Germany. He grew more productive, but the artistic and content-related quality of his work suffered proportionately. He remained loyal to De Telegraaf until well into the thirties, even after the paper's management became pro-German. He took the same stance as during the First World War towards the Hearst Press: these readers were his most important target group. Second World War and last years Raemaekers fled to the United States shortly before the start of the Second World War and remained there until 1946, when he returned to Brussels. He had not been forgotten in the Netherlands, but it was only on his eightieth birthday, in 1949, that his native country gave him the recognition that he had long desired: he was made an honorary citizen of the City of Roermond. After an absence of almost forty years, Raemaekers returned to the Netherlands in 1953. He died in Scheveningen near The Hague in 1956. Legacy In the summer of 1956, The Times published the obituary of a man who had enjoyed a worldwide reputation during the First World War: ‘Louis Raemaekers, the biting anti-German cartoonist of the 1914-18 War, died on July 26, 1956 at Scheveningen, near The Hague, at the age of 87. It has been said of Raemaekers that he was the one private individual who exercised a real and great influence on the course of the 1914-18 War. There were a dozen or so people – emperors, kings, statesmen, and commanders-in-chief – who obviously, and notoriously, shaped policies and guided events. Outside that circle of the great, Louis Raemaekers stands conspicuous as the one man who, without any assistance of title or office, indubitably swayed the destinies of peoples.’ Selected cartoons List of decorations and honorary memberships Chevalier in the Order of the Legion of Honour, France 1916 Honorary Citizen of Paris, France 1916 Fellow Honoris Causa of The Royal Society of Literature, United Kingdom 1916 Co-founder of the League of Neutral Countries, 1916 Membre d'Honneur de la Presse Internationale, Paris 1916 Honorary Member of The Saintsbury's Club, London 1917 Honorary Member of The Three Arts Club, London 1917 Honorary Member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, London 1917 Membre d'Honneur de la Ligue des Poilus de France en Belgique, 1918 Diploma of Honour of the League of Neutral Countries, 1918 Dutch representative to the League of Nations, 1918 Chevalier de l’Ordre de Léopold, Belgium 1920 Doctor