DAS END – Allied Air-Dropped Propaganda Leaflet for German Troops, ZG 64, 1945 – Churchill and Roosevelt on Germany’s Future – Provenance: Robert Hastings; The Churchill Collection of Steve Forbes.

Title: Das Ende
Code: ZG 64
Date: 1945
Language: German
Format: Two-sided air-dropped propaganda leaflet
Size: 13 x 20.8 cm
Subject: Allied propaganda, German surrender, Churchill, Roosevelt, psychological warfare, Second World War
Provenance: Robert Hastings; The Churchill Collection of Steve Forbes

Original Allied propaganda leaflet, Das Ende (“The End”), produced for German-speaking audiences in the closing months of the Second World War. The leaflet bears the code ZG 64 and was aimed directly at German soldiers and civilians as Allied forces advanced onto German soil.

The front page opens with the stark declaration:

“Die Alliierten stehen auf deutschem Boden. Es gibt keine Front mehr. Die Schlacht im Westen ist geschlagen. Der Krieg ist entschieden.”
“The Allies stand on German soil. There is no front any more. The battle in the West is won. The war is decided.”

The text urges Germans to recognise that further resistance will only bring unnecessary death and destruction, placing responsibility for the future directly in German hands. The reverse is particularly notable for quotations under the headings “Churchill über Deutschlands Zukunft” and “Roosevelt über Deutschlands Zukunft”, presenting Allied statements that Germany would not be enslaved but would have to be freed from National Socialism and militarism.

This is a strong example of late-war Allied psychological warfare: direct, urgent and intended to hasten German collapse by combining military fact with political reassurance. Institutional records identify ZG 64 / Das Ende as a recognised wartime leaflet; the Deutsches Historisches Museum records a related Allied war leaflet dated 19 February 1945 concerning Churchill and Roosevelt on Germany’s future, while a Dutch archival inventory separately records ZG 64, title: Das Ende, with the theme of the choice facing German soldiers.

This copy is further distinguished by its provenance. It was formerly in the collection of Robert Hastings, Churchill scholar and collector, and subsequently entered The Churchill Collection of Steve Forbes, publisher of Forbes magazine. Forbes assembled one of the most important private Churchill collections of recent decades. The provenance is especially relevant here because Churchill is not incidental: his statement on Germany’s future is one of the central features of the leaflet.

A fragile but highly evocative survival from the final phase of the war in Europe.

Condition: Good. Archive repair to verso. Fragile, with creasing, age toning, edge wear, small losses and closed tears. Complete and legible.

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