Abstract
The banners featured in this photograph ask Berliners to support the
“German People’s Council” [Deutscher
Volksrat] established in the Soviet Occupation Zone in 1948. The
People’s Council, which was constituted at the Second German People’s
Congress in 1948, regarded itself as a preliminary all-German
parliament. It was completely dominated by SED members from the Soviet
zone, however. Aside from its main task of drafting a constitution, the
People’s Council also addressed the matter of negotiating a peace treaty
in one of its committees. The banners on the war-damaged Neue Wache
anticipate the SED's Cold War era peace propaganda insofar as they
present the People’s Council as the only guarantee of peace. The larger
banner on the left shows a disabled war veteran in front of an army of
troops; it reads: "Once more? Never Again. With the German People's
Council for an immediate and just peace" ["Nochmals? Nie
wieder. Mit dem Deutschen Volksrat für einen baldigen gerechten
Frieden!"]. The banner on the right reads: "Mothers! Fight
with us against war-mongering for the sake of your children"
["Mütter! Kämpft mit uns gegen Kriegshetze für das Glück Eurer
Kinder!"].