Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Wochenspruch der NSDAP 7 September 1941

Wochenspruch der NSDAP, 7 September 1941

Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes. Voting period ends on 11 Jul 2020 at 05:13:22 (UTC)

Reason: This image has a very high encyclopedic value in illustrating the best known quote from Hitler's speeches. I've restored it as best I can, starting with this.
Articles in which this image appears: Hitler's prophecy, Political views of Adolf Hitler
FP category for this image: Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Artwork/Literary illustrations
Creator: Unknown Nazi propagandist, restored by Buidhe

Support as nominator – (t · c) buidhe 05:13, 1 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Comment. I don't know about others here, but I'm uncomfortable directly reproducing Nazi anti-Jew propaganda here and then calling it encyclopedic because it illustrates Nazi thought. In what meaningful way is that distinguishable from reproducing Nazi anti-Jew propaganda for the sake of promulgating Nazi anti-Jew propaganda? —David Eppstein (talk) 06:09, 1 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
- There have been entire books written about Nazi propaganda, such as Jeffrey Herf's book The Jewish Enemy, which include reproductions to illustrate. Personally, I think that in order to learn from the post it should be exposed and studied. We already featured other Nazi propaganda images such as File:Bolschewismus ohne Maske2.jpg. (t · c) buidhe 06:22, 1 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  - I want to say straight out that I appreciate Buidhe's work, and don't think that they have any negative intent in doing this other than educating about World War II. I need to say that now, because I'm going to be talking about problems I have with this image, and I don't want them being applied to Buidhe.

We've had Nazi propoganda before, but those have been illustrations. Something like File:Bolschewismus_ohne_Maske2.jpg is visual. It serves a purpose that can't be simply portrayed in words. But the one currently being presented is text from Hitler, in an attractive font **with no illustrations other than a swastika**

I'm reminded less of the Nazi propoganda poster than the Kronheim Bible verse prints I did a few years ago, like File:Joseph Martin Kronheim - The Sunday at Home 1880 - Revelation 22-17.jpg (though even that one has more actual artwork than this image).

So, does this have encyclopedic value? Very little. It's hard to see how it adds much more than quoting the text itself would do.

In the featured article W. S. Gilbert, some key quotes are put off to one side using blue boxes. Presuming this is worth a pullquote, does the artistic portrayal of it, with good font choices and such add to its value, or is it more likely that spreading this via the main page would give anti-Semites something to hang on their walls, without adding to the discussion.

Again, I don't for a moment think this is Buidhe's intent, but we need to balance educational value, artistry, and possible harms. If our Psalm 23 featured picture doesn't add much to Psalm 23 other than looking pretty, the lack of EV is mitigated by artistry, and, given the lack of any real harm, that's really not much of a problem at all (We'll ignore some other EV that image has for now). If people want to print it out and put it on their walls, y'know what, go ahead. Knock yourself out. But if our illustration of a Hitler's prophecy quote doesn't do much more than look pretty... Artistry just isn't enough to balance the possible harms. We need educational value for that, that's unique to the image, not the quote. And if people print it out and put it on their walls, that's... probably not something we want to encourage. Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 7.2% of all FPs} 06:38, 1 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I certainly respect that point of view. I did write an entire article which puts it in appropriate context, and am trying to get it to FA. I think that the image does have a high encyclopedic value in showing how Hitler's words were valorized and venerated, exactly as if they were scripture! Today's politicians at least in my country do not do this at all. I thought it would be nice to have a featured picture to go with the article but if not, so be it. (t · c) buidhe 06:44, 1 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Got hit by an edit conflict while expanding my point above, but... I definitely appreciate your work on that. And if it were a more notable publication, or a widely-distributed poster, or something like that, I think the encyclopedic value could push above any "making it more attractive in appearance" issues. A Neo-Nazi could print our other examples of Nazi propoganda, after all, but learning the techniques of such anti-Semitism is valuable. But I'm not seeing the EV here, so my doubts are increased. I'm just not sure that one page of one issue of a newspaper is enough when the image isn't even in the newspaper's page, and that they published it doesn't seem (at the moment) to be particularly significant. Is there more EV than I'm seeing? Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 7.2% of all FPs} 07:02, 1 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The Wochenspruch der NSDAP article is not well developed, however different historians have written about its importance. This issue was sent to all of the Nazi Party's local branches^[1] and displayed promiently in Berlin^[2] and "in every town and village".^[3] (t · c) buidhe 07:21, 1 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

References