ULK, Illustriertes Wochenblatt für Humor und Satire, (Illustrated weekly paper for humour and satire), was a German satirical magazine based in Berlin & the North German counterpart of the South German magazine Fliegende Blätter (Flying Leaves).
The abbreviation “ULK” stands for the three departments “nonsense, carelessness and Kneipsinn” of the well known satirical society ULK, which was founded in Haspe in 1857. ULK was slightly left wing, liberal and neither pro-fascist nor pro-monarchal. It was published (1872 to 1933) as a free supplement of the Berliner Tageblatt published by Rudolf Mosse (1843-1920). From September 1910 to November 1930 Ulk was also available to satire loving Germans as a supplement in the Berliner Volks-Zeitung.
ULK’s insanely talented artists commented on politics mainly but veered into all kinds of social issues; industrialisation, the arts, fashion and female empowerment.
We won’t get into politics here (never a good thing) but savour the century old surreal aesthetic flavour of ULK’s beautifully executed, eye-popping, mindboggling graphics.
The following are all from just one year, 1901 when the magazine was almost always printed in glorious 2 colour. In 1912 ULK went full colour.
