--- title: '"Kampftag für Friedensvertrag gegen Generalkriegsvertrag": May Day 1952 rally board, East Berlin' url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-may-day-board-berlin-1952/ description: At the East Berlin May Day rally of 1952 a dark board with a relief medallion of four profile heads reads '1. section: Collection --- [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) [!["Kampftag für Friedensvertrag gegen Generalkriegsvertrag": May Day 1952 rally board, East Berlin](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gdr-may-day-board-berlin-1952.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gdr-may-day-board-berlin-1952.jpg) # "Kampftag für Friedensvertrag gegen Generalkriegsvertrag": May Day 1952 rally board, East Berlin At the East Berlin May Day rally of 1952 a dark board with a relief medallion of four profile heads reads '1. Mai 1952: Kampftag für Friedensvertrag, gegen Generalkriegsvertrag'. Behind the marchers' red flags stands a row of framed portraits under red pennants. The treaty being negotiated between the Western powers and the Federal Republic is given the label 'general war treaty', against the word 'peace treaty'; portraits and flags lend the day prestige. - **Date:** May 1, 1952 - **Period:** [Cold War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=cold-war) - **Made by:** East German (GDR) May Day rally organisers, Marx-Engels-Platz, East Berlin; no issuing body printed on the display - **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:** [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:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) - **Source:** Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure - **Source:** [Fortepan (donor: Szekrényesy Réka)](https://fortepan.hu/en/photos/?id=154013), retrieved September 29, 2026 - **Rights:** CC BY-SA 3.0 (Fortepan site footer, quoted in notes); covers the photograph only Fortepan / Szekrényesy Réka, ID 154013 (CC BY-SA 3.0) ## Text on the object Original (German) · read from the image, not independently checked ``` 1. MAI 1952 KAMPFTAG FÜR FRIEDENSVERTRAG GEGEN GENERALKRIEGSVERTRAG ! [framed portraits on the rear tribune carry small captions, illegible; blue banner at right, lettering illegible] ``` English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader) ``` 1 MAY 1952 DAY OF STRUGGLE FOR A PEACE TREATY AGAINST A GENERAL WAR TREATY ! [framed portraits on the rear tribune carry small captions, illegible; blue banner at right, lettering illegible] ``` Board text read from the committed 1280 px image; the relief medallion above it carries no lettering. [← "Der RIAS merk's dir armer Tropf": anti-RIAS display-case panel, Leipzig](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-rias-display-panel-leipzig-1952/) [Les communistes pris en flagrant délit de mensonge (The Communists Caught in the Act of Lying) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/communists-caught-lying-1952/) ## 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)