Thyssen controlling the puppet Hitler, 1930 by John Heartfield

John Heartfield was a German artist who used his art to speak out against the rise of Nazism and fascism. This piece, published in AIZ (Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung), shows Adolf Hitler as a puppet controlled by a wealthy businessman, a clear message that powerful industrialists like Fritz Thyssen were using Hitler for their own gain. The caption, "Tool in God's Hand? Toy in Thyssen's Hand!" highlights how big business supported and manipulated the Nazi Party. Heartfield’s work is important in the history of graphic design because it showed how images could be used to send strong political messages, not just for decoration. He used photomontage, a method of cutting and combining photographs, to make his art sharp, direct, and impossible to ignore. This was a new and powerful way of using design to communicate ideas. Heartfield’s designs did not just make people think, they made them see the hidden connections between money, power, and politics. By exposing these connections, his work helped people understand the dangers of dictatorship and encouraged them to resist. This piece and others like it showed that graphic design could be more than just something nice to look at, its a tool for social change, a way to raise awareness, and a way to fight back against injustice.