---
title: '"Ihr Tod ist uns Verpflichtung": Pioneers at the border-troops memorial, Berlin'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-pioneers-border-guard-memorial-berlin-1986/
description: Children in white blouses and neckerchiefs stand in silence before a stone memorial carved 'Ihr Tod ist uns Verpflichtung' ('Their death is an obligation…
section: Collection
---

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

[!["Ihr Tod ist uns Verpflichtung": Pioneers at the border-troops memorial, Berlin](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gdr-pioneers-border-guard-memorial-berlin-1986.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gdr-pioneers-border-guard-memorial-berlin-1986.jpg)

# "Ihr Tod ist uns Verpflichtung": Pioneers at the border-troops memorial, Berlin

Children in white blouses and neckerchiefs stand in silence before a stone memorial carved 'Ihr Tod ist uns Verpflichtung' ('Their death is an obligation to us') above a list of names, with flowers and a flame bowl at its foot. The tell is in the agency caption, which dates the wreath-laying to the 25th anniversary of the 'antifascist protective wall' and names the school after a border guard, so the children's reverence attaches to the border.

- **Date:** August 13, 1986
- **Period:** [Cold War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=cold-war)
- **Made by:** ADN-Zentralbild (GDR state news agency), photographer Peer Grimm; ceremony by Young Pioneers of the Reinhold-Huhn-Oberschule, Berlin-Mitte, at a GDR border-troops memorial
- **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:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state)
- **Regime:** [German Democratic Republic](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=german-democratic-republic)
- **Leader:** [Erich Honecker](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=erich-honecker)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Commemorate](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=commemorate)
- **Themes:** [Security and surveillance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=security-surveillance), [Migration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=migration)
- **Event:** [Berlin Wall Construction](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=berlin-wall-construction)
- **Techniques:** [Euphemism / doublespeak](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/euphemism/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive), Bild 183-1986-0813-027, via Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1986-0813-027%2C_Berlin%2C_Pioniere_vor_einer_Gedenkst%C3%A4tte.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 183-1986-0813-027 / Peer Grimm / CC-BY-SA 3.0

## Text on the object

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

```
[Memorial, upper block:]
Ihr Tod ist uns
Verpflichtung

[Memorial, name plate, partly legible at this resolution:]
Uffz. Reinhold Huhn
Mjr. Helmut Just - Uffz. Jürgen Schmidtchen
Uffz. Peter Göring
Uffz. Egon Schultz - Uffz. Siegfried Widera
Uffz. Rolf Henniger - Uffz. [illegible, partly hidden by flowers]
```

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

```
[Memorial, upper block:]
Their death is an
obligation to us

[Memorial, name plate:]
NCO Reinhold Huhn
Major Helmut Just - NCO Jürgen Schmidtchen
NCO Peter Göring
NCO Egon Schultz - NCO Siegfried Widera
NCO Rolf Henniger - NCO [illegible]
(Uffz. = Unteroffizier, non-commissioned officer; Mjr. = Major)
```

The inscription in the upper block is sharp. The five name lines are small and soft at this resolution, and the last line is partly hidden by flowers; surnames are read from the committed image and a magnified crop, and individual letters (for example in 'Schmidtchen', 'Widera', 'Henniger') may be misread. Line breaks follow the plate.

[← "Frontul Democrației și Unității Socialiste - cel mai larg organism politic": Romanian wall chart](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/romanian-front-of-democracy-and-socialist-unity-1985/) [Nancy Reagan holds up a 'Just Say No' sign for press photographers →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/just-say-no-sign-ranch-1986/)

## Using the same techniques

- [詔書 (Imperial Rescript on the Annexation of Korea), Korean translation, Official Gazette of the Government-General of Korea no. 1, p. 17](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/annexation-rescript-korea-gazette-1910/) (Empire of Japan · Aug 29, 1910 · Glittering generalities, Euphemism / doublespeak). Content note: Official Japanese imperial text on the 1910 annexation of Korea, printed in Korean translation; shown as issued.
- ["Sous le soleil équatorial" (Le Petit Journal illustré, 6 July 1924)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/petit-journal-congo-ocean-railway-1924/) (France · Jul 6, 1924 · Euphemism / doublespeak, Glittering generalities)
- [Human Sterilization Today](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/human-sterilization-today-1938/) (United States · 1938 · Euphemism / doublespeak, Glittering generalities, Transfer). Content note: Pro-sterilisation pamphlet using "insane and feebleminded" for patients, with a disparaging remark about Catholics.
- ['Instructions to All Persons of Japanese Ancestry' (exclusion order posted in San Francisco)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exclusion-order-japanese-ancestry-1942/) (United States · Apr 11, 1942 · Euphemism / doublespeak)
- [Attention American Soldiers! I Cease Resistance (surrender pass, leaflet 17-J-1)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/i-cease-resistance-leaflet-1945/) (United States · 1945 · Euphemism / doublespeak, Testimonial)
- [Address announcing a 'special military operation'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/special-military-operation-address-2022/) (Russia · Feb 24, 2022 · Euphemism / doublespeak, Semantic hijacking)
- [Bronze sestertius of Gaius (Caligula), reverse S P Q R P P OB CIVES SERVATOS in an oak wreath](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-caligula-ob-cives-servatos-0037/) (Roman Empire · 0037 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [Gold coin of Kanishka: King of Kings legend, king at the altar, deity Oesho](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gold-dinar-kanishka-king-of-kings-0130/) (Kushan Empire · 0130 · Transfer)