---
title: 'East German propaganda: GDR posters, the Berlin Wall and Western replies, 1948 to 1989'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/east-german-propaganda/
description: 'East German propaganda 1948 to 1989: GDR border boards, the Berlin Wall and Western replies, tagged by technique, with sources and rights.'
section: FRAME
---

![Illustration: a dossier collage of an evidence wall of pinned propaganda posters, leaflets and printed matter from many eras, with contact sheets and catalog labels.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/hero-collection.jpg)

Collection

# East German propaganda: GDR posters, the Berlin Wall and Western replies, 1948 to 1989

East German propaganda 1948 to 1989: GDR border boards, the Berlin Wall and Western replies, tagged by technique, with sources and rights.

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. East German propaganda

[![Universal-International News title card: 'Gen. Clay: Reds Underestimate Our Airlift to Berlin'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/universal-news-gen-clay-berlin-airlift-1948.jpg)Universal-International News title card: 'Gen. Clay: Reds Underestimate Our Airlift to Berlin'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/universal-news-gen-clay-berlin-airlift-1948/) [!["Halt den Schiebern! Keine Waren für die sowjetische Rüstung": sign beside the zonal-border railway, 1952](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/west-halt-den-schiebern-zonengrenze-1952.jpg)"Halt den Schiebern! Keine Waren für die sowjetische Rüstung": sign beside the zonal-border railway, 1952](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/west-halt-den-schiebern-zonengrenze-1952/) [![FRIEDENSVERTRAG: East Berlin street board on a German peace treaty](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gdr-friedensvertrag-board-1961-640.jpg)FRIEDENSVERTRAG: East Berlin street board on a German peace treaty](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-friedensvertrag-board-1961/) [!["Wer uns angreift wird vernichtet": GDR border sign beside the new Berlin Wall (CIA photograph)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gdr-wer-uns-angreift-wird-vernichtet-sign-1961-640.jpg)"Wer uns angreift wird vernichtet": GDR border sign beside the new Berlin Wall (CIA photograph)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-wer-uns-angreift-wird-vernichtet-sign-1961/) [!["Macht das Tor auf": Brandenburg Gate model at the inner-German border, east of Lübeck](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/macht-das-tor-auf-border-gate-1962-640.jpg)"Macht das Tor auf": Brandenburg Gate model at the inner-German border, east of Lübeck](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/macht-das-tor-auf-border-gate-1962/) [![Neues Forum Leipzig, "Aufruf des Neuen Forum" (12 October 1989)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/neues-forum-leipzig-aufruf-1989-640.jpg)Neues Forum Leipzig, "Aufruf des Neuen Forum" (12 October 1989)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/neues-forum-leipzig-aufruf-1989/)

> **Content note.** Several items here are insult or threat as issued: the GDR's name-calling of West Berlin politicians and a radio station, a "Reds" newsreel title from 1948, and a 1961 border sign threatening annihilation. They are shown with the Western items on the same border and tagged by the same definitions. Showing an item is not endorsing it.

[What was East German propaganda?](https://propagandaarchive.org/east-german-propaganda/#what-was-east-german-propaganda) [1948 to 1957](https://propagandaarchive.org/east-german-propaganda/#1948-to-1957-the-early-state-and-the-first-counter-messages) [1961](https://propagandaarchive.org/east-german-propaganda/#1961-the-berlin-wall) [1962 to 1989](https://propagandaarchive.org/east-german-propaganda/#1962-to-1989-names-anniversaries-and-the-end) [What the collection does not hold](https://propagandaarchive.org/east-german-propaganda/#what-the-collection-does-not-hold)

## What was East German propaganda?

East German propaganda was the messaging of the German Democratic Republic (1949 to 1990): party and state news agencies, television, billboards, factory boards and mass rallies, produced by the ruling SED and its organisations for citizens at home and for West Germans. West German, American and civic bodies sent their own messages back, and the collection holds both.

![Newsreel title card, 1948: Gen. Clay, Reds Underestimate Our Airlift To Berlin](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/universal-news-gen-clay-berlin-airlift-1948.jpg)

## 1948 to 1957: the early state and the first counter-messages

The Berlin airlift newsreel of October 1948, made by a US commercial studio, labels the Soviet side "Reds" ([Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)). In the GDR's first decade a Leipzig 1950 float draws the Atlantic Pact as a top-hatted figure sprawled over the globe ([Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)), and a Chemnitz press photograph shows schoolgirls with potato beetles that the agency caption says American aircraft dropped ([Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/)).

