Content note: Photograph of schoolgirls with collected beetles; the agency caption accuses US aircraft of dropping them, a claim the US and West German governments rejected. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Children examine collected Colorado beetles during the "American beetle" campaign, Chemnitz district
Schoolgirls bend over their cupped hands holding collected beetles. The photograph shows no text; the agency caption supplies the claim, that American aircraft dropped the beetles over the GDR in a 'shameful' act, and puts the villain outside the picture while the children stand for ordinary people's anger.
- Date
- June 10, 1950
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- ADN / Illus press photograph by Seidel; SED-led GDR potato-beetle campaign
- Country
- East Germany
- Medium
- Photograph
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Leader
- Otto Grotewohl
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Themes
- Home front, Science and technology
- Event
- Cold War
- Techniques
- ScapegoatingName-calling
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive), Bild 183-S97627, via Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- CC BY-SA 3.0 de (Bundesarchiv release on Wikimedia Commons; file page states the licence)
Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-S97627 / Seidel / CC-BY-SA 3.0
Text on the object
No printed or legible text on this object.
The photograph shows children and beetles and no printed or lettered text. The agency caption is quoted in notes; the credit strip under the print is the Bundesarchiv's own.
