{"id":1826,"date":"2009-12-24T22:29:52","date_gmt":"2009-12-25T05:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/?p=1826"},"modified":"2013-12-25T15:11:47","modified_gmt":"2013-12-25T22:11:47","slug":"o-blessed-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/2009\/12\/o-blessed-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"O Blessed Christmas!"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1827\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1827\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1827 \" title=\"John Heartfield. Photomontage. 1935\" src=\"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/heartfield_xmas.jpg\" alt=\" O du fr\u00f6hliche, O du selige, gnadenbringende Zeit - John Heartfield. Photomontage. 1935. \" width=\"360\" height=\"521\" srcset=\"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/heartfield_xmas.jpg 360w, https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/heartfield_xmas-300x434.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1827\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"> &quot;O joyful, o blessed, miracle-bringing time.&quot; - John Heartfield. Photomontage. 1935. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Hark the Herald Angels Sing!<br \/>\nMachine Gun Clatter!<br \/>\nBomb Blast!<br \/>\nPoison Gas!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The anti-militarist Christmas message from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.art-for-a-change.com\/Express\/ex12.htm\" target=\"_blank\">John Heartfield <\/a>shown at left was published on December 26, 1935, in the German magazine, Arbeiter-Illustriete Zeitung (AIZ, or &#8220;Worker\u2019s Illustrated Paper&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p>The title of the photomontage, <em>O du fr\u00f6hliche, O du selige, gnadenbringende Zeit<\/em> (O joyful, o blessed, miracle-bringing time), was taken from one of Germany\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/german.about.com\/library\/blmus_dufroehlich.htm\" target=\"_blank\">most popular Christmas carols<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Heartfield made a number of photomontage works that touched upon Christmas and how its message of peace was being subverted by the forces of war and fascism.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, in the 1934 Christmas edition of AIZ, the artist published his photomontage, <a href=\"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/2004\/12\/o-tannenbaum-o-tannenbaum.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>O Tannenbaum im deutschen Raum, wie krumm sind deine \u00c4ste!<\/em><\/a> (O Christmas tree in German soil, how bent are thy branches). The artwork depicted a Christmas tree with its branches twisted into the shape of a swastika.<\/p>\n<p>The cover of the 1933 Christmas issue of AIZ featured a photograph of an American battleship with the headline, &#8220;And Peace on Earth!&#8221; When opening the magazine the reader would see a Heartfield photomontage on the first page &#8211; its message read, &#8220;Peace on Earth? No peace on earth, as long as the poor become poorer!&#8221; Heartfield\u2019s artwork depicted hungry Germans peering into an upscale shop window that was bursting with Christmas merchandise they could not afford.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hark the Herald Angels Sing! Machine Gun Clatter! Bomb Blast! Poison Gas! The anti-militarist Christmas message from John Heartfield shown at left was published on December 26, 1935, in the German magazine, Arbeiter-Illustriete Zeitung (AIZ, or &#8220;Worker\u2019s Illustrated Paper&#8221;). The title of the photomontage, O du fr\u00f6hliche, O du selige, gnadenbringende Zeit (O joyful, o blessed, miracle-bringing time), was taken&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,28,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-german-expressionism","category-photomontage","category-xmas"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1826\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art-for-a-change.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}