Description
Object description
whole: eight separate images are positioned down the right and left edges, each held within a black border and set against
an orange background. The title is separate and positioned across the top edge, in black. The text is separate and positioned in the upper
third, down the centre, and across the bottom edge, in orange and in black. The title and text are set against a white
background.
image: first image: a nurse stands by the bedside of a dead patient whose face looks like a skull. Second image: a graveyard with wreaths
placed over some of the crosses. Third image: a large crowd of striking workers. Fourth image: two workers. Fifth image: a crowd of men
gather menacingly around a smaller man. Sixth image: a worker operates a valve in a pipeline. Seventh image: a woman bathes a baby in a tin
bath tub. Eighth image: a woman, holding a child in her arms, tries to persuade her husband, who is putting a jacket on, not to go
out.
text: ARBEITER-BERLINS
wir die unterzeichneten Leiter der gemeinnützigen Anstalten Gross-Berlins wenden uns an Euch im Namen der unserer Obhut anvertrauten
Kranken und Verwundeten, Säuglinge und Mütter
[text accompanying first image] Die Vollversammlung des Arbeiter-rats hatte am 6. März mit kleiner Mehrheit beschlossen, der Bevölkerung
Gross-Berlins
Gas, Wasser und Elektrizität zu sperren.
Wisst Ihr, was ein solcher Streik, abgesehen von dem Elend, das über die gesamte Bevölkerung Berlins gekommen wäre, für viele Hundert
unserer Pfleglinge bedeutet?
[text accompanying second image] Er bedeutet für sie den sicheren TOD also Mord ausgeführt von den eigenen Volksgenossen, vielleicht von
den eigenen Vätern, Männern und Brüdern.
[text accompanying third image] Trotzdem ist dieser Streik und zwar trotz des flammenden Widerspruchs der mehrheits-sozialdemokratischen
Mitglieder der Streikleitung zum Teil zur Ausführung gelangt.
Nur durch das Eingreifen der Technischen Abteilung der Garde-Kav.-Schützen-Division konnte grösseres Unheil verhütet werden.
[text accompanying fourth image] Wir wenden uns an Euch, reife Männer unter den Arbeitern
[text accompanying fifth image] die Ihr nicht jedem ehrgeizigen und unreifen Schreier nachlauft.
[text accompanying sixth image] Duldet nicht wieder, dass ein derart Verbrecherischer STREIK gemacht wird. Beweist Eure Gesinnung durch die
Tat und helft gegebenen Falles die Lücken ausfüllen, die verblendete Kameraden gerissen haben.
[text accompanying seventh image] Schafft Ihr uns dann Licht, Gas und Wasser
[text accompanying eighth image] Wir wenden uns an Euch, Ihr Arbeiterfrauen und Arbeiterkinder
Sagt Eurem Manne, Eurem Vater, er soll an unsere hülflosen Pfleglinge denken und durch seiner Hände Arbeit sie vor dem Verderben retten
[the names of thirteen directors of medical organisations follows]
Druck: Richard Neumann, S.14, Sebastianstr. 69
[Workers of Berlin. We the undersigned, leaders of the public welfare institutions of Greater Berlin, address you in the name of sick and
wounded, infants and mothers, entrusted to our care. On 6 March the full assembly of the Workers' Council had decided by a small majority
to block the supply of gas, water and electricity to the inhabitants of Greater Berlin. Do you know what such a strike, apart from the
misery that would have afflicted the whole population of Berlin, means for many hundreds of those in our care? For them it means certain
Death, i.e. murder perpetrated by their own fellow countrymen, perhaps their own fathers, husbands and brothers. Even so the strike,
admittedly in spite of the ardent opposition of the majority Social Democratic members of the strike leadership, was partly implemented.
Greater evil could be averted only through the intervention of the Technical Section of the Horse Guards Rifles Division. We appeal to you,
mature men among the workers who do not run after every ambitious, immature trouble-maker. Do not allow such a criminal strike to happen
again. Show the way you think through action and if necessary help plug the gaps left by your blinded comrades. Ensure we have light, gas
and water. We appeal to you, wives and children of workers, tell your husband, your father, he should think of the helpless people in our
care and save them from destruction through the labour of his hands.]
Physical description
Printed in two halves.
A smaller version was also produced (see PST 7575).
Inscription
31624
Inscription
Abteilung A Leiter der Berliner Krankenhäuser. 17.3.19. Aufrist au die Arbeiter Berlins. (Bilds)
Inscription
1792
Inscription
17 MÄRZ 1919