This etching – titled Flüstern und Lauschen (Whispering and Eavesdropping) – is from the 20-part series Unterm Hakenkreuz (Under the Swastika) (1936) by the artist Lea Grundig. In this work she depicts the conditions of life under the Nazi dictatorship. She gives equal attention to her own experiences and to general societal observations. The etchings are a condemnation of the dictatorial system. Flüstern und Lauschen focuses on the daily and almost mundane threat of denunciation. The images show how the state has extended its power so far that everyone lives in a state of suspicion and fear: suspicion of others, not knowing who is one’s friend or who has already become a foe. The fear of saying or doing the wrong thing with the result that one is betrayed and handed over to those in power.

Lea and her husband Hans Grundig thought of their prints as a direct means of struggle against fascism. They wanted to deal a blow against it in whatever way they could. They made prints using their own printing press and these served as a means of creating awareness, communication, and anti-fascist propaganda in the rather narrow circle of resistance. Some of their works were smuggled abroad for publication by friends and supporters, for example, by Helene Weigel and Theo Lingen. In this way they became an instrument of resistance within and outside of the Third Reich.