Gott strafe England

British soldiers and French civilians next to the slogan painted on a wall, 1 January 1918. The slogan was graffitied onto the wall by German troops.

Gott strafe England (lit. 'May God punish England') was an anti-British slogan coined by German poet Ernst Lissauer in 1917 during World War I. The slogan immediately gained widespread popularity in the German Empire, which had been at war with Britain since 1914, and was widely reproduced in Germany's popular culture. The Imperial German Army also adopted the slogan as a motto for its soldiers.[1]

History

Ernst Lissauer, who coined the slogan

In August 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, German poet Ernst Lissauer published the anti-British poem Hassgesang gegen England ("Song of hate against England"), which in the words of Austrian writer Stefan Zweig "fell like a shell into a munitions depot". The poem became an instance success in the German Empire as a result of "the rhetorical power with which it encapsulated a national emotional response to the outbreak of war". Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria, the commander of the Imperial German Army's 6th Army, ordered copies of the poem to be distributed to his troops, and Wilhelm II conferred the Order of the Red Eagle upon Lissauer.[2]

Three years after writing the poem, Lissauer coined the slogan Gott strafe England ("May God punish England"), which achieved similar levels of popularity in Germany, appearing in popular culture such as cufflinks and postcards and being adopted as a motto by the German army. The slogan, which was commonly chanted by jingoistic crowds in German cities, was met with disapproval among some in the German intelligentsia, with Helmut Herzfeld anglicising his name to John Heartfield in protest. The German government was accused of issuing a stamp with the slogan, which they denied, though a number of unofficial stamps bearing the slogan were produced by non-governmental organisations such as the Federation of the Germans in Lower Austria.[3]

The slogan was humorously adopted by English-speakers to create the term "strafing", which refers to the military practice of attacking ground targets from low-flying aircraft using automatic weapons; British Army officer William Gott, who served in World War I and World War II, was nicknamed "Strafer" by his comrades after they were exposed to the slogan.[4][5][6]

In 1946, British occupational authorities in Hamburg issued eviction orders to make room for a new headquarters. In response, 4,000 residents of the city gathered in protest, singing the outlawed Deutschlandlied and knocking the hats off fellow Hamburgers who kept their heads covered. The crowd chanted a variety of slogans, including "We’re not Indians, not coolies, we must be treated like Germans", antisemitic slogans and "Gott strafe England". The final slogan led the Royal Military Police to arrest eleven members of the crowd.[7]

In popular culture

Gott Strafe (England), an anti-German painting by American artist George Bellows

Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek made derisive references on the phrase several times in his 1921 novel The Good Soldier Švejk:[8]

In the meantime the baroness drew presents out of the hamper: a dozen roast chickens wrapped up in pink silk paper and tied with a yellow and black silk ribbon, two bottles of a war liqueur with the label: ′Gott strafe England′. On the back of the label was a picture of Franz Joseph and Wilhelm clasping hands as though they were going to play the nursery game: ′Bunny sat alone in his hole. Poor little bunny, what's wrong with you that you can't hop!′[9]

English poet J. C. Squire satirizes the phrase in his poem "God Heard the Embattled Nations":

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!"[10]

American artist George Bellows, who made several anti-German works during the war, created a lithograph titled Gott Strafe (England) depicting German troops crucifying Allied soldiers.[11] Louis Raemaekers created a cartoon titled "Gott strafe England".[12]

See also

• Gott mit uns

References

1. "Hassgesang gegen England — Hymn of Hate, by Ernst Lissauer". Hschamberlain.net. 1914-10-15. Archived from the original on 2013-05-29. Retrieved 2013-07-12.
2. Millington, Richard; Smith, Roger (15 June 2017). ""A Few Bars of the Hymn of Hate": The Reception of Ernst Lissauer's "Haßgesang gegen England" in German and English". Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature. 41 (2). doi:10.4148/2334-4415.1928. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
3. "Gott Strafe England Cinderella Stamp | Australian War Memorial". Cas.awm.gov.au. Archived from the original on 2012-09-10. Retrieved 2013-07-12.
4. "Oxford Dictionaries – Dictionary, Thesaurus, & Grammar – "Gott strafe England" as origin of "to strafe"". askoxford.com. Archived from the original on March 12, 2007. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
5. Richard B.H. Lewis, The Art of Strafing, July 2007, airforce-magazine.com
6. "Definition of STRAFE". Merriam-Webster. 2023-10-10. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
7. "Foreign News: Gott Strafe England", Time, July 08, 1946
8. "Slovníček".
9. Hašek, Jaroslav (2005). The Good Soldier Švejk. Penguin Publishing Group. p. 71. ISBN 978014044991-4.
10. Squire, J. C. "God heard the embattled nations sing and shout "Gott strafe England"…". Star Quotes. Archived from the original on 2012-03-08. Retrieved 2010-08-03.
11. "Gott Strafe (Gott Strafe England) by George Bellows / American Art". Americanart.si.edu. Retrieved 2013-07-12.
12. Raemaekers' Cartoons, BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2009, ISBN 978-0-559-12667-3