---
title: '''Deutscher, hilf den Frieden erhalten'' (German, help preserve peace): banner on a state farm, Petkus, East Germany'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/deutscher-hilf-den-frieden-erhalten-petkus-1950/
description: A painted board on the brick wall of a farm building reads 'Deutscher, hilf den Frieden erhalten, für die Welt ein besseres Leben gestalten.' The…
section: Collection
---

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

[!['Deutscher, hilf den Frieden erhalten' (German, help preserve peace): banner on a state farm, Petkus, East Germany](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/deutscher-hilf-den-frieden-erhalten-petkus-1950.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/deutscher-hilf-den-frieden-erhalten-petkus-1950.jpg)

# 'Deutscher, hilf den Frieden erhalten' (German, help preserve peace): banner on a state farm, Petkus, East Germany

A painted board on the brick wall of a farm building reads 'Deutscher, hilf den Frieden erhalten, für die Welt ein besseres Leben gestalten.' The photograph was issued with a caption stating that the struggle for peace is taken for granted on the state farm 'as the banner shows'. The board is a rhymed slogan built from virtue words ('peace', 'a better life') and gives no programme, actor or measure.

- **Date:** November 18, 1950
- **Period:** [Cold War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=cold-war)
- **Made by:** Volksgut (state farm) Petkus, East Germany; photographed for the press agency Illus / ADN Zentralbild
- **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:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state)
- **Regime:** [German Democratic Republic](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=german-democratic-republic)
- **Leader:** [Otto Grotewohl](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=otto-grotewohl)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Mobilize or secure compliance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=mobilize-comply)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Labor](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=labor)
- **Event:** [Cold War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=cold-war)
- **Techniques:** [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons (Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-08675-0006)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-08675-0006,_VEG_Petkus,_politische_Parole.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** CC BY-SA 3.0 DE (German Federal Archives) Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-08675-0006 / Kuhl / CC-BY-SA 3.0

## Text on the object

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

```
Deutscher, hilf den Frieden erhalten,
für die Welt ein besseres Leben gestalten.
```

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

```
German, help preserve peace,
shape a better life for the world.
```

The Bundesarchiv credit strip along the bottom edge of the image ('Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-08675-0006 / Foto: Kuhl | 18. November 1950') is archive metadata, not part of the object, and is omitted here.

[← Atlantic Pact float in a peace demonstration, Leipzig](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-leipzig-atlantic-pact-float-1950/) [Công dụng duy nhứt của giấy bạc Hồ-Chí-Minh (The Only Use of Ho Chi Minh's Banknote), leaflet imitating a 50-dong note →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cong-dung-duy-nhut-giay-bac-ho-chi-minh-1951/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Gold solidus of Constantine I, reverse RESTITVTORI LIBERTATIS](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-constantine-i-restitutori-libertatis-0313/) (0313 · Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Trois Tetes sous l'meme bonnet (three heads under the same cap)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/trois-tetes-sous-le-meme-bonnet-1789/) (1789 · Plain folks, Glittering generalities)
- [Proclamation by the Queen in Council, to the Princes, Chiefs, and People of India (printed sheet, Allahabad, 1 November 1858)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/queens-proclamation-to-the-people-of-india-1858/) (Nov 1, 1858 · Glittering generalities, Scapegoating)
- [The Great Battle of Ansong Ford: The Valor of Captain Matsuzaki](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ansong-ford-toshikata-1894/) (1894 · Glittering generalities)
- ['The Congress Cross or "Swastik"' (Pickings from the Hindi Punch, Bombay, February 1896)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hindi-punch-congress-swastik-1896/) (Feb 1896 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Un combate en el río Zapote (A Fight on the Zapote River), Blanco y Negro](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/un-combate-en-el-rio-zapote-1898/) (Jul 9, 1898 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)