---
title: '"Jugend voran im Kampf um die Einheit Deutschlands": FDJ torchlight march, Berlin'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-fdj-torchlight-march-berlin-1949/
description: Young women in uniform blouses march at night behind two wide banners, torches glowing in the crowd behind them.
section: Collection
---

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

[!["Jugend voran im Kampf um die Einheit Deutschlands": FDJ torchlight march, Berlin](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gdr-fdj-torchlight-march-berlin-1949.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gdr-fdj-torchlight-march-berlin-1949.jpg)

# "Jugend voran im Kampf um die Einheit Deutschlands": FDJ torchlight march, Berlin

Young women in uniform blouses march at night behind two wide banners, torches glowing in the crowd behind them. The left banner claims the lead for youth 'in the struggle for the unity of Germany'. The right one, cut off at the frame edge, reads 'Die Bonner Spal-', 'opfert die deutsch-' and 'für einen n...en Kr-', a charge against Bonn that fits 'splitting' and 'a new war'. Both banners speak in absolutes, one with a virtue word and one with a label.

- **Date:** October 11, 1949
- **Period:** [Cold War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=cold-war)
- **Made by:** Freie Deutsche Jugend (FDJ, the SED's youth organisation), marchers at an evening mass rally; ADN-Zentralbild (GDR state news agency), photographer not named
- **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:** [Party](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=party)
- **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:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [Elections and party politics](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=elections-party-politics), [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military)
- **Event:** [Gdr Founding 1949](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=gdr-founding-1949)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive), Bild 183-S88829, via Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-S88829%2C_Berlin%2C_DDR-Gr%C3%BCndung%2C_Massenkundgebung.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** CC BY-SA 3.0 de (Bundesarchiv release via Wikimedia Commons; file page states licence and attribution) Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-S88829 / CC-BY-SA 3.0

## Text on the object

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

```
[Left banner:]
Jugend
voran im Kampf um die
Einheit
Deutschlands

[Right banner, cut off by the frame edge:]
Die Bonner Spal[...]
opfert die deutsch[...]
für einen n[...]en Kr[...]
```

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

```
[Left banner:]
Youth
in the lead in the struggle for the
unity
of Germany

[Right banner, cut off by the frame edge:]
The Bonn split[...]
sacrifices the German [...]
for a new [...]
```

Read from the committed image and a magnified crop. The right banner runs out of frame after 'Spal', 'deutsch' and 'Kr'; the missing letters are not seen, so nothing is completed in the transcription and the translation keeps the brackets. Line breaks are as printed. 'opfert' is read from a partly shadowed second line.

[← Lenin, Rákosi and Stalin portraits: Innovation and Invention Exhibition, Budapest](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hungary-lenin-rakosi-stalin-exhibition-1949/) [Atlantic Pact float in a peace demonstration, Leipzig →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-leipzig-atlantic-pact-float-1950/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [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/) (Dutch Republic · 1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (Great Britain · 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/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · 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/) (France · 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/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · 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/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)