"Wer uns angreift wird vernichtet": GDR border sign beside the new Berlin Wall (CIA photograph)
A CIA photograph taken over barbed wire and a fresh concrete-block wall in East Berlin shows a white board in block capitals reading 'WER UNS ANGREIFT WIRD VERNICHTET', beside a GDR flag, with soldiers and lorries working behind it. The tell is the bare threat posted at the sealed border: a promise of annihilation addressed to unnamed 'attackers' (fear appeal). The CIA's own caption says it was posted to intimidate the West; the photograph does not show who read it.
- Date
- November 20, 1961
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- German Democratic Republic (sign at the border; photograph by the Central Intelligence Agency)
- Country
- East Germany
- Medium
- Signs and banners
- Issuer type
- State
- Leader
- Otto Grotewohl
- Audience
- Mixed
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Techniques
- Fear appeal
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Central Intelligence Agency (Flickr), via Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work; CIA photograph, Commons PD-USGov)
Central Intelligence Agency (Flickr), via Wikimedia Commons
Text on the object
WER UNS ANGREIFT WIRD VERNICHTET [street sign, centre right:] Niederkirchnerstraße
WHOEVER ATTACKS US WILL BE DESTROYED [street sign:] Niederkirchnerstraße
Block capitals on a white board; the street-name sign at the right is small but legible. Translation by machine, not verified by a fluent reader.
