A War of Words: GDR Propaganda during the Cold WarLesson produced by: Amy PerkinsLakeshore High SchoolStevensville, MI 49127aperkins@lakeshoreps.org

Lesson Focus: War is not simply fought on the battlefield. Bullets, bloodshed, and bombs are not the only measures of its success. In fact, the deadly volleys of gunfire exchanged between battle lines often mirror an equally impactful war of words. This war of words, as evidenced by wartime propaganda, is the byproduct of leaders’ sophisticated efforts to justify their wars, demonize their enemies, and mobilize their people.

Throughout world history, nations have used propaganda to accomplish these ends. Most notably, posters produced during World War I and World War II illustrate how various countries used imagery to win support for their military campaigns. Cold War propaganda is similarly informative.

This lesson examines various examples of propaganda produced in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) during the Cold War. Collectively, these primary sources afford students insight into the ways in which the socialist leaders of East Germany publicly vilified the capitalist West, idealized the promises of a planned economy, and justified their efforts to fortify the barriers that divided the heart of Europe.

Context of Lesson: This lesson on GDR propaganda fits best within a larger discussion of the Cold War, the role of propaganda, and/or the division of Germany in the wake of World War II.

Class: World History 7-12; US History 7-12

Essential Questions: How did the GDR use written and visual propaganda to advance its message, build support for socialist programs, and demonize the West? How did propaganda produced by Western nations respond to these attacks?

Big Concepts: GDR, propaganda, socialism, capitalism

Alignment with Common Core Standards: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.1 Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical

inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.2 Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.4 Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.6 Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.7 Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including

visually and quantitatively, as well as in words. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.8 Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the

validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.9 Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build

knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.

Assessment: Students will complete an analysis worksheet as they examine their assigned packet of propaganda materials. Additionally, students will participate in a class discussion of GDR propaganda.

Lesson Objectives: Students will analyze several examples of propaganda produced by the GDR and related examples. And related examples produced by the United States, Canada, and Western Europe.

Lesson Overview: After a brief discussion of the definition, forms, and purposes of wartime propaganda, the teacher will introduce students to propaganda produced by the GDR during the Cold War. Students will examine various texts and images to deduce how leaders of the GDR used propaganda to advance their message, build support for socialist programs, and demonize the West. For added reference, some examples of GDR propaganda have been paired with relevant propaganda produced by the United States, Canada, and Western Europe during the same timeframe.

Lesson Procedures:1. Introduction to Propaganda.Begin lesson by discussing the purpose of propaganda. To facilitate discussion, include historic examples of propaganda students would most likely recognize (common examples include Paul Revere’s Boston Massacre engraving, “Destroy this Mad Brute” image from World War I, the iconic Rosie the Riveter poster from World War II, and “This is the enemy” poster depicting Adolf Hitler as a Satanic presence in World War II).

a) Purpose of Propaganda: Propaganda is any media (visual, written, theatrical, musical, etc.) created for the primary purpose of persuading the audience to embrace a particular viewpoint or ideology. Propaganda is often crafted to elicit an emotional response (fear, pride, anger) from the audience and thereby build support for the creator’s ideology. To accomplish this end, the author/artist often bends the truth by exaggerating facts or by representing a narrow view of reality.

B) Expose students to examples of propaganda. Challenge them to answer the following questions as they examine each historic example of propaganda:

Who created this image? How do you know? What viewpoint is represented in the image? What is the intended effect of the image? (i.e. How does the artist hope the audience will respond to the

image? What action does he hope they will take?) How does the image fit within its larger historical context?

2) Transition: GDR Propaganda during the Cold War Although many students recognize examples of propaganda produced during the American Revolution, World War I and World War II, they are less familiar with propaganda produced by the GDR during the Cold War. This lesson offers valuable insight into the minds of the socialist leaders in East Germany. As East German citizens risked their lives to escape socialism, how did the officials of the GDR reconcile this reality? As bricks and barbed wire bisected the Berlin skyline, how did the East German authorities justify the need for the imposing barrier? Finally, as the East German economy slowed in the shadow of the West’s bustling economy, how did the socialist leaders account for this disparity?

A) Divide students into multiple groups with 3-4 students in each group. B) Distribute one student packet to each group and instruct them to begin their analysis of the GDR propaganda. Student packets include detailed instructions students should follow as they complete their analysis.

3) Student share: Large group discussion/analysis of documents.Once all of the groups have completed the analysis of their assigned packet/materials, facilitate a large group discussion of the propaganda. The following questions will help focus this discussion:

In the various examples of propaganda, how did the GDR represent the United States and western European nations? What adjectives and images did the GDR use to create this perception of the West? How did the GDR account for the thousands of East Germans who fled to West Germany/West Berlin throughout the Cold

War? How did the GDR justify the rapid construction of the Berlin Wall? How did the various forms of GDR propaganda compare with propaganda produced by the United States, Canada, and

Western Europe during the Cold War? What new insights can we gain from our analysis of this evidence? Consider the outcome of the Cold War. Was the GDR propaganda ultimately successful? Explain.

Materials Needed: Student propaganda packets with analysis worksheets (included with this lesson) Examples of propaganda (some suggestions detailed below) Projection equipment to enable large group viewing of images Color printer: Student packets are most helpful if students can view images in color

Sources:Introduction to Propaganda: Web sites featuring popular examples

Paul Revere’s “Boston Massacre” http://historymartinez.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/boston-massacre.jpg

“Destroy this Mad Brute” http://www.propagandatheory.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/01-destroy-this-mad-brute-wwi-propaganda-poster.jpg

Rose the Riveter http://www.singularitynyc.com/images/Rosie-the-Riveter.jpg

Hitler: “This is the Enemy” http://www.ww2incolor.com/d/52501-3/s1-hitlerenemy-2

Resources examining GDR propaganda (All resources listed below are published in English; several additional resources are available in German)

http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/ (Several items included in student packets for this lesson are borrowed from this web site. Web site links are detailed in each packet for easy reference.)

Allman, Mark. Politics and Popular Opinion in East Germany, 1945-1968 (Manchester University Press, 2000).

Bytwerk, Randall. Bending Spines: The Propagandas of Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic (Michigan State University Press, 2004).

Cunningham, Stanley B. The Idea of Propaganda: A Reconstruction (Prager, 2002).

Fulbrook, Mary. Anatomy of a Dictatorship: Inside the GDR, 1949-1989 (Oxford University Press, 1995).

Maier, Charles S. Dissolution: The Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany (Princeton University Press, 1997).

Nothnagle, Alan L. Building the East German Myth: Historical Mythology and Youth Propaganda in the German Democratic Republic, 1945-1989 (University of Michigan Press, 1999).

