Dropping the Pilot
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dropping the Pilot is a political cartoon by Sir John Tenniel, first published in the British magazine Punch, March 1890. Showing German Emperor Wilhelm II and the leaving Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. The reference to Bismarck as a "pilot" comes from an earlier cartoon from the Puck magazine from Saint Louis, Missouri.[citation needed] For that magazine, the cartoonist Joseph Keppler made one titled "The Master Pilot of the Age", featuring Bismarck on a ship, having brought it out to the high seas, from which the stars and gods looked down. This symbolized Bismarck's accomplishment of forming the Kaiserreich, which enabled Germany to be recognized as a great power.
The cartoon is well known in Germany and often used in history textbooks, under the title Der Lotse geht von Bord, which means The Pilot is leaving, so it's not a very correct translation.
