathy for the victims rather than, as intended, admiration for the victors. After the war versions of the film were issued in various Allied countries as retrospective counter-propaganda, using the emotive quality of the footage to re-inforce anti-German feeling. IWM’s Film and Video Archive restored a version of this important propaganda film, re- issued on video in 2000.