Student packet #1The GDR under attack by Western

Capitalists!“Bring the whole world under the control of dollar imperialism”

Contents: Cartoon: “OK, the more grain our tanks ruin, the more they will have to import from us.”Cartoon: “American Imports and Exports”Text: “STOP Yankee Beetles: Crimes Against Humanity”Text: “Criminal Spread of Yankee Beetles”: A Radio Commentary

Packet 1: Item A

Source: Windstärke 12. Eine Auswahl neuer deutscher Karikaturen (Dresden: VEB Verlag der Kunst, 1953).

Caption: “OK, the more grain our tanks ruin, the more they will have to import from us.”

Explanation: American military maneuvers were a frequent cause of friction in West Germany, a fact this cartoon attempts to play on.

Link: http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/wind.htm

Packet 1: Item B

Source: Windstärke 12. Eine Auswahl neuer deutscher Karikaturen (Dresden: VEB Verlag der Kunst, 1953).

Title: “American Imports and Exports”

Explanation: American soldiers are bringing in Coca Cola, Kodak film, and cigarettes, and removing Germany’s art treasures. This was part of the general claim that the U.S. was an uncivilized country.

Link: http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/wind.htm

Packet 1: Item C“STOP Yankee Beetles: Crimes Against Humanity”Source: HALT Amikäfer (Berlin: Amt für Information der Regierung der DDR, 1950). Translated by: Randall BytwerkText available online: http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/amikafer.htmBBC article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23929124

Background: This amusing Cold War pamphlet was issued in 1950, accusing the United States of dropping potato beetles (or Colorado beetles) on East Germany. Not only was the U.S. trying to ruin the East German potato crop, it was also trying to establish a market for a new pesticide. There was, in fact, a serious potato beetle infestation in the GDR in 1950, but the U.S. had nothing to do with it. The BBC did a 2013 story on the topic, complete with interviews from East Germans at the time who say that they didn’t believe the charges, since potato beetles had been around for a long time. These stories have a history. During World War II, the Germans accused the Allies of dropping beetles from aircraft, and the British accused the Germans of the same.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------As the first reports that American planes were dropping Colorado or potato beetles (called Yankee beetles by the people) over the territory of the German Democratic Republic, even those who had never doubted the lack of conscience or scruples of American warmongers were reluctant to believe them.

People had still not forgotten the “Open Letter” written by the state bishop of Württemberg, Dr. Wurm, to the American occupation forces on 17 May 1949. The bishop stated that the bombing of thickly populated cities like Dresden, Darmstadt, Heilbronn, Pforzheim, and many others, when there was no military need and the victory of the Allies was assured, was a crime against humanity. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed by such cold-blooded mass murder, above all old people, women, and children.

The wave of resistance and active opposition against the American government’s preparations for war and its growing armaments increases every day. An avalanche of signatures against the atom bomb increases. Nonetheless, people who are fighting to prevent a third world war, who are fighting to maintain world peace, had doubts about the first reports. Why? Because the extent and enormity of the American government’s crimes, both those already carried out and those planned, exceeded their worst fears! They are done in service of the Wall Street billionaires and American imperialists.

Both private farmers and members of collectives have expressed their outrage at the most recent crimes of American air gangsters. German and foreign journalists on an information tour of the German Democratic Republic had opportunity to visit the village of Schönfels near Zwickau on 17 June 1950, one of the areas most attacked by potato beetles. In a protest declaration, the German and foreign journalists stated: “The unanimous testimony of the farmers who saw this problem in their fields is that the large number of Colorado beetles appeared a day after American planes flew over the area. Colorado beetles are smaller than atomic bombs, but they are also a weapon of U.S. imperialism against the peace-loving working population. We journalists who serve peace hereby condemn this new criminal method of the American warmongers.” This protest carried the following signatures: Wu Wen Tao (New China News Agency), Ryszard Szymanski (API Poland), Kamila Cwylenska (Tribüne der Freiheit, Poland), Victor Schleß (Czechoslovak Press Agency), Arrigo Jacchia (Il Paese, Rome), Lydia Lambert (Paris). It was also signed by all participating German journalists.

The farmers assured the journalists that there could be no other cause for the infestation than from the American planes they had seen. Potato beetles normally appear at the earliest in mid-July, but this time they appeared at the end of May. If they had developed from larva, there would have been numerous signs of their activity. There was no potato foliage at the time for them to eat. The previous year, four potato beetles were discovered. This year, it was 1300. The farmers were particularly struck by the fact that all the potato beetles they found were of the same size, which suggests they had been bred.

The unassailable proof for the intentions of a notorious gangster diplomacy, which has taken over plans for a total war of annihilation from German and Japanese fascism, is offered in the following pages. It shows everyone the true face of the deadly enemy of progressive humanity and of world peace.

The current American government, which is using the most brutal fascist methods to silence those fighting for social progress and peace in their own country, wants to use the most terrible means of atomic bombs and bacteriological warfare to bring the whole world under the control of dollar imperialism. The German people, and all those fighting for peace, demand that the American government, its hirelings and servants, along with the Bonn separatist government of the traitor Adenauer, be brought before the court for war crimes.

(The next thirteen pages include a report from an investigative committee and a protest from the East German government on the matter. The following section is titled: E 838: The Sensational Background to the Potato Beetle Crime”)

Packet 1: Item D

“Criminal Spread of Yankee Beetles”: A Radio CommentarySource: HALT Amikäfer (Berlin: Amt für Information der Regierung der DDR, 1950). Translated by: Randall BytwerkText available online: http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/amikafer.htm

Background: On Wednesday, 7 June 1950, a Berlin radio commentator presented a sensational report that drew the attention of the entire world to the criminal spread of potato beetles by American planes over the territory of the German Democratic Republic.

The commentator stated:

Today I received information that, under the code name E 838, IG Farben in Leverkusen is committing one of the greatest crimes of the post-war period. What kind of crime, and who are the criminals, you ask?

The best answer as to the criminals comes in a film now showing in our theaters: DEFA’s “Council of the Gods.” The names are not important, since they are all the same. The type of person is what is important — members of the system of international big capital.

You will also know that between 20 and 25 May, American planes dropped large numbers of Colorado beetles in the south and southwest of our republic. These insects do terrible damage to potato plants. Because of rainy weather, and because of the necessary examination of the details, it took a while to make the connection between the sudden mass appearance of the potato beetles and the over-flights by the American planes. Naturally, not every potato beetle infestation is the result of such a crime.

After our republic’s information service announced this attack on our agriculture, a vehement campaign of denial began in the Western press. However, across the ocean, Harpers Magazine had reported that the destruction of the agriculture of foreign countries has long been one of the most important areas of study by the U.S. general staff, and that there were already experiments to develop practical methods to destroy useful crops.

