"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
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
Country: East Germany
Medium: Signs and banners
Issuer type: Mixed
Regime: German Democratic Republic
Leader: Walter Ulbricht
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Mobilize or secure compliance
Themes: War and the military, Labor
Event: Cold War
Techniques: Name-calling Transfer
Source: Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
Source: Fortepan (donor: Szekrényesy Réka), 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.