![Leipzig 1950: a truck carries a globe with a top-hatted figure labelled Atlantik-Pakt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gdr-leipzig-atlantic-pact-float-1950.jpg)

![Chemnitz 1950: schoolgirls holding potato beetles, the agency caption blaming American aircraft](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gdr-potato-beetle-search-children-chemnitz-1950.jpg)

![Leipzig 1952: a display panel in which a dollar-marked sleeve hammers a plank onto a listener's head, warning against RIAS](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gdr-rias-display-panel-leipzig-1952.jpg)

![CDU poster, West Germany, 1957: Denkt an Ungarn, Seid wachsam](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/cdu-denkt-an-ungarn-1957.jpg)

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In 1952 a painted Leipzig panel has a dollar-marked sleeve nail a board to a listener's head and tells him to stop tuning in to the US-run station RIAS ([Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)); a second panel draws a US soldier as a grotesque.

On the other side of the line, a West German border sign of 1952 tells "Schieber" (profiteers) to send no goods for Soviet armament ([Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)), and the CDU's 1957 poster "Denkt an Ungarn" uses the suppressed 1956 uprising as the thing to guard against ([Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)).

![ADN photograph, 4 August 1961: a shop notice that serving border-crossers is beneath the staff's dignity](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gdr-grenzgaenger-shop-poster-1961.jpg)

## 1961: the Berlin Wall

Nine days before the sector border was closed, a shop notice in a district at Berlin's edge said that "border-crossers", East Germans working in West Berlin, would be served courteously only once they took work at home. The wording names one group as the cause ([Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/)). The closure itself was reported as "Grenzsicherungsmaßnahmen", border-securing measures, in a Leipzig newspaper extra ([Euphemism / doublespeak](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/euphemism/)).

![Leipzig, 13 August 1961: a man hands out a newspaper extra on the border closure](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gdr-leipzig-extrablatt-grenzsicherung-1961.jpg)

![CIA photograph, November 1961: a board reading Wer uns angreift wird vernichtet beside a concrete-block wall](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gdr-wer-uns-angreift-wird-vernichtet-sign-1961.jpg)

![CIA photograph, December 1961: workmen mount a peace-treaty billboard at the Friedrichstrasse crossing](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gdr-friedensvertrag-billboard-friedrichstrasse-1961.jpg)

![Border gate in the outline of the Brandenburg Gate, November 1962: Macht das Tor auf](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/macht-das-tor-auf-border-gate-1962.jpg)

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A banner photographed in Bitterfeld on 29 August, signed by a house community, offers "red pepper" to "Brandt's agents and RIAS yappers" ([Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)). By November and December, the CIA photographed GDR boards at the sealed crossing: one promising that whoever attacks "will be destroyed" ([Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)), another pairing "peace and understanding" with a blame on West German militarism ([Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)).

A 1962 gate of striped pillars in the outline of the Brandenburg Gate stands across a road ending at the inner-German border, with the banner "Macht das Tor auf" (Open the gate), borrowing the closed landmark as the symbol of division ([Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)). The record does not name who erected it; the slogan matches a West German campaign.

**Content note:** Hostile photomontage of a named West German politician as a spy paymaster; no violence or slurs This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) ![ADN photomontage, February 1962: a figure with the head of minister Ernst Lemmer leads a man on all fours toward a tunnel](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/adn-lemmer-photomontage-1962.jpg)

## 1962 to 1989: names, anniversaries and the end

A 1962 agency photomontage puts West German minister Ernst Lemmer's head on a figure leading a man toward a tunnel ([Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)). In 1986 the GDR marked the "25 Jahre antifaschistischer Schutzwall" with a Kampfgruppen parade ([Euphemism / doublespeak](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/euphemism/)), and Young Pioneers laid flowers at a border-troops memorial ([Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)).

![East Berlin, 13 August 1986: a military parade before a board reading 25 Jahre antifaschistischer Schutzwall](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gdr-kampfappell-schutzwall-anniversary-1986.jpg)

![FBIS Daily Report, 11 October 1989: East German broadcasts of 10 October, including Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler's Black Channel](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/east-berlin-radio-tv-schnitzler-black-channel-1989.jpg)

![Neues Forum, Leipzig, 12 October 1989: a typewritten appeal with six demands](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/neues-forum-leipzig-aufruf-1989.jpg)

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A US monitoring report records two state broadcasts of 10 October 1989, one calling demonstrators "hooligans" and "criminal elements", the other Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler's "Black Channel" commentary ([Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/), [Ad hominem](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/ad-hominem/)); two days later Leipzig's unlicensed Neues Forum circulated a typed appeal citing public support ([Bandwagon](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/bandwagon/)).

