Here are some images depicting about 21 Foreign Legion posters. Not all of them are official recruitment posters but most of the known ones used by the Legion are included. I found out that each poster had a print run of about 2,000 and that there were actually only 15 unique posters ever designed with the first created circa 1947. Five posters were designed with photographs and ten were drawings. The drawings were for the most part the work of legionaries and among the more notable artists were Andreas Rosenberg (Legionnaire and then Army painter in the 1950s) and Rudolf Burda (1960s-1980). This makes original posters highly collectable and might fetch up to 500 euros for one in good condition.
Recruitment posters were displayed for years in transit centers where there would likely be a parade of foreigners who just might make the jump into the Legion; these would…
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I picked up three 1970s issues of the Legion’s magazine Képi Blanc a couple of years back at a vintage bookstore in Toulon. Although no recruitment ads are inside, the covers by Rudolf Burda are just beautiful works of art.
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