VD Take Care – 1946 – Original Poster by Franz O. Schiffers (Germany) U.S. Occupation health warning for servicemen in postwar Berlin | Offset lithograph | 56 × 40 cm | Germany (U.S. Occupation Zone) Franz O. Schiffers distills menace into a stark, cinematic scene: a blond serviceman staggers under a storm-lashed sky as a monolithic “VD” block towers above, its icy blue-gray mass carved in light and shadow. The blunt caption “TAKE CARE,” punched out in industrial yellow, sits like a hazard sign—its urgency heightened by the wind-tossed cap and lightning’s flash. Schiffers’ veristic, near‑photoreal modeling—refined in interwar film and advertising work—gives the image newsreel immediacy. Commissioned by the U.S. occupation authority in 1946, this PSA addressed venereal disease among American troops stationed in Germany. Printed in Berlin by Lindemann & Ludecke, the poster exemplifies mid‑century public-health graphics: didactic, memorable, and designed for mass display in barracks and clinics. Why It Matters This piece sits at a rare cultural crosscurrent—a German commercial and film-poster artist producing postwar health propaganda for the American military. VD campaigns were widely disseminated and hard-used; clean survivors are scarce, appealing to collectors of WWII ephemera, public-health history, and European graphic design. Schiffers’ sculptural type, storm-as-danger metaphor, and photographic modeling align with interwar “veristic” realism while anticipating the blunt visual rhetoric of Cold War safety campaigns. The Berlin imprint and period printing code (e.g., AGPSSM 70000 3891) reinforce its original 1946 issuance and desirab le provenance. Poster Details - Year: 1946 - Country: Germany (U.S. Occupation Zone; printed in Berlin) - Size: 56 × 40 cm - Format: Approx. DIN A2 (trimmed) - Studio / Publisher: Druck: Lindemann & Ludecke, Berlin - Designer: Franz Oswald Schiffers (1902–1976) Condition Very good vintage condition; presents and frames beautifully with clean margins, strong color retention, and no tape marks, pinholes, or tears noted.