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Gott strafe England (English: "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]
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]
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]
Chauvinism is the unreasonable belief in the superiority or dominance of one's own group or people, who are seen as strong and virtuous, while others are considered weak, unworthy, or inferior. The Encyclopaedia Britannica describes it as a form of "excessive and unreasonable" patriotism and nationalism, a fervent faith in national excellence and glory.
Jaroslav Hašek was a Czech writer, humorist, satirist, journalist, bohemian, first anarchist and then communist, and commissar of the Red Army against the Czechoslovak Legion. He is best known for his novel The Fate of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War, an unfinished collection of farcical incidents about a soldier in World War I and a satire on the ineptitude of authority figures. The novel has been translated into about 60 languages, making it the most translated novel in Czech literature.
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Lieutenant-General William Henry Ewart Gott,, nicknamed "Strafer", was a senior British Army officer who fought during both the First and the Second World Wars, reaching the rank of lieutenant-general while serving with the British Eighth Army in the Western Desert and North Africa from 1940 to 1942. In August 1942 he was appointed as successor to General Claude Auchinleck as commander of the Eighth Army but, on the way to take up his command, he was killed when his plane was shot down. His death led to the appointment of Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery in his place.
The Good Soldier Švejk is an unfinished satirical dark comedy novel by Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek, published in 1921–1923, about a good-humored, simple-minded, middle-aged man who appears to be enthusiastic to serve Austria-Hungary in World War I.
Strafing is the military practice of attacking ground targets from low-flying aircraft using aircraft-mounted automatic weapons. Less commonly, the term is used by extension to describe high-speed firing runs by any land or naval craft such as fast boats, using smaller-caliber weapons and targeting stationary or slowly-moving targets.
Josef Lada was a Czech painter, illustrator, cartoonist and writer. Pioneer of the Czech comicbook tradition and founder of the “Czech modern fairytale” genre. He is considered one of the greatest Czech artists of all times – which is also what the world-famous Pablo Picasso had claimed him to be. He is best known for his children’s books and he is best known as the illustrator of Jaroslav Hašek's World War I novel The Good Soldier Švejk,. He’s an author of over 15000 illustrations and more than 600 paintings. The main themes and motives of his work include the following; home village Hrusice, water goblins and sprites, night watchmen, pub fights and the traditional pig-slaughter.
Gott mit uns is a phrase commonly used in heraldry in Prussia and later by the German military during the periods spanning the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945) and until the 1970s on the belt buckles of the West German police forces. It was also commonly used by Sweden in most of its wars and especially as a battle cry during the Thirty Years' War.
Closely Watched Trains is a 1966 Czechoslovakian New Wave coming-of-age comedy film directed by Jiří Menzel and is one of the best-known films of the Czechoslovak New Wave. It was released in the United Kingdom as Closely Observed Trains. It is a story about a young man working at a train station in German-occupied Czechoslovakia during World War II. The film is based on a 1965 novel by Bohumil Hrabal. It was produced by Barrandov Studios and filmed on location in Central Bohemia. Released outside Czechoslovakia during 1967, it received widespread acclaim and won the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 40th Academy Awards in 1968. Nowadays the movie is assessed as one of the finest works of the Czech New Cinema.
Schweyk in the Second World War is a play by German dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht. It was written by Brecht in 1943 while in exile in California, and is a sequel to the 1923 novel The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek.
Skelivka is a village in Lviv Oblast, Sambir Raion, Ukraine on the Strwiąż River. It belongs to Khyriv urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine.
Ernst Lissauer was a German poet and dramatist best known for coining the anti-British slogan Gott strafe England during World War I. He also wrote the Hassgesang gegen England.
Anno Dracula: The Bloody Red Baron, or simply The Bloody Red Baron, is a 1995 alternate history/horror novel by British author Kim Newman. It is the second book in the Anno Dracula series and takes place during the Great War, 30 years after the first novel.
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Strafing in video games is a maneuver which involves moving a controlled character or entity sideways relative to the direction it is facing. This may be done for a variety of reasons, depending on the type of game; for example, in a first-person shooter, strafing would allow one to continue tracking and firing at an opponent while moving in another direction.
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