"Der RIAS merk's dir armer Tropf": anti-RIAS display-case panel, Leipzig
A painted panel in a shop-style display case: a seated man in a checked suit has a plank hammered onto his head by a sleeve marked with a dollar sign, next to sacks of flour. The verse calls him a 'poor fool', says the broadcaster RIAS will nail a board before his head, and tells viewers never to tune in again. The dollar sleeve pastes a stigma onto the station.
- Date
- 1952
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- Exhibitor not named in the record; display case photographed in Leipzig by Roger and Renate Rössing (Deutsche Fotothek)
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- East Germany
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- German Democratic Republic
- Leader
- Walter Ulbricht
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Theme
- Media and information
- Event
- Cold War
- Techniques
- Name-callingTransfer
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- Deutsche Fotothek (SLUB Dresden), df_roe-neg_0006349_025, via Wikimedia Commons, retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- CC BY-SA 3.0 DE (Deutsche Fotothek release on Wikimedia Commons; file page states the licence)
Deutsche Fotothek / Roger und Renate Rössing, df_roe-neg_0006349_025 / CC-BY-SA 3.0 DE
Text on the object
Der RIAS merk's dir armer Tropf, schlägt dir ein großes Brett vor'n Kopf. So sag' auch du ab heute NEIN! Und stelle nie mehr RIAS ein! [sacks at left: 'Mehl' and one further partly illegible word]
RIAS, note it, poor fool, knocks a big board in front of your head. So you too, from today, say NO! And never tune in RIAS again! [sacks at left: 'flour' and one further partly illegible word]
Read from the committed image; 'stelle ... ein' is the radio idiom 'einstellen' (to tune in), translated literally as 'tune in'.
