---
title: '"Am 13. August gab''s roten Pfeffer": house-community banner, Bitterfeld'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bitterfeld-red-pepper-banner-1961/
description: 'Two men hang a long banner over a doorway while a third steadies it: ''On 13 August there was red pepper for Brandt''s agents and RIAS yappers!'', signed…'
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** East German banner using insult words ('agents', 'yappers') for named West Berlin figures and a radio station. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[!["Am 13. August gab's roten Pfeffer": house-community banner, Bitterfeld](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bitterfeld-red-pepper-banner-1961.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bitterfeld-red-pepper-banner-1961.jpg)

# "Am 13. August gab's roten Pfeffer": house-community banner, Bitterfeld

Two men hang a long banner over a doorway while a third steadies it: 'On 13 August there was red pepper for Brandt's agents and RIAS yappers!', signed 'The house community'. It attaches insult words to people it ties to West Berlin's mayor Willy Brandt and to a U.S.-run radio station's staff, and the state agency's caption presents the banner as the residents' own opinion on the border closure.

- **Date:** August 29, 1961
- **Period:** [Cold War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=cold-war)
- **Made by:** ADN-Zentralbild (GDR state news agency), photographer 'Nosk'; banner signed by a house community (Hausgemeinschaft), Bitterfeld
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [East Germany](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=east-germany)
- **Medium:** [Photograph](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=photograph)
- **Issuer type:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=mixed)
- **Regime:** [East Germany](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=east-germany)
- **Leader:** [Walter Ulbricht](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=walter-ulbricht)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Demonize](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=demonize)
- **Themes:** [Media and information](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=media-information), [Migration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=migration), [Security and surveillance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=security-surveillance)
- **Event:** [Berlin Wall Construction](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=berlin-wall-construction)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Manufactured consensus](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/manufactured-consensus/)
- **Source:** Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- **Source:** [Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive), Bild 183-85869-0001, via Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-85869-0001,_Mauerbau,_Bitterfeld,_Propaganda.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** CC BY-SA 3.0 DE (Bundesarchiv cooperation release on Wikimedia Commons; file page states the licence) Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-85869-0001 / Nosk / CC-BY-SA 3.0 DE

## Text on the object

Original (German) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
Am 13. August gab's roten Pfeffer
für Brandt's Agenten und Riasklüffer!
Die Hausgemeinschaft
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
On 13 August there was red pepper [a hot reception] for Brandt's agents and RIAS yappers!
The house community
```

Read from the 785 px image; the Bundesarchiv/ADN caption quoted in notes describes the slogan but does not repeat it. The apostrophe in "Brandt's" is as printed.

[← FRIEDENSVERTRAG: East Berlin street board on a German peace treaty](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-friedensvertrag-board-1961/) ["Der Schutzpatron der Westberliner Spionageorganisation Lemmer": ADN photomontage →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/adn-lemmer-photomontage-1962/)

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- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)
- [Van Moscouw tot Elba moest ik wyken (From Moscow to Elba I had to give way), Napoleon caricature by Wijnand Esser](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/van-moscouw-tot-elba-napoleon-esser-1814/) (1814 · Name-calling)