I've often saw this poster from WWI which showed the Germans / Kaiser Wilhelm II as a giant gorilla robbing a women
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Harry_R.Hopps%2C_Destroy_this_mad_brute_Enlist-_U.S._Army%2C_03216u_edit.jpg
So a short question: Is it just a coincident that this poster's motive is so similiar to the King Kong movie that was released in 1933? As far as I remember, King Kong is not based on any novel and so I wondered if the whole topic, with stealing the women and a giant gorilla, was either common in that time or if both ( King Kong and the Poster) are inspired by the same source? Could anyone provide some background about that?
For example, here is another poster from the King Kong movie that is somehow pretty close to the war propaganda poster. http://www.nitehawkcinema.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/kong-33-1.jpg
The gorilla appears to get famous in popular culture after Emmanuel Fremiet's sculpture "Gorille enlevant une femme" caused lively reception especially in western societies. The sculpture served the topos of Euopean civilisation (young, innocent, helpless woman) versus African barbarism (wild beast carrying her away, maybe even devouring her?) that was more or less common sense around 1900 supporting the ideology of Graeco-Roman cultural superiority.
Both the poster and King Kong seem to refer to this sculpture. So, yes, it kind of was common in that time and they both seem to be inspired by the same source - just like Tarzan.
Source (German): http://historischdenken.hypotheses.org/2245