## What the collection does not hold

- **Not here:** Stasi internal files and surveillance records, which are state security paperwork rather than public messaging, and the Western broadcasts as audio.
- **Not here:** GDR colour poster art from the Plakat archives, since rights there are not cleared; most East German items are agency photographs of boards and banners.
- **Not here:** a count of what East Germans believed. These items show what was issued, not how it was received.

Sources and further reading

## Sources

Bundesarchiv, ADN-Zentralbild holdings (Bild 183 series); Deutsche Fotothek, Dresden; CIA photographs held by the US National…

Bundesarchiv, ADN-Zentralbild holdings (Bild 183 series); Deutsche Fotothek, Dresden; CIA photographs held by the US National Archives; Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Daily Report: Eastern Europe, 11 October 1989; US National Archives, Universal Newsreel Vol. 21. The Bundesarchiv warns that original agency captions may be biased. Each item in the grid carries its own source and rights note. See also [communist propaganda](https://propagandaarchive.org/communist-propaganda/) and [Cold War radio](https://propagandaarchive.org/cold-war-radio-propaganda/).

## East German and Berlin Cold War items in the collection

Showing 26 of 26 objects. [Filter the whole collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/).

- [Universal-International News title card: 'Gen. Clay: Reds Underestimate Our Airlift to Berlin'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/universal-news-gen-clay-berlin-airlift-1948/) (United States · Oct 21, 1948 · Name-calling)
- [Atlantic Pact float in a peace demonstration, Leipzig](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-leipzig-atlantic-pact-float-1950/) (East Germany · 1950 · Fear appeal)
- [Children examine collected Colorado beetles during the "American beetle" campaign, Chemnitz district](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-potato-beetle-search-children-chemnitz-1950/) (East Germany · Jun 10, 1950 · Scapegoating, Name-calling). 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.
- ["Der RIAS merk's dir armer Tropf": anti-RIAS display-case panel, Leipzig](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-rias-display-panel-leipzig-1952/) (East Germany · 1952 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Caricature panel of a US soldier with workers at an exit door, Rössing photograph](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-us-soldier-caricature-panel-1952/) (East Germany · 1952 · Name-calling). Content note: Caricature of a US soldier as an obese, shouting figure in a horned helmet; East German display panel.
- ["Halt den Schiebern! Keine Waren für die sowjetische Rüstung": sign beside the zonal-border railway, 1952](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/west-halt-den-schiebern-zonengrenze-1952/) (West Germany · 1952 · Name-calling)
- ["Denkt an Ungarn: Seid wachsam!" CDU poster, 1957 Bundestag election](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cdu-denkt-an-ungarn-1957/) (West Germany · 1957 · Fear appeal, Transfer)
- [Adenauer and Krupp cartoon boards, open-air display, Rathausstrasse, East Berlin](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-adenauer-krupp-cartoon-boards-berlin-1957/) (East Germany · 1957 · Name-calling, Scapegoating). Content note: Caricatures of Konrad Adenauer and of the Krupp arms firm as profiteers of war, with rhymed text about death tolls and atomic rockets.
- ["Faschistische Mörder erneut in Aktion!": street board with eleven numbered portraits, East Berlin](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-faschistische-moerder-erneut-in-aktion-board-berlin-1957/) (East Germany · 1957 · Name-calling, Transfer). Content note: Poster labelling eleven named West German and NATO officers 'Faschistische Mörder' ('fascist murderers') with portrait photographs and epithets; shown whole, the accusations are the poster's own wording.
- ["Wer hoch hinaus will, fällt tief": GDR border billboard near Mackenrode](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-wer-hoch-hinaus-will-faellt-tief-border-board-1960/) (East Germany · 1960 · Fear appeal). Content note: Caricature of a man in a suit riding a rocket on a ladder marked NATO, on a GDR border billboard.
- [FRIEDENSVERTRAG: East Berlin street board on a German peace treaty](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-friedensvertrag-board-1961/) (East Germany · 1961 · Name-calling, Transfer). Content note: Cartoon caricature of a West German militarist figure marked with SS runes and an Iron Cross mace.
