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Ads that I like #32

Two ads for today, and they have a political theme. As in any dictatorship, anniversaries were big events in the former-East Germany. My post for today features some government posters prepared for the thirtieth anniversary of the DDR in 1979. The emphasis that you can see in the two that I have chosen is generally indicative of the propaganda line of the state: a youthful, peace-loving, hard-working nation that was strongly supported by its citizens. And didn’t that turn out to be true?

These posters interest me as much for the way that they conflict with the general idea of what East Germany was supposed to be like as the designs themselves. Remember, for most of us in the West the images of the DDR were stark: depressing, horrible food, old people shuffling about, monotonous, tired, lots of mullets, angry in a despondent kind of way. Really, it was like Devonport.


"Our congratulations!"


"Everything for Human Happiness."

A broader collection of thirtieth anniversary posters can be found at the excellent German Propaganda Archive.
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