More discoveries were made. In Zwickau, beetles were found in the square in front of the railway station. Near the dam at Sosa, they were discovered in bath tubs inside houses, although everyone knows that even the most eager and ambitious potato beetle normally avoids such areas, the Western press called the sudden appearance of this destructive swarm in our republic “an entirely normal and natural phenomenon.” And with a considerable delay, there were reports of the sudden appearance of huge swarms of potato beetles in areas where they had not been seen before. At the same time, however, a report from an American investigative committee leaked out that discussed the bad tactics and insufficient preparation of the whole potato beetle campaign, and also criticized the fact that the spreading of the beetles over the GDR had not followed the distribution plan.

The investigation by the government of the German Democratic Republic, and information that we have since learned, proves that his attack on our harvest was only a part of a much larger crime.

From the first, it was unclear why the pests had been dropped not in the middle of the republic rather near the borders, which carried the risk of infesting West German territory as well.

The code word E 838, the designation of a new pesticide against the potato beetle developed by IG Bayer in Leverkusen, provides half of the answer. It was a matter of big business for the American war minister and the stockholders of I.G. Farben, Johnson and his crew — both a war exercise and profitable business at the same time.

The Central Biological Institute in Braunschweig has already tested this new pesticide developed by German scientists. This poison penetrates the shell of the insect, and with even the slightest movement kills the insects, larva, and eggs. This product is the property of a newly-founded subsidiary of the Pittsbourgh (sic) Coke and Chemical Company and the Oeary Chemical Corporation, two large American chemical companies. In order to be marketable, it needed a major test.

The big speculators on Wall Street, however, are not interested only in damaging our harvest, in making money with E 838, with earning more from sales of American potatoes to replace those destroyed by the beetles (also in West Germany). There is more! Our investigations prove beyond any doubt that it was a test of their plans for bacteriological warfare!

Bacteriological weapons are feasible only when their user has a way of dealing with the destructive effects.

When the Americans dropped the beetles in the south of our republic, thereby also endangering West German territory, they were primarily preparing for bacteriological warfare. The goal was to test the distribution equipment, the influence of the wind and weather on the creatures, the accuracy of the drops, the effects on the “enemy,” the impact on one’s own territory, and the effectiveness of defensive means. They were also interested in business goals, in securing a market for potatoes on the world market. Who does not remember the poison gas I.G. produced during the war and for Auschwitz? Hitler fascists had already gone beyond the traditional methods of testing on rabbits and guinea pigs, using people for their criminal experiments. The war criminals of 1950 use still larger measures, as they would call them. They are using whole regions in the east and west of our fatherland, along with the inhabitants, for their experiments, and as the battleground for the war they are preparing.

It takes one’s breath away to imagine the intellectual and spiritual condition of these supposed Christian citizens of the West who are capable of such inhumanity.

In my opinion, it would be right and good if the resolutions of our farmers won a world hearing, and if their demand was heeded that: the United Nations should take up the charges against the general staff and the government of the USA with regards to their potato beetle crimes. Is such an American provocation on German soil a surprise? However surprised one may be, we should remember that it is only a link in a larger chain. Just as the American warmongers want to carry out Hitler’s plans with their atomic strategy, they have also taken over terrible Japanese imperialist plans for bacteriological warfare. Above all, they have proved their intellectual relationships by protecting the Japanese war criminals condemned by the Soviet Union at Chabarowski, who had prepared and carried out bacteriological warfare. They have not answered Soviet demand that the Japanese emperor Hirohito and his accomplices, who are guilty of the same crimes, be brought before an international criminal court.

American conduct of the cold war takes on ever hotter forms, as these developments show, the more the will of the peoples — all peoples — for peace shows itself. The imperialists are enraged by the growing millions of signatures against the atomic bomb. Their methods grow ever more ruthless, blatant, more open, typical of monopoly capitalism. Their hysteria betrays their weakness! The best defense is our burning, unforgiving hatred against such subhumanity, the watchfulness and determination of all Germans, of our workers and citizens, our farmers and our scientists, above all our youth, to free Germany from the plague of warmongers. Our strength is our will for construction and peace, our friendship with the peace-loving world!

(The next two pages claim that the U.S. had done similar things in 1944 and 1948. It concludes with three pages on fighting potato beetles.)

Analysis WorksheetStudent packet #1: The GDR under attack by Western Capitalists!

Student names: ____________________________________________________________

Item A: Cartoon-- “OK, the more grain our tanks ruin, the more they will have to import from us.”1. Carefully examine the cartoon. When was it produced?

2. What viewpoint is represented in the cartoon? How do you know?

3. According to the cartoon, how does the US pose a threat to East Germany? Be specific.

Item B: Cartoon-- “American Imports and Exports”1. Carefully examine the cartoon. When was it produced?

2. What viewpoint is represented in the cartoon? How do you know?

3. How is the US represented in the cartoon? Provide evidence to support your conclusion.

Item C: Text-- “STOP Yankee Beetles: Crimes Against Humanity”1. What is the “Yankee Beetle” and how does it pose a threat to East Germany?

2. Who is responsible for spreading the Yankee Beetle and what evidence does the author identify to convict the culprit?

3. What are the alleged motives for depositing large numbers of Yankee beetles in East Germany?

Item D: Text-- “Criminal Spread of Yankee Beetles”: A Radio Commentary1. Who is responsible for spreading the Yankee Beetle and what evidence does the author identify to convict the culprit?

2. According to the author, how does the infestation of Yankee Beetles testify to a lager, capitalist conspiracy coordinated by Wall Street speculators?

3. What action does the author demand from the United Nations?

4. According to the author, how does the alleged plot to ruin East German crops expose the fragile, desperate state of capitalist nations?

Summary: 1. Review all of the documents in the packet. What common themes do you think unite this collection of materials?

2. What new insights have you gained as a result of examining these examples of propaganda?

3. List any additional questions you have about GDR propaganda or the Cold War in general.

*If time permits, read the recently published BBC article on the Yankee Beetle: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23929124

Student packet #2The GDR under attack by Western

Warmongers!“He who lives on an island should not make an enemy of the ocean.”

Contents: Cartoon: “The Resurrection” Text: “Who is Threatening Whom?”

Text: “What You Should Know About the Wall”

Packet 2: Item A

Source: Windstärke 12. Eine Auswahl neuer deutscher Karikaturen (Dresden: VEB Verlag der Kunst, 1953).

Title: “The Resurrection”

Explanation: Konrad Adenauer, the West German chancellor, is presented as standing in Adolf Hitler’s place, carrying an American flag and reading a fine speech.