- ["Wählt die Kandidaten der Nationalen Front": election poster on an advertising pillar, East Berlin](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-nationale-front-poster-pillar-1961/) (East Germany · 1961 · Glittering generalities)
- ["Grenzgänger zu bedienen ist unter unserer Würde": shop poster, Königs Wusterhausen district](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-grenzgaenger-shop-poster-1961/) (East Germany · Aug 4, 1961 · Scapegoating, Manufactured consensus)
- [Leipziger Volkszeitung extra on the border-securing measures, handed out in Leipzig](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-leipzig-extrablatt-grenzsicherung-1961/) (East Germany · Aug 13, 1961 · Euphemism / doublespeak, Big lie). Content note: Photograph of a newspaper extra whose agency caption uses the official term 'Grenzsicherungsmaßnahmen' for the closing of the Berlin border.
- ["Am 13. August gab's roten Pfeffer": house-community banner, Bitterfeld](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bitterfeld-red-pepper-banner-1961/) (East Germany · Aug 29, 1961 · Name-calling, Manufactured consensus). Content note: East German banner using insult words ('agents', 'yappers') for named West Berlin figures and a radio station.
- ["Wer uns angreift wird vernichtet": GDR border sign beside the new Berlin Wall (CIA photograph)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-wer-uns-angreift-wird-vernichtet-sign-1961/) (East Germany · Nov 20, 1961 · Fear appeal)
- ["Laßt uns gemeinsam für Frieden und Verständigung wirken!": GDR peace-treaty billboard at the Friedrichstraße crossing (CIA photograph)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-friedensvertrag-billboard-friedrichstrasse-1961/) (East Germany · Dec 8, 1961 · Glittering generalities, Scapegoating)
- ["Der deutsche Friedensvertrag bändigt den westdeutschen Militarismus!": sign at the Friedrichstraße checkpoint, Berlin](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-friedrichstrasse-checkpoint-peace-treaty-sign-1961/) (East Germany · Dec 13, 1961 · Scapegoating, Glittering generalities)
- ["Aktuelle Kamera" interview with a detained West Berliner, Deutscher Fernsehfunk](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-aktuelle-kamera-schroeter-interview-1961/) (East Germany · Dec 21, 1961 · Testimonial, Scapegoating)
- ["Der Schutzpatron der Westberliner Spionageorganisation Lemmer": ADN photomontage](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/adn-lemmer-photomontage-1962/) (East Germany · Feb 9, 1962 · Name-calling, Guilt by association)
- ["Macht das Tor auf": Brandenburg Gate model at the inner-German border, east of Lübeck](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/macht-das-tor-auf-border-gate-1962/) (West Germany · Nov 1962 · Transfer)
- ["Keine neuen US-Raketen in Westeuropa!": peace manifestation, Halle](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-halle-peace-manifestation-banners-1983/) (East Germany · Oct 21, 1983 · Fear appeal)
- ["25 Jahre antifaschistischer Schutzwall": Kampfappell parade, Karl-Marx-Allee, Berlin](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-kampfappell-schutzwall-anniversary-1986/) (East Germany · Aug 13, 1986 · Euphemism / doublespeak, Transfer, Big lie). Content note: Photograph of a military parade with a board using the GDR's official name for the Berlin Wall ('antifaschistischer Schutzwall'); the agency caption lists named officials.
- ["Ihr Tod ist uns Verpflichtung": Pioneers at the border-troops memorial, Berlin](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-pioneers-border-guard-memorial-berlin-1986/) (East Germany · Aug 13, 1986 · Euphemism / doublespeak, Transfer)
- [East Berlin radio and television on the October 1989 demonstrations ('Black Channel'), FBIS Daily Report, 11 October 1989](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/east-berlin-radio-tv-schnitzler-black-channel-1989/) (East Germany · Oct 10, 1989 · Name-calling, Scapegoating, Ad hominem). Content note: State broadcasts calling demonstrators 'hooligans' and 'criminal elements' and denying reports of deaths at the October 1989 demonstrations; includes a commentary casting emigrants as parents who abandoned their children.
- [Neues Forum Leipzig, "Aufruf des Neuen Forum" (12 October 1989)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/neues-forum-leipzig-aufruf-1989/) (East Germany · Oct 12, 1989 · Bandwagon)