Die Rote Fahne 5 Finger hat die Hand. The Story Of A Famous Political Image Against Dictatorship

Die Rote Fahne: Famous Political Art

5 Finger Hat Die Hand (5 Fingers Has The Hand)

heartfield montage the hand has five fingers

The Hand Has Five Fingers


“Heartfield

anti-fascist trump protest t-shirts trump protest posters trump protest mugs

Appeared:

Die rote Fahne

May 13, 1928

Berlin, Germany

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Curator’s Comment:
“5 Finger hat die Hand (The Hand Has Five Fingers)” is one of my grandfather’s most famous images. It may very well be the most famous political symbol in history. Certainly, if the candidates represented by the “five fingers” of Heartfield’s hand image had defeated Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist Party in the German election, history would have been much different.

John Heartfield was my grandfather. I was told this story by my father, John Heartfield’s only son, Tom. The KPD (German Communist Party) was searching for a symbol to advertise and link its five candidates. My grandfather jumped up in a meeting and waved his hand, saying, “What is more powerful than the fingers of the human hand working together.” Everyone immediately agreed.


My grandfather went to a factory and, as the workers left, he shouted, “Hold Up Your Hand!”

After his photographer taking hundreds of photos, they sorted through them to choose the exact one that was the most powerful image.

The text on the original poster is: “5 fingers has the hand! With these 5 grab the enemy!“ The “enemy” was the Nazi Party. This slogan inspired part of the text contained on the back of the System of a Down album: “The hand has five fingers, capable and powerful, with the ability to destroy as well as create.”

LEARN MORE about one of  Heartfield’s most famous images.