Link: http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/wind.htm

Packet 2: Item B

“Who is Threatening Whom?”Source: G. F. Alexan, “Wer bedroht wen?”, USA in Wort und Bild, #15/1951, pp. 3-6.Translated by: Randall BytwerkText available online: http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/usa1.htm

Background: For much of its history the GDR’s slogan was “To learn from the Soviet Union means to learn victory.” The propaganda line followed the Soviet Union’s rather closely. This article comes from a magazine titled The USA in Words and Pictures, most of which was translated from what I assume was a Russian magazine of similar name. If anyone can confirm this, I’d appreciate it. The Korean War was in progress, and this issue carried considerable material directed against American involvement there. Other articles in this issue discussed the role of the rich, the rise in suicide, poverty, and protests against U.S. military policy in Japan.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------On 5 October 1951, American Ambassador Allan Kirk met Soviet Foreign Minister A. J. Wyschinski. Kirk said that he wanted to discuss the Soviet government’s note on improving relations between the two countries. He did his duty by reading a one page statement, but declined to give the text to Wyscinski, since his “instructions were to deliver it orally.” Such a way of behaving is probably unique in the history of international relations, and shows the hand of Truman. The President of the United States is conducting his diplomacy according to the gangster rules of his notorious teacher Pendergast: He who does not put it in writing cannot be proven a liar.

The Soviet government’s reply of 15 October revealed clearly what was going on: a dishonest policy of bluffing, threats, blackmail, and the use of the raw power of U.S. imperialism. The Soviet note mentioned the most important actions of the aggressive U.S. policy, the remilitarization of Germany and Japan, and particularly criticized “the establishment of numerous American bases around the Soviet Union.”

The American warmongers, by the way, hardly conceal their criminal encirclement policies. There are bases for the newest American bombers in Greenland and Iceland, Canada and New Zealand, the West Indies, the Bahamas, and Jamaica. New air bases are also being built in Latin America, North and West Africa, the Middle East, and Arabia. The American Congress recently approved 6.6 billion dollars to build or improve these bases as well as others in the Pacific and Alaska. Churchill is a sworn enemy of the Soviet Union and one of the main warmongers…

As a matter of fact, 19 large bases are already at the disposal of U.S. forces, not including naval bases. The situation is similar in Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Portugal, Italy, and recently Franco’s Spain. These satellite states have been transformed overnight into enormous U.S. garrisons with huge weapon depots. West Germany has a central role in this conspiracy against peace. Its territory is used as a gathering area for troops, and its youth is to be used as cannon fodder, as Adenauer’s secret negotiations with the three Allied high commissioners prove. This is also proven by the numerous reports in the West German press about areas and villages whose inhabitants are being driven away and whose fields are being transformed into huge air bases and military training grounds. Similar reports come from the French and Italian press and from those in all other Marshallized nations. The cynical

openness with which the Wall Street Imperialists are conducting their anti-Soviet policies is shown by an article provocatively titled “The Ring Around the Soviet Union Closes.” It was published on 23 July 1951 in Time, a weekly controlled by the Morgan banking house: “The Armaments Committee has approved the sum of more than a billion dollars for building new secret bases, mostly within striking range of the Soviet Union.” The magazine continued: “A secret agreement with the French and English governments also provides new bases for American forces in the Mediterranean in Morocco, Tripoli and other strategic places in North and Central Africa and the Mediterranean.” An enormous American base is being built by American engineers at Dharan in Saudi Arabia for a “temporary” period of five years. It is of great importance for the conflicts with Iran and Egypt.

…such boasting is characteristic also for his supreme commander. Truman, who a Congressman recently called a mixture of bluff, incompetence and hysteria, is just as much a defeated general as MacArthur. His “total atomic diplomacy,” which he spoke of with such big words a year ago, has suffered a humiliating shipwreck. The monopoly of the atomic bomb proved an illusion. As J. W. Stalin said in his interview with a Pravda correspondent:

American politicians are unhappy that not only they but also other nations, and in particular the Soviet Union, have the secret of atomic weapons. They would like the U.S.A. to have a monopoly of atomic bomb production that would give them the unlimited ability to frighten other nations and blackmail them.

General Stalin gave the death blow with these words to the myth of the U.S. monopoly of atomic weapons.

As a genuine politician of catastrophe, Truman is putting more emphasis than ever on his “base strategy.” Like his “total atomic diplomacy,” this also will prove a big illusion. In the September issue of the leading technical journal American Engineer, the well-known military writer Major de Seversky gives a devastating criticism of his policy:

It is really not a strategy at all. Truman takes on everything that occurs to him. He has the typical megalomania: the biggest army, the biggest fleet, the biggest air force, and so on. Truman’s policy is that of a junk dealer. American foreign policy is characterized by a colossal dilettantism that will fail miserably.

There is no doubt that should the big-mouthed gunfighters and air pirates carry out their suicidal threats of aggression against the Soviet Union, they will meet the same fate as Hitler and his generals.

Packet 2: Item C

“What You Should Know About the Wall”Source: 1962 GDR propaganda pamphletTranslated by: Randall BytwerkText available online: http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/wall.htm

Background: The following is the text of a 1962 brochure from the GDR defending (indeed, boasting of) the Berlin Wall. It was published in English for foreign distribution. The document is not clearly dated, but I suspect it was published in February.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Newspapers, radio and television report daily about Berlin and West Berlin in many languages throughout the world. They often speak or write of a state frontier, or of a wall. It may be very difficult for you to form a valid picture from all these reports which frequently contradict each other. We want to help you to do so. We tried to imagine what would be the considerations of a citizen of a foreign state if he wanted to gain clarity about the problems in West Berlin. And we would like to reply to these considerations.

1st CONSIDERATION. Where, exactly, is Berlin situated?A glance at the map suffices: Berlin lies in the middle of the German Democratic Republic, exactly 180 kilometres (112.5 miles) to the east of its western frontier. A quite normal locality for the capital of a state. Only one thing is not normal at all: that a hostile, undermining policy and disruptive acts have for years been carried on from the western part of this city against the surrounding state territory. West Berlin Mayor Willi Brandt called West Berlin a “thorn in the side of the GDR.” Would you like to have a thorn in your side? We don’t either! But Brandt even proclaims quite frankly: “We want to be the disturber of the peace.”

2nd CONSIDERATION. Did the wall fall out of the sky?No. It was the result of developments of many years standing in West Germany and West Berlin. Let us recall preceding events: In 1948 a separate currency reform was introduced in West Germany and West Berlin - the West German reactionaries thereby split Germany and even west Berlin in to two currency areas.

The West German separatist state was founded in 1949 - Bonn thereby turned the zonal border into a state frontier.

In 1954 West Germany was included in NATO - Bonn thereby converted the state frontier into the front-line between two pact systems.

The decision on the atomic armament of the West German Bundeswehr was made in 1958 - thus, Bonn continues to aggravate the situation in Germany and Berlin. Repeatedly the annexation of the GDR is proclaimed as the official aim of Bonn policy, most recently in a statement of the Adenauer Christian Democratic Union (CDU), on 11 July 1961.

