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
"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
- Made by
- ADN-Zentralbild (GDR state news agency), photographer 'Nosk'; banner signed by a house community (Hausgemeinschaft), Bitterfeld
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- East Germany
- Medium
- Photograph
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- East Germany
- Leader
- Walter Ulbricht
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Themes
- Media and information, Migration, Security and surveillance
- Event
- Berlin Wall Construction
- Techniques
- Name-callingManufactured consensus
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive), Bild 183-85869-0001, via Wikimedia Commons, 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
Am 13. August gab's roten Pfeffer für Brandt's Agenten und Riasklüffer! Die Hausgemeinschaft
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.
