"How the times have changed" (1960). The four begging white politicians are West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer, East German chancellor Walter Ulbricht, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Russian head of state Nikita Khrushchev.
Fritz Behrendt was a German-Dutch political cartoonist, who has published his work in Dutch papers like Algemeen Handelsblad, Het Parool and De Telegraaf, but also abroad. His cartoons were characterized by their anti-Stalinist, pro-Israel and UN-critical nature.
Behrendt was born in Berlin during the Weimar Republic in 1925. The atmosphere in his home country has largely determined the further course of his life. The Behrendt family fled to The Netherlands for political reasons in 1937. He attended the Amsterdam Arts and Crafts College from 1943 until the end of the Second World War. He spent the final years of the German occupation in a SS prison for his participation in the Dutch Resistance.
"25 years after the Liberation".
After the war, Behrendt went to Yugoslavia with the Gerrit Jan van der Veen youth brigade to work on the Samac to Sarajevo Youth Railway. He also attended the Zagreb School of Arts. As a socialist, he was invited to help build the Freie Deutsche Jugend in the DDR. But his Yugoslav sympathies got him arrested by the STASI after the Tito-Stalin split, when Yugoslavia was dismembered from the Eastern bloc.
"Diplomatic torpedos"
Upon his liberation in 1950, he chose to use political drawings as a way to expres his insights and experiences. His first work appeared in the Zagreb-based weekly Kerempuh, and in the Dutch weeklies Arbeid and Vrij Nederland. He became the regular cartoonist for Dutch newspaper Algemeen Handelsblad in 1953. His work was also discovered overseas when the New York Times started to print his cartoons as well. This led to publications in Time Magazine, Punch and Der Spiegel. He was "edutorial cartoonist" of the New York Herald Tribune between 1958 and 1966.
Cartoon depicting Syrian president Hafez Al-Assad and Egyptian president Anwar Al-Sadat threatening Israel, but acting hurt even before Israeli has actually taken violent action.
Behrendt was the political cartoonist of Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool during the 1970s and 1980s and spent the final years of his career with De Telegraaf. Behrendt's work has been published all over the world, from Moscow to Washington, and also in papers from Vienna, Zürich, Frankfurt, Sarajevo, etc. He contributed artwork to Amnesty International and the evangelist church of Germany.
Fritz Behrendt has received many awards for his cartoons during the course of his career, and his work has been exhibited on several occasions.
Cartoon that got Behrendt fired from Het Parool in 1988. Translation: "The Israelis shouldn't be so militant, but should seek an unarmed dialogue and particularly talk with the PLO. Strange, how the Jews used to be far more tolerant in the past."