Thus did the anti-national, aggressive NATO policy create the wall which today separates the two German states and also goes through the middle of Berlin. The Bonn government and the West Berlin Senate have systematically converted West Berlin into a centre of provocation from where 90 espionage organizations, the RIAS American broadcasting station in West Berlin (Radio in American Sector) and revanchist associations organize acts of sabotage against the GDR and the other socialist countries. Through our protective measures of 13 August 1961 we have only safeguarded and strengthened that frontier which was already drawn years ago and made into a dangerous front-line by the people in Bonn and West Berlin. How high and how strongly fortified a frontier must be, depends, as is common knowledge, on the kind of relations existing between the states of each side of the frontier.

3rd CONSIDERATION. Did the wall have to come?Yes and no. We have submitted more than one hundred proposals for understanding, on the renunciation of atomic armament, and on the withdrawal of the two German states from NATO or the Warsaw Treaty. If things had gone according to our proposals the situation in Germany would not have been aggravated and, consequently, there would have been no wall. Especially since 1958 the GDR and the Soviet Union have repeatedly told the West Berlin Senate, the Bonn government, and the western powers: Be reasonable! Let us eliminate the abnormal situation in West Berlin together. Let us start negotiations. Why did Bonn and West Berlin reject these proposals? Why did they, instead, step up agitation to an unprecedented degree before 13 August? - The wall had to come because they were bringing about the danger of a conflict. Those who do not want to hear, must feel.

4th CONSIDERATION. What did the wall prevent?We no longer wanted to stand by passively and see how doctors, engineers, and skilled workers were induced by refined methods unworthy of the dignity of man to give up their secure existence in the GDR and work in West Germany or West Berlin. These and other

manipulations cost the GDR annual losses amounting to 3.5 thousand million marks. But we prevented something much more important with the wall - West Berlin’s becoming the starting point for a military conflict. The measures we introduced in 13 August in conjunction with the Warsaw Treaty states have cooled off a number of hotheads in Bonn and West Berlin. For the first time in German history the match which was to set fire to another war was extinguished before it had fulfilled its purpose.

5th CONSIDERATION. Was peace really threatened?Indian journalists R. K. Karanjia shall give you the answer to the question. He published a sensational report from Berlin in the biggest Indian weekly, Blitz in which the world public is warned against the West Berlin powder-keg. K. R. Karanjia wrote:

“It (the protective wall of the GDR) served the cause of world peace since it halted the advance of the German neo-Hitlerites toward the East, forced the world to recognize the reality of the division of Germany and thus supports negotiation.” (retranslated from German)

If further evidence of the aggressive intentions of the West German government is needed it is provided by the authoritative West German employers’ newspaper, the Industriekurier, which regretfully wrote, exactly 19 days after 13 August 1961: “A reunification with the Bundeswehr marching victoriously through the Brandenburg Gate to the beating of drums - such a reunification will not take place in the foreseeable future.”

Bonn heads were really haunted by ideas of such a victorious entry. That would have meant war.

6th CONSIDERATION. Who is walled in?According to the exceedingly intelligent explanations of the West Berlin Senate we have walled ourselves in and are living in a concentration camp. But in that case why are the gentlemen so excited? Obviously, because in reality their espionage centres, their revanchist radio stations, their fascist solders’ associations, their youth poisoners, and their currency racketeers have been walled in. They are excited because we have erected the wall as an antifascist, protective wall against them.

Does something not occur to you? West Berlin Mayor Brandt wails that half of the GDR, including the workers in the enterprise militia groups, is armed. What do you think of a concentration camp whose inmates have weapons in their hands?

7th CONSIDERATION. Who breaks off human contacts?Of course, it is bitter for many Berliners not to be able to visit each other at present. But it would be more bitter if a new war were to separate them forever. Moreover, when the GDR was forced to introduce compulsory entry permits for West Berlin citizens on 23 August in the interests of its security we at the same time offered to open up entry permit offices in municipal railway stations in West Berlin. In fact we opened them and issued the first permits. Who closed them by force? The same Senate of that Mr. Brandt who is today shedding crocodile tears about “contacts being broken”! The GDR has maintained its offer. If we had our way Berliners could visit each other despite the wall.

8th CONSIDERATION. Does the wall threaten anyone?Bonn propaganda describes the wall as a “monstrous evidence of the aggressiveness of world communism.” Have you ever considered it to be a sign of aggressiveness when someone builds a fence around his property?

9th CONSIDERATION. Who is aggravating the situation?The wall? It stands there quite calmly. Former French Premier Reynaud said already on 19 August 1961, according to UPI: “The sealing-off measures of the East Berlin government did not increase, but lessened, the danger of a third world war.” In reality, the situation is being aggravated by persons who play at being the strong man on our state frontier, who are turning West Berlin into a NATO base and daily inciting West Berliners against the GDR. Municipal railway cars are being destroyed, frontier guards attacked and brutally shot, tunnels dug for agents and bomb attacks made on the GDR’s frontier security installations. Does that serve relaxation? One must really ask why attacks on the GDR state frontier in West Berlin are not subject to court prosecution as in other states. The Brandt Senate even presents “its respects” to the provocateurs.

10th CONSIDERATION. Is the wall a gymnastic apparatus?The wall is the state frontier of the German Democratic Republic. The state frontier of a sovereign state must be respected. That is so the world over. He who does not treat it with respect cannot complain if he comes to harm. West German and West Berlin politicians demand that “the wall be removed.” We are not particularly fond of walls, either. But please consider where the actual wall runs in Germany, the wall which must be pulled down in your and our interest. It is the wall which was erected because of the fateful Bonn NATO policy. On the stones of this wall stand atomic armament, entry into NATO, revanchist demands, anti-communist incitement, non recognition of the GDR, rejection of negotiations, the front-line city of West Berlin.

So, make your contribution to the pulling down of this wall by advocating a reasonable policy of military neutrality, peaceful co-existence, normal relations between the two German states, the conclusion of a peace treaty with Germany, a demilitarized Free City of West Berlin. That is the only way to improve the situation in Berlin, to safeguard peace, a way which can, one day also lead to the reunification of Germany. The wall says to the war-mongers: He who lives on an island should not make an enemy of the ocean.

Decide in favor of the recognition of realities. Don’t join in the row over the wall. Perhaps YOU don’t want socialism. That is your affair. But should we not come to an agreement jointly to refrain from doing anything that leads to war and do everything that serves peace?

Analysis WorksheetStudent packet #2: The GDR under attack by Western Warmongers!

Student names: ____________________________________________________________

Item A: Cartoon—“The Resurrection”1. When was the cartoon published?

2. Who is featured in the cartoon? Why do you think the artist chose to position him on top of a podium previously designed to hold a statue of Hitler?

3. What larger message is this image making about the relationship between Western Germany and the United States?

Item B: Text—“Who is Threatening Whom?”1. The text suggests that Americans are “warmongers.” What evidence does the author site to support this allegation?

2. The author also comments on the nuclear arms race. How does the author view Americans’ efforts to develop atomic weapons and yet limit nuclear proliferation in other nation throughout the world?

