GODAL, ERIC

GODAL, ERIC (1898–1969), German cartoonist. Born in Berlin, Godal began drawing topical illustrations and cartoons for Acht Uhr Abendblatt when in his twenties. He drew some of the first cartoons of Hitler and his stormtroopers, and when the Nazis seized power in 1933 escaped from Berlin when the men sent to arrest him surrounded the wrong house. Godal went to Prague, where he worked for the anti-Nazi daily Prager Mittag and for the satirical weekly Der Simplicus which had been founded as an answer to the famous weekly Simplicissimus of Munich, which had by then accepted the Nazi line. Godal reached the U.S. before World War II and contributed to various papers there. He returned to Germany in 1954 and worked for the Hamburger Abendblatt and the woman's magazine Constanze. Together with Rolf Italiaander he published the book Teenagers in 1958, combining essays and illustrations which attempted to explain the feelings of the first generation born after World War II. Godal visited Israel in 1968 to write a series of illustrated articles. His memoirs, Kein Talent zum Tellerwaescher, were published in 1969.