and the impact,asmeasured by the sparks, is profoundlyphysical. The accom-
panyingtext establishesadirect link between the blacksmith’sdailywork and
the proletariat’shistorical mission:“Anew year! Anew year like every other?
No!!It must not be! So thatanew worldcan arise out of misery and pain: hit
hard, proletarian!”However,onthe cover ofAIZ13.36 (1934), the promise of com-
munist victory alreadyrequiresasurfeit of symbolism, from the fourraised fists
andafifth hand holding the red flag with hammer and sickle on the leftto Thäl-
mann’shead floating saint-like on the right.Finally, aspecialAIZ13.40(1934)
issue promotingthe Antifaschistische Aktionseinheit announces, “All fists
clenched into one”(seefigure17.7) with its stylized fist made up of manymen
and womenraising their fists.²²Interestingly,Heartfieldsvisualization of the an-’
tifascist struggle is modeled ona1930photomontagebyKlutsis thatpairsasim-
ilar compositearm and fist with slogans like“Workers! Everyone mustvote in the
electionofSoviets”and“Let’sfulfill the plan of great works”(see figure17.8).²³
The unifying effect of productive rage behind Heartfield’sconsistent use of
hands as an index and an icon of political mobilization could even be usedto
explain his surprisingreturnto religious imagery duringthe London exileyears–
imagery that refers backto theWeimar period and the hidden connections,in
life and art,betweenrage and suffering.Heartfield acknowledgesasmuch
when, for the March 1942cover of the German anti-Nazi monthlyFreie deutsche
Kultur,hechoosesahand nailed toacross-likeSwastika that, even in this mo-
ment of greatest pain, preserves the defiant spirit ofFive Fingers(see figure17.9).
These Christian references could be read as adaptation to the conditions of exile,
as disillusionmentwith the project of communism, or asyetanother example of
the power of hands in managingpolitical emotions across iconographic tradi-
tions and ideological positions. What is beyond doubt,however,isthe central
role of emotionsasheuristic devices and organizingprinciplesduring that
brief historicalalliance between modern artand class politics called proletarian
modernism. Thisistrue even foraHeartfield friend and collaborator from the
communist lifeworld ofWeimarBerlin and, later,East Berlin usuallyassociated
with critical detachment and,most famously, the alienation effect,Bertolt
Several other examples can be citedtosupport this argumentabout the centrality of the
hand/fist motif in Heartfield: the black andwhite fistsraised in solidarity inAIZ10.26(1931),
the hands in front of the machine cogs announcing the new popular front policyinAIZ15.20
(1936), and theraised hand, surrounded by electric sparks,that stands in for an underground
radio station as thevoiceoffreedom inVI 16(1937).
On theHeartfield-Klutsis connection, see Maria Gough,“Ba ck in theUSSR:John Heartfield,
Gustavs Klucis, and the Medium of Soviet Propaganda,”New German Critique36.2 (2009): 133–
183.
John Heartfield’sProductiveRage 317