Matejko was a well-known and prolific artist from the time of the First World War until his death in 1946. Under the Nazis he produced propaganda posters and illustrations for Nazi publications, though prior to 1933 he designed posters for other parties, including the liberal German Democratic Party.

Many of the air war-themed illustrations, including these two, were gathered together in a book Matejko published in 1938. Of the illustrations Matejko said: ‘An idea which came to me years ago with unholy force and persistence was the image of an air attack over a big city in some future war. I saw in this dreadful vision the merciless heavens pouring destruction upon peaceful people .... I offer these pictures in the deep and sincere hope that these nightmare visions may never become a reality’.