In the Bundestag election campaign preceding the snap election of
March 6, 1983, the SPD chose the motto “In Germany’s Interest,” which
they supplemented with “In the Interest of Peace.” Under pressure from
the peace movement, the SPD spoke out in favor of the ongoing
American-Soviet negotiations on intermediate-range missiles. (The talks
had started on November 30, 1981, and were being held in Geneva.) This
campaign poster features a stylized missile that has been made to look
like a dead-end street sign; the slogan, “Make Treaties, Not Arms,”
takes aim at NATO’s Dual-Track Decision, which had the support of Social
Democratic chancellor Helmut Schmidt. Although the Dual-Track Decision
did offer the Soviet Union the possibility of negotiations, it foresaw
the deployment of new arms in case these talks failed. By emphasizing a
pacifist approach, however, the SPD ran into problems, since the Greens,
a genuinely pacifist party, already represented a political alternative
for voters on the left.
SPD Poster for Bundestag Elections: “Make Treaties, not Arms” (1983)
Source
Source: Sigature: Bundesarchiv, Plak. 007-004-020. Date: 1983. Artist unknown.