3. Describe President Truman’s two-pronged plan of attack which includes “base strategy” and “total atomic diplomacy.” What prediction does the author make about the success of this plan?

Item C: Text—“What You Should Know About the Wall”1. According to the author, the Berlin Wall was necessary to “safeguard peace.” What evidence does the text present to justify this viewpoint?

2. How does the text attempt to reconcile the fact that thousands of skilled laborers have left East Germany/East Berlin to resettle in the West?

3. Why was the Wall built so quickly? How does its quick construction further testify to the alleged superiority of the socialist system?

4. According to the author, who is to blame for the construction of the Wall?

5. What must happen before the Wall can come down?

6. The author warns, “He who lives on an island should not make an enemy of the ocean.” Explain the geographic significance of this warning.

Summary: 1. Review all of the documents in the packet. What common themes do you think unite this collection of materials?

2. What new insights have you gained as a result of examining these examples of propaganda?

3. List any additional questions you have about GDR propaganda or the Cold War in general.

Student packet #3Spin Doctors on Both Sides of the Cold

War:Demonizing the Enemy

Contents: Cartoon: Giant Squid cloaked in American flag

Cartoon: Map of Stalin grabbing nations in a post-World War II free-for-all Cartoon: “Is This Tomorrow?”Advertisement: “Communism and Twisted Education”

Packet 3: Item A

Source: Windstärke 12. Eine Auswahl neuer deutscher Karikaturen (Dresden: VEB Verlag der Kunst, 1953).

Caption: A quotation from Stalin: “The fundamental principles of modern capitalism can be put this way: Guaranteeing maximum profits through the exploitation, ruination, and enslavement of the majority of the population of the given country, through the systematic plundering of the people in other countries, in particular the undeveloped nations, and finally through war and economic militarization. All these contribute to high profits.”

Link: http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/wind.htm

Packet 3: Item B

Source: Illingworth, 1947

Background: On 16 June 1947, British cartoonist Leslie Gilbert Illingworth illustrates the threat represented by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who is methodically trying to extend his area of influence in Central Europe to include the countries of Western Europe.

Link: http://www.cvce.eu/obj/cartoon_by_illingworth_on_the_creation_of_an_area_under_soviet_influence_on_the_european_continent_16_june_1947-en-162b9b8d-5d49-4b39-b0ac-1df74c5de525.html

Packet 3: Item C

Source: Is This Tomorrow? was published in 1947 by the Catechetical Guild Educational Society of St. Paul, Minnesota.

Background: At ten cents a copy, this fifty-two page, full-color comic book was a smashing success in the United States.

Link: http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/is-this-tomorrow.html

Packet 3: Item D

Source: 1955 Anti-communist CandaAir advertisement

Background: “Communism and Twisted Education” explains how vulnerable children are to the “godlessness” of Soviet instruction (including propagandistic textbooks and teachers indoctrinated in the communist faith).

Link: http://www.propagandatheory.com/history-of-propaganda/appeal-to-prejudice/

Analysis WorksheetStudent packet #3: Spin Doctors on Both Sides of the Cold War

Student names: ____________________________________________________________

Item A: Cartoon-- Giant Squid cloaked in American flag1. What is the squid doing in the cartoon? Be specific.

2. Why is the squid cloaked in an American flag? What message is the artist conveying about US foreign policy?

3. Read the caption for the cartoon. Based on the quotation from Joseph Stalin and the details in the cartoon, what is the fundamental motivation/goal of capitalism? What methods does capitalism employ to achieve these goals?

Item B: Cartoon: Map of Stalin grabbing nations in a post-World War II free-for-all1. The map details the fate of Europe in the wake of World War II. Who is featured in the cartoon, crawling across the continent with flags in his hands?

2. What is the artist suggesting about the division of land in post war Europe? What details from the cartoon supports your conclusion?

3. Is the artist supportive or criticial of the division of land in the Europe following World War II? How do you know?

4. Whose viewpoint is represented in the cartoon—that of the US or that of the Soviet Union? How do you know?

5. Juxtapose Item A (the cartoon featuring the giant squid) with Item B. How are the two images similar? How are they different? What do the two images suggest about propagandist campaigns in the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War?

Item C: Cartoon-- Is This Tomorrow?1. Examine the image in the cartoon. What is the artist suggesting will happen to America if communism is permitted to spread to the United States?

2. Whose viewpoint is represented in this image? How do you know?

3. Compare Item C with Item A. What do these contrasting images suggest about the propagandists’ efforts on both sides of the Cold War?

Item D: Advertisement-- “Communism and Twisted Education”1. Who produced this advertisment? What are Canadians encouraged to do in response to this advertisement?

2. “Twisted Education”: How does communism pose a threat to education and morality in Canada and beyond?

Summary: 1. Review all of the documents in the packet. What common themes do you think unite this collection of materials?

2. What new insights have you gained as a result of examining these examples of propaganda?

3. List any additional questions you have about GDR propaganda or the Cold War in general.

Student packet #4Penetrable Barriers:

“Good Fences Make Good Neighbors”

Contents: Text: “Anti-Communist Attitudes of Western German Citizens” Cartoon: “The Revolver Noise”Advertisement: “Truth Dollars”Text: “Argument Number 55”Text: “Ich Bin Ein Berliner”

Packet 4: Item A

“Anti-Communist Attitudes of Western German Citizens”Source: “Die antikommunistische Grundhaltung der Bürger der BRD” The original in the library of Stiftung Archiv Parteien

und Massenorganisationen in Berlin. The call number: E 159-78, 13a.Translated by: Randall BytwerkText available online: http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/brd1.htm

Background: By 1979, the GDR had a well-developed system of propaganda with staff at every level. It still had a problem: why after thirty years of the existence of the GDR did West Germans still not recognize the superiority of socialism? This is a directive for propagandists at the county level, giving them arguments to explain this awkward fact.

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In his speech to the county first secretaries, Comrade Erich Honecker noted that we cannot ignore the anti-communist attitudes of the larger part of the citizens of the West Germany. Since then, many citizens of our county are asking: “Is that also true of our relatives?”

Several comrades have asked: “Is that also true of the West German working class? How can that be, since we always say that it is the most revolutionary class?” The DKP [the West German Communist Party] states: “The decisive force in the struggle against big capital is the working class.

Objectively seen, the working class is and remains the most revolutionary force in the struggle against imperialism. However, it must be conscious of its role, and must be capable of fulfilling it. However, as we read in the platform of the DKP:

“Under the sharpening crisis, reactionary forces and cultural win growing influence through big capital’s manipulation of public opinion. It seeks to disorient people, to conceal the fundamental contradiction between their interests and those of big capital, and to make authoritarian forms of rule look more acceptable. Democratic forces in radio, television, newspapers, and publishing are increasingly restricted. The mass media increasingly spread anti-communism, nationalism, and other reactionary ideas, promote an inhumane view of mankind, justify and exalt outdated social conditions, and distort history.”

