Alternate facts propaganda helped Adolf Hitler seize power in 1933. During the Reichstag Fire Trial Herman Göring (Goering) accused the KPD (the opposition party to The Nazi Party) of setting fire to the seat of government. These lies launched Hitler’s eventual rise as undisputed dictator of Germany. Goering became the second-most powerful Nazi leader in the Third Reich.
In 1933, Goering founded the Gestapo.
John Heartfield was on the run from the SS when his portrait of Goering as the man truly responsible for the burning of the German Reichstag. Heartfield was number-five on the Gestapo’s Most Wanted List when the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia.
Heartfield’s famous political art commentary is a lesson as well as a masterpiece of political art.