HOUSE OVERSIGHT 033417 In the years after the First World War, until the end of the Second World War, three political models for shaping the future of nation states emerged; Fascism, Communism and liberal democracy. These all offered great ideas for the future of the world. Fascism and Communism shared some common features: authoritarian, strong leaders and a belief that their revolutions had to be carried through with violence. This led to the mass murders in the Nazi concentration camps and in the Soviet Gulags. In the mid war periods, the "Litfass columns" that were originally designed to carry advertising, became the outdoor galleries for the war of ideologies. The political poster was born. High quality posters from every political party in Germany popped up on the columns. Hitler's propaganda chief G8ebels stated that the Nazi election campaign should be run through speeches and posters. The other parties responded in kind. An art form thus became an essential political tool in the battle for votes. The propagandist Art used by the Nazis and communists alike was essential in helping sell their message to the masses. Indeed, much of the art that was critical of these movements was suppressed or censored and "subversive" artists cowed, in some cases imprisoned or even worse. The liberal democratic model departed sharply from these authoritarian perspectives by presenting the alternative of free and transparent elections, the rule of law and freedom of speech. In the mid-war period the three narratives were competing to be the conceptual frame for society. After the Second World War fascism was crushed leaving the two competing ideologies of communism and liberal democracy. After the demise of communism in 1989, through to the late 1990's, liberal democracy was victorious in the idealogical battlefield. Some historians, like Francis Fukuyama, went so far as to proclaim this period as "the end of history". A key piece of art that championed this