14 Years of Development in the Soviet Union – Vote Communists

Scarce Original Poster by Theo Ballmer on behalf of the Swiss Communist Party, for which he designed a number of powerful posters as an active anti-fascist. In this one, the CP attacks the social democrats because the communist agenda goes too far for them. The headlines read (left, in the dark): «14 Years of Betrayal by Social Democracy». On the right, in bright red: «14 Years of Development in the Soviet Union». And finally, in the bottom right-hand corner: «Vote Communists», supplemented by a number of comparative statements intended to demonstrate to the «capitalists» the superiority of the Soviet system.

The Communist Party of Switzerland existed for barely 20 years; founded in 1921, it was banned by the Federal Council in 1940. Its vote share in the parliamentary elections 1931: less than 1,5%.

In the second half of the 1920s, Ballmer (1902 – 1965) is, after completing his training in Zurich, responsible for the advertising material of the chemical factory Hoffmann-La Roche. During this period, he creates his best-known posters, which are seminal in that they are early Swiss examples of the consistent application of modernist principles such as clarity and functionality, combined with typography often so bold that it simultaneously takes on the role of the visual element.

From 1929, he studies at the Bauhaus in Dessau, where he is supposed to take up a teaching position in 1930 under the Swiss director Hannes Meyer (who was also very left-wing). However, Ballmer doesn’t have an easy time of it in Germany’s worsening political climate; moreover, Dessau’s mayor dismisses Meyer without notice in summer 1930. Back in Basel, Ballmer takes over as head of the typography and graphics class at the Gewerbeschule and runs his own agency.

maybe of interest as well:

Die Norm in Industrie und Gewerbe