This manipulation of opinion and the “politics and ideology of the right-wing Social Democratic leaders, who defend the capitalist system and subordinate the interests of working people to big capital, and who deepen the split in the working class by their anti-communism” leads to a broad crisis on the part of West Germany’s citizens. It is a central reason for their anti-communist attitudes.

Manipulation has reached a certain level of perfection in West Germany. It is used to keep people from socialist ideas and progressive thinking, and to strengthen anti-communist agitation.

Let us look at the West German reality. The notorious anti-communist Bild Zeitung along spreads hatred and slanders in a daily edition of seven million, and is read by at least 15 million West German citizens, That explains why our relatives from West Germany say things that sound absurd or narrow-minded. They feel endangered by a “red threat,” consider communists and terrorists to be identical, and claim that there is neither freedom nor democracy under socialism. The class consciousness of many West Germans has been distorted. Many follow those who, objectively seen, are their enemies.

That is shown by the anti-communist attitudes of many West Germans. They usually don’t show that in an overtly hostile way while visiting the GDR, rather display the previously mentioned narrow-mindedness. That, too, is a reason for the anti-communist attitudes of many West Germans.

The energetic and blind anti-communism of aggressive German imperialism has increased since socialism has dealt it some strategic defeats. The GDR, as a firm part of the socialist community of nations, is a bulwark against its expansionist lust. That is another reason why it cannot accept the GDR’s existence.

West Germany was established by the most reactionary circles of the German monopoly bourgeoisie and US imperialism as a “bulwark” of anti-communism against the people, against social progress, and against the advance of socialism in Germany and Europe.

West Germany was established not only as an anti-communist bulwark, but also as a base for rolling back socialism.

The conjunction of anti-communism and Revisionism has led West Germany to particularly extreme manifestations of the Cold War.

Thus, today the phrase of the “German Reich” as a “contemporary government reality” is propagated in order to keep the German Question “open.”

That is another reason why Bonn will not recognize the citizenship of GDR the GDR’s people, and why it wants to extend the reach of the West German Basic Law to the territory of the German Reich of 1939, and why it won’t extradite the double murderer Weinhold. After all, he was acquitted by a “German court!”

Anti-communism has been the center of the ideology and policy of the ruling capitalist forces for several generations.

From Bismarck’s social laws to the Weimar Republic and the fascist murder squads, they have slandered and persecuted socialists and communists. It ranges from the banning of the KPD [the precursor of the German Communist Party] and the ban on communists working for the state,

Neo-Fascism is returning as well. They are allowed to gather and great the Fascist poison in millions of copies. They attack the new and progressive forces.

West German Chancellor Schmidt even thinks: “German democracy can survive an occasional swastika!”

To maintain its class dictatorship, the West German monopoly bourgeoisie controls a powerful ideological system that has been built up over centuries. It has monopoly control over the theoretical institutions, which spread lies and slanders against the GDR. It controls and misuses the educational system and has an enormous apparatus of modern mass media to use for anti-communist manipulation.

All this influences the thinking and actions of West Germans. Over 90% of them, for example, voted for anti-communist parties in the last parliamentary elections.

We therefore need to do everything we can to help West German visitors leave the GDR politically wiser than they were when they arrived.

Our most effective way to demonstrate the absurdity of anti-communism is to increase the attractiveness of socialism and to demonstrate its values and advantages to the entire world, above all by fulfilling our main task, the unity of economic and social policy.

‘

Packet 4: Item B

Source: Windstärke 12. Eine Auswahl neuer deutscher Karikaturen (Dresden: VEB Verlag der Kunst, 1953).

Title: “The Revolver Noise”

Explanation: RIAS, short for “Radio in the American Sector,” was an American radio station in West Berlin. It was popular in East Germany. In 1953, the GDR was doing all it could to discourage people from listening to it. The revolver is spouting lies and incitement into the microphone.

Link: http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/wind.htm

Packet 4: Item C

Source: advertisement

Title: "8,200 -24 sheet posters on display during January and February 1954 -produced in excess of 1,599,000,000 advertising impressions"

Explanation: This publication spotlights the number of posters distributed in a coordinated effort to raise money for Radio Free Europe.

Link: http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/oaaaarchives_BBB5129/

Packet 4: Item D

“Argument Number 55”Source: Büro des Präsidiums der Nationalrats der NF, “Sonderargumentation zum Schlag gegen den deutschen Militarismus,” SAPMO DY 30/IV 2/9.03/10. SAPMO is the archives of the East German Communist Party in Berlin.Translated by: Randall BytwerkText available online: http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/argu61.htm

Background: This is a translation of material provided to East German propagandists in August 1961, just after the Berlin Wall was built. Typical of the GDR’s approach, it presents the Wall as a glorious triumph of socialism. It was produced by the Election Commission of the National Front of the GDR as material to use to get out the vote for the September 1961 election.

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It all worked without a hitch! The measures to ensure peace caught our enemies entirely by surprise. The measures were solidly prepared. They were carried out with studied calm and exemplary order.

Less happened during our military and other measures than at a Bavarian church consecration. There are broken bones every night at the Catcher-Zelt near the zoo [This was a large circus-style tent at which boxing matches were held in West Berlin]. Our measures to secure peace were entirely relaxed.

Brandt and his team do not know what to do. These fine gentlemen and those in Bonn had confused our patience with weakness.

But now the proof is evident. A power has developed in Germany that can stand against barbaric militarism. Look at the authority of our workers’ and farmers’ state! Aren’t those splendid lads in our police and army? Look at the splendid men in our fighting groups who keep order and win respect for our workers’ and farmers’ state! Thanks to our lads, thanks to the workers and others in the uniforms of the fighting groups!

Peace is in good hands with the working class in power, with a government of the National Front under the leadership of Walter Ulbricht! When peace is threatened, Ulbricht does not hesitate to save it. He fulfills the legacy of Karl Liebknecht, old Berlin workers say. They think back on the forceful fighter against militarism and war. In 1916 he proclaimed the crimes of the destroyers of the German nation at Potsdamer Platz and called on the German youth to fight for peace. Walter Ulbricht established peace in 1961 when he closed the doors to the provocations of warmongers and front city hyenas by bringing order to Potsdamer Platz.

The militarists suffered a defeat! That is good, since they are the cause of the misfortunes of the German nation. German will live and grow in unity if the militarists are driven away. The balance of power in the world and in Germany has turned against the militarists, and thus the beginning of the general and complete defeat of the militarists is coming in Germany. Socialism has already conquered space, but the cold and hot warriors like Strauß and Brandt are still stuck in the past. The people who want to live in freedom and without militarism have an unshakable support in the socialist bloc and in the forces of peace throughout the world.

