Klaus Staeck, the provocative artist who challenged postwar Germany's love of the car

The German graphic designer took the techniques the auto industry uses to sell happy motoring and turned them on their headKlaus Staeck's posters attacking car culture - in picturesThe green tree dominates the image's centre, towering over a tangle of highways, which are themselves rendered in shades of dull, newsprint grey. Printed along the bottom in red is a poetic message: Und Neues Leben Blüht aus den Ruinen - "And new life blooms from the ruins." Created in 1979, this is just one of many anti-car posters created by the German political activist and graphic designer Klaus Staeck.Born in 1938 in the German town of Pulsnitz, north-east of Dresden, Staeck moved to West Germany in 1956. There, he trained as a lawyer and became active in the West German Social Democratic party before teaching himself graphic design. Continue reading...