"Die Unbesiegbaren" (The Unconquerable): Billhardt Vietnam exhibition billboard, East Berlin

A tall billboard beside the Karl-Marx-Allee in East Berlin, the television tower behind it, shows a grid of portrait photographs of Vietnamese men, women and children around a small star and the word 'VIET NAM'. A banner reading 'DIE UNBESIEGBAREN' sits above a text block advertising a photo exhibition. The title states an outcome as a settled quality of the people shown; the faces carry the claim and no evidence for it is given on the board (glittering generalities).

Date: October 5, 1968
Period: Cold War
Made by: Organisers of the Thomas Billhardt Vietnam photo exhibition, East Berlin (sponsor line on the board only partly legible); photographed by the state news agency Zentralbild
Region: Western and Central Europe
Country: East Germany
Medium: Signs and banners
Issuer type: Mixed
Regime: German Democratic Republic
Leader: Willi Stoph
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Persuade or win support
Themes: War and the military, Media and information
Event: Vietnam War
Techniques: Glittering generalities
Source: Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
Source: Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive), Bild 183-G1005-0016-001, via Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 2, 2026
Rights: CC BY-SA 3.0 DE (Commons template CC-BY-SA-3.0-DE; Bundesarchiv donation, photographer Rainer Mittelstädt)
Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-G1005-0016-001 / Mittelstädt, Rainer / CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

Text on the object

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

VIET NAM
DIE UNBESIEGBAREN
Eine Fotoausstellung über das Leben und den Verteidigungskampf des Volkes der Demokratischen Republik Vietnam. Thomas Billhardt, Augenzeuge der Aggressionsverbrechen der USA, zeigt eine Bilddokumentation von brennender Aktualität.
Sie sehen die Ausstellung vom 18.9. - 7.10.68 vor der Sporthalle in der Karl-Marx-Allee. Öffnungszeit: täglich von 10 - 18 Uhr
[illegible two small footer lines]

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

VIET NAM
THE UNCONQUERABLE
A photo exhibition about the life and the defensive struggle of the people of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Thomas Billhardt, eyewitness of the crimes of aggression of the USA, shows a photo documentation of burning topicality.
You can see the exhibition from 18.9. - 7.10.68 in front of the sports hall on the Karl-Marx-Allee. Opening hours: daily 10 - 18.

Read from the 1280 px image; the small-print dates are partly blurred and the two footer lines at the bottom of the board are not legible.