The big bankruptcy of little Brandt has come! He has incited and fought against peace long enough. He has supported luring human beings away and stealing children. What will little Brandt do now? He calls for foreign help, hoping foreign troops will help him. What a fine German he is! Instead of negotiating with Ebert and speaking as one German to another, he reveals himself as an adventurer and traitor in the service of foreigners! He runs from the politics of our government to the “Allied commanders”!

Panic in West Berlin! We take steps to secure peace and the warmongers start howling! Why are all the moving trucks in West Berlin suddenly reserved for months to come to move people to West Germany? Why the lines at the airlines? Is the average man afraid of peace or the warmongers? Why have so many West Berliners been complaining loudly to Brandt? He is leading them to ruin! He travels to the Rhine to drink wine and tans himself at alpine lakes, but West Berliners should accept what he gives them. Our advice to you, dear people in Neukölln, Schöneberg, Kreuzberg, and Wedding [districts of West Berlin], is to get rid of Brandt. Come to an understanding with the Berliners in the Red City Hall of [East] Berlin. Get rid of the foul air of Berlin, the stink from Schöneberg.

Brandt is whistling in the wind. He was calling the governments in Washington, London, and Paris for help every few minutes on Sunday and Monday, promising eternal loyalty. But people there were on vacation. A few members of these governments asked if Ulbricht had prepared everything thoroughly. They didn’t give much hope to Brandt. Brandt did know that many influential people from England have visited us recently. He knew how much they welcomed our measures to guarantee peace. Why? No one wants to die for Brandt when he can live peaceably in a peaceful Berlin.

We do everything thoroughly. The entire world welcomes that. They expect that of us. We have thoroughly punished the Nazi war criminals. We have carried out thorough land reform. We have cleansed schools and the courts of Nazism’s spirit. We did our work thoroughly on 13 August as well. One must be thorough when fighting militarism; it benefits the entire nation. We will thoroughly oppose the plans of the militarists, we will thoroughly stop the Hitler generals and we will thoroughly build peace in a united Germany. German thoroughness is a virtue when it serves the cause of peace.

We therefore warn anyone against stupidly endangering peace. Think it over seven times before raising one’s hand against the forces of peace! We are prepared with good weapons on the border, and good sons of workers and farmers in uniforms. These people who steal children and trade in human beings have no respect for baby carriages. But tanks are not baby carriages. Depend on it: Peace is holy to us, and we will protect it like the apple of our eye!

Packet 4: Item E

“'Ich Bin Ein Berliner”Source: John F. Kennedy’s speech in Berlin, June 26, 1963 Text and video available online: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/06/famous-berlin-speeches.html

Background: In his historic speech, President Kennedy delivers this speech in the shadow of the Berlin Wall just 22 months after its construction. He assures West Berliners that the United States remains steadfast in its support, even as the threat of invasion from East Berlin intensifies.

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I am proud to come to this city as the guest of your distinguished mayor, who has symbolized throughout the world the fighting spirit of West Berlin. And I am proud to visit the Federal Republic with your distinguished chancellor who for so many years has committed Germany to democracy and freedom and progress, and to come here in the company of my fellow American, General Clay, who has been in this city during its great moments of crisis and will come again if ever needed.

Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was "civis Romanus sum." Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner." I appreciate my interpreter translating my German!

There are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass' sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin.

Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us. I want to say, on behalf of my countrymen, who live many miles away on the other side of the Atlantic, who are far distant from you, that they take the greatest pride that they have been able to share with you, even from a distance, the story of the last 18 years. I know of no town, no city, that has been besieged for 18 years that still lives with the vitality and the force, and the hope and the determination of the city of West Berlin. While the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the Communist system, for all the world to see, we take no satisfaction in it, for it is, as your mayor has said, an offense not only against history but an offense against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a people who wish to be joined together.

What is true of this city is true of Germany -- real, lasting peace in Europe can never be assured as long as one German out of four is denied the elementary right of free men, and that is to make a free choice. In 18 years of peace and good faith, this generation of Germans has earned the right to be free, including the right to unite their families and their nation in lasting peace, with good will to all people. You live in a defended island of freedom, but your life is part of the main. So let me ask you as I close, to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today, to the hopes of tomorrow, beyond the freedom merely of this city of Berlin, or your country of Germany, to the advance of freedom everywhere, beyond the wall to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to all mankind.

Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades.

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner.“

Analysis WorksheetStudent packet #4: Penetrable Barriers

Student names: ____________________________________________________________

Item A: Text-- “Anti-Communist Attitudes of Western German Citizens1. According the article, what is the goal of “big capital”? What methods do capitalists employ to achieve this goal?

2. The author alleges that the leaders of West Germany—their message, their methods—are reminiscent of the fascist policies propagated by Adolf Hitler. What evidence does the author highlight to justify these allegations?

3. According to the author, how can East Germans most effectively combat the anti-communist efforts of West Germany?

Item B: Cartoon: “The Revolver Noise”1. Examine the details included on the gun in the image. Why is the handle labeled, “RIAS”?

2. The sound escaping from the gun is labelled, “revolver noise.” What is the artist suggesting about the sound generated by the gun?

3. Why is there a dollar sign near the barrel of the gun?

4. Read the explanation for the cartoon. To what extent did the Cold War tensions involve control of the air waves? Why was the Berlin Wall ultimately ineffective in isolating East Berlin from the West?

Item C: Advertisement-- “Truth Dollars”1. Review Image B as you study Image C.. How did Radio Free Europe break through the Iron Curtain to access the people of East Germany?

2. What is the poster encouraging viewers to do?

3. Whose viewpoint is represented in this image? How do you know?

Item D: Text: “Argument Number 55”1. Why was the rapid construction of the Berlin Wall necessary?

2. According to the author, the construction of the wall symbolizes the defeat of “militarists” in the West. What evidence does the author include to support this claim?

3. The author acknolwedges that thousands of East Germans have “moved” to the West. If the socialst system is so wonderful, why are people leaving? What reasons does the author offer to explain this phenomenon?

4. “We therefore warn anyone against stupidly endangering peace… We are prepared with good weapons on the border.... Peace is holy to us, and we will protect it like the apple of our eye!” Explain the hypocracy of this statement which appears near the end of the text.

Item E: Text-- “Ich Bin Ein Berliner”1. Why is President Kennedy speaking in West Berlin?

2. Throughout his speech, he invites people to visit Berlin. Why? What does he expect visitors will conclude about communism following their visit to Berlin?

3. What prediction does he make about about the future of Berlin? Of Germany?

4. “All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin.” Kennedy is claiming that all citizens of democratic, capitalist nations stand with West Berliners, ready to defend their freedom in the shadow of the Berlin Wall. Why is this message important in 1963? What does this message suggest about American-Soviet relations overall in 1963?

Summary: 1. Review all of the documents in the packet. What common themes do you think unite this collection of materials?

2. What new insights have you gained as a result of examining these examples of propaganda?

3. List any additional questions you have about GDR propaganda or the Cold War in general.