andKautsky,illustrated journals such asSüddeutscher PostillonandDerWahre
Jacobused irreverent humor and sharp wit to reach large numbers of workers in
the local pub and factory hall.Taking advantage of new color-print technologies,
both journals built on long-established traditions that,from the emblems in re-
ligious tracts to the symbols on political fliers, relied heavilyonimage-text rela-
tionshipsto conveytheir view of the world.With more thanaquarter ofamillion
subscribersduring the 1890s,DerWahreJacobat one point was even more suc-
cessful than the bourgeois satirical weeklySimplicissimus.The combination of
political caricatures,socialist allegories, agitational poems, and polemical es-
says in the more confrontationalSüddeutscher Postillonplayedanimportant
role in modeling an attitude of contrariness towardthe institutions of dominant
culture, especiallythe Prussian military and bureaucracy.
Whereas social types became the most effective wayofsatirizing the class
enemy, allegories prevailedinthe representation of the socialist movement
and the workingclass. These idealizedrepresentations of Social Democracy
would fit anydefinitionofsocialist kitsch, but in the largercontext of allegory
as adidactic form and prebourgeois tradition, the continuities between folk cul-
ture and proletarian cultureare ultimatelymoreimportant.These new formal
registers becameavailable because the diminishment of allegory in the ageof
theromantic symbol. Theresultant reconfigurations of folk and class through
the allegorical methodcan be seen in two examples fromSüddeutscher Postillon.
The first,“Capital and Labor”(inSP9/1895),depicts the struggle between capital
and labor asafight between two medieval horsemen,afat knight wielding an
old-fashioned morning star andaromantic hero (with open collared shirt)
armed withashinynew sword. Retreatingevenmore into fantasy,“IAmaPro-
letarian”(on the cover ofSP6/1902) introduces theProletaras astout wrestler
who strangles the steelyserpent of capitalism draped decoratively around his
lower calf (see figures5.2and 5.3). The allusionto Siegfried slaying the dragon
could easilyhavebeen presented with nationalist slogans–evidence of the
close connections within the allegoricalmode between seemingly contradictory
political traditions.
As an instrumentofsocialist agitation,Süddeutscher Postillonhad to deal
with frequent bans by the state censors and chargesoflèse majestéagainst its
editors.Itwould be shortsighted, however,tointerpret the widespread prefer-
cle&id=505:eduard-f uchs-und-das-poli tische-arbeiter-witzblatt-sddeutscher-postillon&catid=
70&Itemid=124, 1March2017.For acomparative study, also see Klaus Völkerling,“Die politisch-
satirischenZeitschriftenSüddeutscher Postillon(München) undDerWahreJacob(Stuttgart).Ihr
Beitrag zur Herausbildung der frühen sozialistischenLiteratur in Deutschland und zur marxis-
tischen Literaturtheorie”(PhDdiss., Pedagogical CollegeofPotsdam, 1969).
The Proletarian Prometheus and Socialist Allegory 105