---
title: 'FRIEDENSVERTRAG: East Berlin street board on a German peace treaty'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-friedensvertrag-board-1961/
description: A freestanding street board on East Berlin's Unter den Linden pairs the word FRIEDENSVERTRAG (peace treaty) with a cartoon of a pot-bellied figure…
section: Collection
---

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

**Content note:** Cartoon caricature of a West German militarist figure marked with SS runes and an Iron Cross mace. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![FRIEDENSVERTRAG: East Berlin street board on a German peace treaty](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gdr-friedensvertrag-board-1961.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gdr-friedensvertrag-board-1961.jpg)

# FRIEDENSVERTRAG: East Berlin street board on a German peace treaty

A freestanding street board on East Berlin's Unter den Linden pairs the word FRIEDENSVERTRAG (peace treaty) with a cartoon of a pot-bellied figure wearing rockets marked 'A' as horns, SS runes on his chest and a spiked mace bearing an Iron Cross. The text says a strong republic and the 'taming of militarism in West Germany' are the preconditions for a peaceful, united Germany. Nazi symbols are pasted onto West German militarism without naming anyone.

- **Date:** 1961
- **Period:** [Cold War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=cold-war)
- **Made by:** East German (GDR) public display in East Berlin; no issuing body printed on the board
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [East Germany](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=east-germany)
- **Medium:** [Signs and banners](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=sign-banner)
- **Issuer type:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=mixed)
- **Regime:** [German Democratic Republic](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=german-democratic-republic)
- **Leader:** [Walter Ulbricht](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=walter-ulbricht)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Security and surveillance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=security-surveillance)
- **Event:** [Berlin Crisis 1961](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=berlin-crisis-1961)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)
- **Source:** Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- **Source:** [Fortepan (photo: Harrison Forman, UWM Libraries, American Geographical Society Library)](https://fortepan.hu/en/photos/?id=259375), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** CC BY-SA 3.0 (Fortepan site footer: photos published under CC-BY-SA-3.0) Fortepan / UWM Libraries, American Geographical Society Library, photo by Harrison Forman, ID 259375 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

## Text on the object

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

```
Eine starke Republik und die Bändigung
des Militarismus in Westdeutschland sind
die Voraussetzungen für ein einheitliches,
friedliebendes, demokratisches Deutschland!

FRIEDENSVERTRAG

(the figure's chest and belly carry SS runes and an eagle emblem; the rockets on its head are marked 'A')
```

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

```
A strong republic and the taming of militarism in West Germany are the preconditions for a united, peace-loving, democratic Germany!

PEACE TREATY
```

Handwritten upper text and printed lettering read from the 1600 px scan; no other lettering is visible on the board.

[← Crowd at the Arkansas State Capitol protesting school integration, with signs reading "Race mixing is Communism," Little Rock, Arkansas](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/race-mixing-is-communism-1959/) ["Am 13. August gab's roten Pfeffer": house-community banner, Bitterfeld →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bitterfeld-red-pepper-banner-1961/)

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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)